On Jovan Sterija Popovic‘s conception of the language of pseudoscience propounded in the play Sudbina jednog razuma [The Destiny of One’s Reason]

Abstract

In this article, the play Sudbina jednog razuma [The Destiny of One?s Reason] by Jovan Sterija Popovic is analysed as displaying a specific continuation and climax of the debates about Milovan Spasic?s textbook titled Zemljeopisanije celog svjeta [The Geography of the Whole World] (1845). More specifically, the focus of the investigation is placed upon those aspects of the debates in question which concern the tendencies in building the scientific register of the Serbian literary language. In this context, I reach the conclusion that Sterija?s unique sense of humour is adopted as a means of revealing one complex conception of pseudoscience and science, as representing two types of thinking activity which are mutually exclusive. In turn, the article also analyses Jovan Sterija Popovic?s views about the functional differentiation of language regarding its objectives and use, as well as the particularities of the scientific style of the national literary language concerning its intellectualisation on the syntactic and terminological levels.