Lingua tertii rei publicae
The Language and World View of the Law and Justice Party
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The “national conservative revolution” in Poland has its own vocabulary. This is to be deciphered using the same methods of the classics, such as those developed by Victor Klemperer to analyse the language of the Third Reich or Michał Głowiński and the language of the People’s Republic of Poland. Aggressive linguistic stereotypes or the stigmatization of political opponents as “traitors to the people” or “Poles of a lesser kind” today remind those who analyse Law and Justice’s vocabulary of “totalitarian propaganda”: at the same time, a positive “newspeak” has formed, to which key concepts such as “good change” or “national” belong. Behind this lies an attempt to coopt the entire nation rhetorically and ideologically for the legitimation of its own actions. This splitting of society finds expression in a polarising language.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2016, pp. 119–129)