Abstract
The article is devoted to the in-depth historical, etymological and semantic-structural characteristics of vocabulary to denote emotional states of anxiety, excitement, disquiet in the Polish language. Semantic, grammatical, linguo-cognitive properties, as well as the origin and formal-derivational and semantic development of the corresponding lexemes are considered. Polish linguists have repeatedly turned their attention to the relevant group of vocabulary, but they have considered, as a rule, only the key noun pol. strach, and many arrays of relevant language units have not yet received scientific coverage. In addition, the historical aspect is still the least studied in the polish linguistics, which reveals the origin of the names of emotions, their formal derivational development, models of initial semantic motivation and patterns of further semantic evolution. Numerous explanatory, phraseological, etymological lexicographical sources of Polish and other Slavic languages, dictionaries of synonyms and cognate words, The National Corpus of Polish, as well as studies in the field of psychology of human emotions and feelings served as a material for the analysis. Both emotion names pol. trwoga and niepokój are characterized in the modern Polish language by a fairly wide combination, on the basis of which the image of anxiety and disquiet in the minds of Polish speakers is reproduced. Thus, this emotion is represented as a substance (either liquid or volatile) that fills the human body; grain (like sow grain or panic); a tormenting enemy force, causing pain, and so on. Questions about the etymology and semantic development of the protoslav. *trьvoga is complex and still not definitively solved in Slavic linguistics. The analysis of numerous etymological lexicographical sources revealed that the most probable semantic transition is “causing painful physical feeling” → “state of fear”. Name of pol. niepokój is formally a prefix formation with the negative prefix nie- and is an antonym to the appellatives: pokój, spokój “peace, tranquillity”. We interpret the semantic motivation of this name as one that is indirectly related to the seme “movement”, as it expresses opposition to the state of rest. Names of anxiety and restlessness which were traced in the field of the semantic and formal evolution for a significant time frame revealed that these names in the Old Polish era did not mean emotional experience, but functioned to denote very specific situations – disputes, conflicts, skirmishes; devastation, disorder, disagreement. During the historical development of the Polish language, the analyzed lexemes acquired a secondary “emotional” meaning, which is main today, namely “state, feeling anxious about what may happen, threatening; fear, horror”, “mental state characterized by strong arousal, tension, difficulty concentrating thoughts and actions; lack of peace, balance; fear”.
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