| Abstract [eng] |
The article presents intra-writer variation in a multilingual idiolect, relying on examples from the Diary of Vytautas Civinskis (1887–1910). This manuscript, written over a timespan of six years, allows for tracing diachronic changes in the diarist’s idiolect (L1 Polish), his ways of learning L2 (Lithuanian) and the synchronic variations he used. Moreover, it contains passages with Russian and German, as well as some phrases or words in French, Latin, and Yiddish. I measured the quantitative presence of each language and chose a qualitative approach to the materials, interpreting data in the context of the biographical and ideological circumstances under which the document was created. I interpreted seemingly deliberate instances of code-switching as quotations and as serving as rhetorical instruments of emphasis, specification, euphemism and wordplay. |
