Concept freiheit in German language chronicles of the XV–XVI centuries (on the material of town chronicles of Bern and Worms)

Abstract

In the history of the German written language, the XVXVI centuries became a turning point: in the sphere of both administrative writing and informative literature, new genres and types of texts are developing, and relations within the genre system are being rebuilt. Chronicle texts, including town chronicles, become one of the most popular textotypes. According to researchers, their primary function is legitimization of the respective town as a political and legal entity. This legitimation was based primarily on the rights and privileges granted to the town by its former or current lord. Accordingly, the semiotic space of chronicle texts is organized around the concept of freiheit meaning privilege, right, freedom. The purpose of the article is to analyze the nominative field of the concept freiheit and to conclude on the semantics and functioning of lexical units in the text that verbalize this concept. Over hundred text examples extracted from the chronicles of Bern (the first third of the XV century) and Worms (the second half of the XVI century) were used as the research material. The core of the concept freiheit, its nominate is built by the homonymic lexeme, whereby the lexeme recht also belongs to the nuclear part of the field. Based on the analysis of text examples, five components of meaning of freiheit were identified, which form the slots of the corresponding concept. The largest number of concept nominations is concentrated in the slot right, privilege: these are the lexemes gerechtigkeit the right to adjudicate, herrlichkeit with a similar meaning, obrigkeit the right of possession, indult temporary privilege, erlaubung permission. On the periphery of the concept freiheit lie the lexemes herkommen and gewohnheit in the meaning of legal customs. The analysis of material allows us to conclude that in the view of chroniclers, urban legal customs were as important for the legitimization of town as its privileges. It is worth saying that the lexeme freiheit is often used as a collective one, without specifying the content of a specific right or privilege. Obviously, for the chroniclers, the very existence of rights in their totality was of paramount importance, since this determined the status and power of their town.