Analiza rozwoju semantycznego leksemu „duży”

Abstract

The article is an attempt at describing the semantic evolution of the lexeme duży (‘big’). I ts original meaning was ‘powerful, strong, healthy’, the meaning ‘of considerable size’ was rare even in the 16th century. S ince the O ld Polish period the basic adjective which was used to express the meaning ‘of considerable size’ was the lexeme wielki. I t is likely that in the 17th century a competition between the lexemes for the central place in the conceptual field ‘of considerable size’ began. A t the same time the meaning of the lexeme wielki shifted toward ‘of very great size, huge’. T herefore in the 18th century the lexeme duży began to take over the role of a neutral exponent of the meaning ‘of considerable size’. For this reason were it not for the semantic development of a different lexeme from the conceptual field, the lexeme duży would have probably shared the fate of “obsolescent words”.