Ukryte dziedzictwo : ślady dawnej leksyki w słownictwie współczesnej polszczyzny

Abstract

The work constitutes a lexical-word-formation study connecting contemporary phenomena with the historical ones. The author makes an attempt to reach the old (mainly Old-Polish) words or phrasal verbs preserved in today’s lexical units. The methods used in this book are both synchronic and diachronic, in order to make it possible for the reader to find similarities and differences between them. She makes an attempt to describe the forms and mediums of existence of the lexical tradition in the contemporary Polish lexis. As lexicalization is the most common transformation allowing the stability of the Polish lexis, the author specifies and broadens the scope of the notion, referring it to the rules existing in linguistics. What complements considerations on lexicalization are reflections concerning related phenomena, such as grammaticalization and lexical semantic change. What is important is the chapter devoted to language competence and language awareness of the contemporary Polish language users as compared to those centuries ago. The presence of history in the contemporary language awareness is seen, among other things, in the phenomena tightly connected with the language sphere, usually at the level of a colloquial reception of linguistic phenomena. Hence, a reinterpretation and folk etymology, which is its extraordinary realization were thoroughly discussed here. The basis of these processes constitutes the unrealized knowledge which does not undergo the linguistic discourse, playing an important role in consolidating the lexis of the language tradition. The aim of the work is not a description of a given stage of the Polish language development or the presentation of the evolution of a given language. The author shows herself as an aware language user and researcher who observes language, not dividing the facts into the old and contemporary, into the purely linguistic and cognitive ones. Such a point of view is, among other things, conditioned by the subject of observation - being not a given language category but notions going beyond the cultural areas - legacy and tradition, having their own realizations at the lexical level.