Polonisms in B. Akunin’s The Sennight of the Three-Eyed

Abstract

This article analyses polonisms used in B. Akunin’s novel The Sennight of the Three-Eyed . The paper considers changes in the meaning of loanwords from Polish and the ways they are introduced into the text: without an interpretation, with an incomplete (partial) explanation, with a Russian equivalent in a narrow or wider context; the author resorts to both expanded and single inclusions from Polish into the text. Polish rarely acts as a donor for the Russian language, but more often — as a mediator in the transfer of lexemes from European languages. The example of the Rus. поручик and Pol. porucznik shows the process of a lexeme entering the Russian language in a specific form in detail. The “Polish text” is viewed through the prism of Boris Akunin’s individual author’s style. Polonisms perform characterological and evaluative functions in the novel, describe the historical atmosphere, act as markers of the character’s Polish origin, and demonstrate the diversity of language play. Loanwords from Polish give an aesthetic and ideological evaluation of characters and events and act as coded elements. Among polonisms, there are appellative, onomastic, and precedent lexemes. The Polish people are portrayed as negative characters in the novel, and pejorative elements can be regularly found in dialogues and descriptions associated with them. Polonisms are perceived by readers as clear, familiar words, although their ostentatious “simplicity” can often lead to misunderstandings, since the volume of lexical meaning in loanwords remains the same only in the rare cases when the lexeme was originally borrowed by the Polish language and almost immediately from it — by Russian.