atrybucja

Atrybucja is a term used in Polish to denote the act of ascribing a property, action, responsibility, or origin to something or someone. It functions as a general umbrella concept that appears across several disciplines, each with its own emphasis on what is being attributed.

In philosophy and logic, atrybucja refers to the attribution of properties, causal roles, or beliefs to entities, and to the way statements about objects are understood in terms of attribution. In law and ethics, it concerns the attribution of liability or responsibility for actions or outcomes. In information science and data governance, attribution describes identifying the source or origin of data, software, or content, playing a key role in data provenance and intellectual property rights. In social psychology, attribution theory analyzes how people explain the causes of events and behaviors, including processes of assigning blame or praise.

Etymology: the word derives from Latin attributio, from ad tribuere “to assign,” and entered Polish as atrybucja. The concept is related to, but distinct from, attribute (a feature or property) and attribution (the act of assigning a cause or source).