Polish religious songs as speech acta

Abstract

The aim of the analysis pursued here are Polish religious songs included in the two editions of Church Songbook, authored by Rev. Jan Siedlecki which – all in all – contain more than 600 compositions. All religious songs are – at the same time – acts of prayer, and they are analyzable in terms of linguistic pragmatics. The author of this paper treats the songs that are subject to analysis as spectacular speech acts, the aim of which is to keep contact with the sacred, that is God through the channel of love. The act of prayer is split by the author into several smaller categories, that is the acts of adoration, request, thanksgiving, theological ascertainment and the act of contrition. On the basis of rich factual data the author has arrived at ample account of the analyzed verbal acts.