The comparative method in Adam Mickiewicz’s etymological ideas

Abstract

In the fi rst half of the nineteenth century in his Paris lectures, Adam Mickiewicz defi ned the comparative method on three different levels: 1. cultural (the comparison of civilizations), 2. literary (the comparison of literatures) and 3. linguistic (the comparison of languages). However, it was language that became the principium comparationis, serving as the poet’s point of departure in all his major comparisons. Mickiewicz studied linguistics much more thoroughly than was necessary for the preparation of the lectures at the Collège de France. In the early 1840s, he became interested in the etymology of words. He expected this to enable him to discover the secrets of Slavic history and culture. As Mickiewicz claimed, it would be impossible to achieve on the basis of Slavic architecture and art, as they hardly existed, with the exception of oral poetry: fables, hymns, and legends. As with previous Slavic enthusiasts, Mickiewicz failed in his attempts at creating a mythos of this people’s former greatness and historic destiny based on its system of beliefs, for this very system could not be reconstructed. Accordingly, he tried to derive myth from language. Mickiewicz treated linguistics as the main means of comparing the roles that Slavs and other peoples played, or were supposed to play, in their history.