Przeobrażenia semantyczne wyrazów polskich związanych ze sferą mentalną

Abstract

The text concerns the problem of the changes of the meanings of words. T he early vocabulary was compared with the linguistic innovations and the criteria of linguistic correctness enabled us to understand the causes of the semantic changes of words. I n the analyses the criteria of sufficiency, economy and functionality were predominantly used, whereas the criterion of commonness as well as the criterion of cultural and national authority were used in a supplementary manner. T he particular analyses feature the aesthetic criterion. T he material that was analysed features words such as wiadomość, dowcip, animusz, dzielny. T he research perspective that was applied enabled us to perceive the cause of the disappearance of the meaning of the lexeme świadomość ‘knowledge about something’ in lexical efficiency, and the demise of the form niewiadomość ‘lack of knowledge’ is explained by the principle of economy (the meaning of this lexeme is duplicated by the lexeme niewiedza). T he disappearance of the adjective mierny which is closely related with the words umiejętność and umiar is completely accounted for by the criterion of functionality. The linguistic material that was analysed contains vocabulary associated with the mental sphere registered by the dictionaries of the standard Polish language published since the 16th century until the 18th century. T he modern understanding of these words was defined on the basis of the texts of the N ational Corpus of the Polish L anguage and the lexicons which register the state of the modern Polish language.