Pole semantyczne choroby w De civitate Dei Augustyna z Hippony

Abstract

In this paper I try to analyze the lexemes belonging to the semantic field of dis ease in the apologetic treatise “De Civitate Dei” of Augustine of Hippo. This treaty was written in order to deal with pagan religion and to present the concept of the two states: the divine and the earthly. To accomplish this aim, Augustine first builds the opposition “we – the Christians” and “they – the pagans”, and employs vocabulary from six different semantic fields: epistemic ( veritas , errores , imperiti , falsi ), quantitative ( unus , multi , turba ), moral ( humiles , superbi , eversio probitatis , impii , impietas ), verba dicendi ( adversus Deum mururare ), civitas ( custos , rector , idonei cives , inimici ), and disease ( morbus , medicus , medicina ). In this article I briefly present the first five fields, and in more detail the semantic field of disease, which, like the field civitas , was applied by the Bishop of Hippo in a metaphorical presentation of the pagan religion.