Studia Językoznawcze

The purpose of this study was an attempt to recreate the idiolectal image of the noun żart and the verb żartować in the writings of Cyprian Norwid. These lexemes – and their derivatives – make up a not very large family consisting of: żarcik (3 uses), żart (34 uses), żartobliwie (1 use), żartobliwy (1 use), żartować (12 uses), żartowniś (2 uses), żartujący (1 use) and zażartować (8 uses) – in sum 8 lexemes and 62 uses. The results of the performed analysis show that only in a part of the contexts the discussed lexemes are semantically connected with the category of humour. Even then, however, the joke and joking rarely have purely ludic character and are a manifestation of a serene, affirmative relation of the sender towards reality or other people, or are the expression of careless joking, a kind of a parlour game or an innocent play. Far more frequently a joke is presented as something inappropriate, improper, often something aggressive, aimed against somebody or something. Relatively frequently żart, as well as żartować, are completely unrelated to humour and laughter (or the ludic aspect is clearly secondary) and refer to something of little importance, insignificant or regarded as such by the sender, or to something made believe, not true, pretended to be said and done. The description of the lexical field from the word-formation field of the lexeme żart complements the previous analyses concerning the lexemes dowcip and humor and allows us to better understand how a broadly understood element of humour was present in the work of Cyprian Norwid.