The Semantic Fields of German Loanwords in Polish

Abstract

This study is dedicated to the relationship between lexical meaning and lexical borrowing. It presents an analysis of the semantic fields of all documented German loanwords in the history of Polish written/standard language, following a classification scheme which was originally used for typological comparison (Haspelmath and Tadmor 2009c). Firstly, the results are compared to a hierarchy of borrowing probability which was developed on the basis of typological studies (Tadmor 2009). The apparent differences to that hierarchy underline the need for both onomasiological and semasiological approaches in studying the connection between meaning and borrowing. Secondly, the results are compared to impressionistic judgments on the semantic fields of German loanwords in Polish. Although most of the traditionally mentioned semantic fields are well attested, there are other prominent fields as well, which shows that German loanwords are not limited to specialized terms of professional fields. The analysis is furthermore divided depending on: a) the time period and b) how well the loanwords are documented. It will be demonstrated that some semantic fields are typical for certain time periods while the contribution of other fields remains stable. Some semantic fields have a high quantity of poorly documented loanwords, suggesting that some fields are prone to extensive, but less intensive language contact.