Wyrażanie ilościowego aspektu istnienia świata w tekście urzędowym (na przykładzie Sprawozdania NIK)

Abstract

The present study is based on the tenet that human cognitive activity is closely linked with the use of natural language. Therefore, the field of inquiry is broadened to cover not only linguistic forms but also the concepts these forms signify, as well as the elements of reality captured through these concepts (or conceptualizations). The category of quantity is thus treated here as a linguistic representation of the quantitative aspect of worldview. The present description of this category links two approaches: semasiological (a characterization of the quantity‑expressing language units) and onomasiological (a survey of the linguistic mechanisms of quantification, and the concepts or subcategories that organize the qunatitative projection of reality). The analysis concerns a sample official administrative report: Sprawozdanie z działalności Najwyższej Izby Kontroli w 2006 roku (Supreme Chamber of Control Annual Report 2006). Attention is only paid to the quantitative portrayal of entities linked through criss‑crossing relations of ‘one’ – ‘more than one’, ‘whole’ – ‘part’, ‘much/many’ – ‘little/few’. The nature of the content linked with these notions is characteristic of the quest for precision, typical of official administrative discourse, as well as with the communicative intention of the genre in question, i.e. the report.