The role of metalinguistic references in Bartłomiej Groicki’s textbooks on Magdeburg Law

Abstract

The aim of the article was to determine the significance and function of metalinguistic expressions in the works of Bartłomiej Groicki. The analysis covered five of the author’s sixteenth--century works: Artykuły prawa maydeburskiego… (1565), Porządek sądów (1559), Ten postępek… (1559), Tytuły prawa maydeburskiego… (1567), and Reyestr do porządku… (1567). The article utilized concepts of metalanguage developed in logic (H. Reichenbach) and linguistics (R. Jakobson, M. R. Mayenowa, A. Wierzbicka, M. Kawka). For the purpose of the study, it was assumed that metatext is a text about a text, superimposed on the main text, whose characteristic feature is to control interpretation (it serves the function of a modal frame), while metalinguistic expressions are words or phrases that refer to the code (e.g., word, letter, language), used self-referentially and serving to specify how the meaning of a word should be understood. The most important group of meta-expressions consists of metalinguistic judgments used for defining legal concepts with the use of words referring to the linguistic code (słowo, litera), as well as markers of equivalence (zwać, nazywać się, wykładać się, rozumieć). The second group is formed by comments concerning the translation process and the problems of terminological equivalence between the Polish, Latin, and German languages. The author’s statements on the use of language by court officials (criticism of unintelligible language) and his recommendation for addressing the audience in Polish, loudly, clearly, and distinctly, should be treated separately.