The names Galicja and Małopolska in the period of establishing eastern borders of the Second Republic of Poland (on the example of “Gazeta Lwowska” from 1918 to 1923)

Abstract

The study addresses the use of naming in creating and describing a given social reality. The specific purpose of this work is to discuss the function of the names Galicja and Małopolska in the interwar period on the example of press texts from “Gazeta Lwowska”. The object of study were publications issued between 1918 and 1923, when the borders of the Second Polish Republic were being formed and the Polish-Ukrainian dispute over the nationality of the eastern part of Galicia was taking place. The analysis of the material is both quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative analysis deals with the changing frequency of each of the two names in “Gazeta Lwowska”, taking into account names with a wschodnia/zachodnia (Eng. eastern/western) component and derivative words, i.e., the adjectives małopolski/galicyjski and the personal names Galicjanin/Małopolanin. The qualitative analysis shows the nomenclature in context, the range of both names, as well as the discursive strategy adopted by the authors of individual articles in which both choronyms frequently appear. The combination of these two methods makes it possible to show the ideological function played by the name Małopolska during the struggle for the borders of the Polish state, and to describe the changing meaning of the name Galicja at that time. The findings of the paper also support the findings of other researchers (Batowski, 1993; Hibel, 2014), namely that Eastern Galicia existed primarily in Polish as an element of international discourse, while in Polish domestic politics it was replaced by the name Wschodnia Małopolska.