Czy Piłat był zainteresowany tym, "co to jest prawda?"

Abstract

As the point of departure for my analysis in this article, I propose Polish sentences (1a) A coz jest prawda? (1b) Co jest prawda? (1c) Coz jest prawda? (1d) Coz to jest prawda? . All of them are translation Greek phrase T… ™stin ¢l»qeia (Pilate’s question in John 18,38). In order to understand the semantic relationships between their elements, and according to original sentence, it is necessary to consider the meaning of the particles -z and a . The Polish emphatic modificator -z in such contexts as above influences the semantics of wh- questions: it demands a definite context; changes, or only modifies, the intonational contour of sentences – when it is used, the tempo of the utterance is slower than without it, and sharpening of the tone is moving from the pronoun to the right part of the question; it weakens the settling of truth datī quastionis , which sometimes (in connection with utterance intonation) causes the blockade of an answer position. In particular situations such sentences as (1d) can express contempt (or similar emotions) for the object of questioning. Next, the initial operator a is homonymic to the conjunction a , it joins an additional information or expresses the relation of excluding. It can announce a reply in a dialogue, join references to the definite context, and sometimes a request for expanding or explaining any fact or state of things. Also a can be an indicator of oppositional rights. In my opinion Pilate – truly involved in understanding Jesus’s rights – asks about the meaning of truth, which is indicated in John’s metalanguage phrase T… ™stin _ and metalanguage use the of nominative noun ¢l»qeia, also the main noncontrastive stress falls on the rhematic pronoun, therefore we have here an authentic wh- question, not a speech act expressing Pilate’s contempt for truth. This is why the Polish sentences (1a), (1c), (1d) are – in relation to the meaning of -z and a – unfortunate. Pilate was interested in what was the truth of Jesus.