For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health: A semantic analysis of Polish and English adjectives
For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health: A semantic analysis of Polish and English adjectives

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the meanings of two pairs of adjectives in Polish and English. Even though their basic meanings are synonymous, they can be used in different contexts. For example, English poor, just as Polish biedny, refers to someone of little means, but it can also be applied to grades, results, performances, choices, etc. in the meaning of ‘insufficient, bad’. The Polish adjective cannot be used in this context. Similarly, English rich means bogaty in Polish, but can also be used to modify cake in the meaning of ‘highly caloric’. Polish bogaty cannot be used in this way. We argue that the extended meanings of poor/biedny, rich/bogaty, sick/chory and healthy/zdrowy derive from their different etymologies and we attempt to show the pathways along which these meanings have developed.

• Details
• Contents