Epistolary Discourse of Prisoners of War: An Axiological Aspect of Czech POWs’ Personal Letters (1916–1918)

Humanitarian anthropology includes such a relevant topic as imprisonment. This study models the axiological worldview of World War I prisoners of war (POWs) based on the correspondence written by Austro-Hungarian Czechs between 1916 and 1918. The linguistic analysis of this epistolary discourse makes it possible to identify several value dominants. POW epistolary discourse strongly depends on extralinguistic factors, including the communicative space of the communicants. Presented in speech activity as natural written speech, it constitutes a discursive practice. Despite censorship filters, the natural written speech of POWs remains a significant and objective source for identifying the value dominants within the discursive reflection of this social community. The epistolary discourse of Czech POWs is determined by historical, cultural, political, national, psychological, group, individual, and genre-related factors. The axiological context of this epistolary discourse is represented by a specific set of high-frequency linguistic units with axiological semantics.

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