Kraj przemyślny i kraj zaodłożony. Nośność polskiego języka społeczno-gospodarczego czasów późnego oświecenia: wstęp do pomiaru

I am trying to determine to what extent the level of development of the Polish language during the Enlightenment allowed for the expression of certain complex socio-economic concepts. More precisely, the question is whether the degree of language development limits the possibility of expression on certain topics. Attempting to answer this question, I conducted an experiment of sorts. I wrote a short text in the Polish language of the late Enlightenment, trying to express some of those economic views that were not present in the Polish Enlightenment discourse. If expressing these concepts turned out to be possible, it would mean that their absence is due not to linguistic but to other reasons. Of course, the experiment did not produce conclusive results. However, it allowed me to formulate several assumptions. The most important one is that the lack of technical language can be, to a large extent, compensated by the use of paraphrases. Therefore, more can be expressed in Polish than would seem possible. On the other hand, paraphrasing, i.e., describing phenomena instead of calling them by commonly used terms, hinders scientific discussions. It also contributes to the marginalization in the public debate of those problems for which precise terms are still lacking.