Przejście na ty jako demokratyzacja w języku polskim. Analiza danych ankietowych

Abstract

TRANSITION TO FIRST-NAME BASIS AS DEMOCRATIZATION IN POLISH LANGUAGE: ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY RESPONSES The topic of this paper is transition to first-name basis (przejście na ty) in Polish, which one of the most important research topics in the field of Polish linguistic politeness. The transition to first-name basis can be seen as a phenomenon of democratization in language, because, as some of the Polish linguists describe, it creates a sense of equality, which is one of the basic elements of democracy. The results of a multi-stage survey proved that, in general, Polish people positively evaluate the contemporary tendency of faster transition to first-name basis. The analysis of the comments from the questionnaire survey showed that many people consider this tendency as a positive phenomenon in linguistic communication and treat it as an effective way of reducing the unnecessary distance which exists between interlocutors. However, it is worth keeping in mind that there are also negative effects of an inconsiderate decision to move to first-name basis, as mentioned by some of the survey respondents. This study has shown that the combination of several methods allows researchers to take a fresh perspective on the dynamic process of democratization in language and its perception among the users of a given language.