Rozprawy filologiczne Joachima Lelewela

Abstract

The activities of Joachim Lelewel (1786–1861), a Polish historian and writer, a scholar with a Renaissance mind and an extraordinary range of interests, even against the background of the 19th century, are surprising for the breadth of the scientific fields he independently practiced. Among these fields was philology. Lelewel, throughout his scientific activity, co-created a strong intellectual current still based on the Enlightenment efforts to develop an ideal language, fully unified and fully standardized, a language that had to „live” in conditions of special danger and face the politics of the partitioner. He closely examined all grammar textbooks and journal articles that appeared, commented on them in detail, and evaluated them. As is argued, Lelewel’s understanding of the culture of language is inextricably linked to the concept of style as a very complex category, integrating many linguistic elements hierarchically and functionally differentiated.