The history of the linguistic view of values in children’s press Cover Image

Z historii językowego obrazu świata wartości prezentowanego w czasopismach dla dzieci
The history of the linguistic view of values in children’s press

Author(s): Irena Bajerowa
Subject(s): Anthropology, Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Applied Linguistics, Cognitive linguistics, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: linguistic worldview; values; children’s magazines; diachrony

Summary/Abstract: The article compares the world of values presented in journals for small children: Światełko (the end of the 19th c.) and Miś (the end of the 20th c.). The data are evaluative terms used in these publications. They are classified depending on the kind of value inherent in a term, such as esthetic, moral, transcendental, to do with life, family, feelings, possessions, desired objects or acquisition of knowledge. A comparison of data from both sources within categories allows one to establish similarities and differences, treated as signals of diachronic changes. The following differences come to the fore: the values contained in present-day Polish are internally more diverse, richer, especially thanks to an elaboration of the category of learning and acquisition of knowledge (more borrowings, e.g. references to figures from former epochs or contemporary exotic places). However, one may also observe an impoverishment of certain categories of values (an elimination of religious values – no references to saints, once common) and a regress of the moral category (a lower frequency in the use of terms referring to such values as courage, goodness or frankness, as well as to anti-values, such as gluttony, audacity; a disappearance of the domain of charity, poverty and help for the poor). The category of the family is also more restricted (second cousins are not mentioned, the image of the mother is vague, „external” aunts and uncles appear).The changes in the linguistic picture of values, according to the author, signal a change in educational goals over the last century.

  • Issue Year: 21/2009
  • Issue No: 21
  • Page Range: 205-234
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: Polish