Słowa i wartości – przykłady zmian znaczeniowych leksyki oceniającej
Words and values – examples of semantic changes in evaluative lexis

Summary/Abstract: This text analyses semantic changes of 5 Polish adjectives: morowy (bubonic, groovy), sztuczny (masterly, artifi cial, fake), podły (lousy, cheep, base, mean), piękny (beautiful) and gładki (smooth, comely, fluid) over the past several centuries. The aim of this analysis is to define such characteristics of the emerging changes as dynamics, changes in evaluative markedness, linearity and predictability. Changes of individual words differ in terms of each of the examined aspects. Some develop by evolution, others in steps, evaluative markedness changes its mark or nature, it appears or disappears, some transformations are predictable, while in the case of others it is extremely difficult to find logical justifications. One of the hypotheses which could explain this state of affairs is that transformation diversity is implied by creativeness of language, it is a manifestation of its flexibility in adapting to new communication situations in the changing material and spiritual culture.

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