Deonyms in Joachim Lelewel’s emigration letters to his friends

Abstract

The purpose of the study is 1) to introduce the vocabulary created by deonymization, which Joachim Lelewel used in his correspondence with friends, 2) to identify the proprietary grounds motivating them, 3) to determine which words may have had the character of individualisms, 4) to indicate the mechanisms of deonym formation, and 5) their function in the studied letters. The collected deonyms inscribed in the texts of the letters, having to do with Lelewel’s daily life and his scientific and political activities, can be interpreted in the category of cultural signs reflecting 19th century reality through references to the historical, moral or cultural background of the era. The analyzed deonyms perform several functions in the studied correspondence: nominative, locative (chronologically and spatially), emotive-valuative, autobiographical and masking.