JAKA WOLA, TAKA DOLA ‘Your will is your fate’

Abstract

The article is an attempt to reconstruct the linguistic view of the Polish concept of wola (will). The analysis is concerned with: the lexicographic treatment of the word wola, its word-formation family, its semantic relations with other words, the syntactic constructions in which it occurs, fixed collocations, and etymology. Linguistic data show that in Polish culture “wola” is attributed not only to people (both individuals and communities) but also to God. Older dictionaries show that “wola” was regarded as a spiritual force (of the soul), whereas now it is treated as a property of the human psyche. Foregrounded are its egoistic rather than its altruistic aspects: the desire to realize one’s goals and satisfy one’s needs. It has always been treated as a stimulus in decision-making: thanks to one’s will, people set goals to themselves and try to achieve them; therefore, “wola” is something precious and desired. The linguistic view of wola fully agrees with philosophical debates: What is will? Is human will free? Where is the boundary between will and the various exigencies of human life?