Valuation in Obituaries Published in "Nasz Dziennik”

Abstract

The paper provides a linguistic and axiological analysis of the obituaries published in the rightist press. Their valuing judgements are mostly conventional, but the scheme of wordings is often broken by individual interventions dependent on the emotional scale of the sender and his outlook. Accordingly, in this paper attention is focused on the world of values that are common to the readers of “Nasz Dziennik.” The senders of the texts under study in their evaluation of the deceased person take into consideration the following elements: character traits, merits, life achievements, profession, schools, organisation memberships, medal and awards; due to the Catholic and national profile of the daily they stress in particular: borderland origin, patriotism, service to God and the other man, opposition to communism in the years of the Polish People’s Republic, relations with “Solidarity,” sympathy for the Radio Maria etc. It follows from the characterisation of the deceased that the valuations in obituaries is conditioned by their personality, the social and historical context.