Abstract

Michał Amszejewicz in Dykcjonarz, which was a record of vocabulary of foreign origin used in the Polish language in the middle of the 19th century, recorded more than eight hundred lexical units (838 in 633 entries, which comprise 511 monosemes and 122 polysemes with two or more meanings) present in the lexis as a result of interference between the Polish and the German languages. Their functional allocation is diversified, with specialist lexis being dominant. Analysed vocabulary in the middle of the 19th century was functionally allocated to various areas of activity, firstly to crafts – 155 lexical units (18.5%), next to military and its organisation – 93 lexical units (11.1%), merchant’s profession and its specifics, commercial and financial aspects – 72 lexical units (8.6%). The remaining 518 lexical units (61.8%) are scattered in the lexicon of another several dozens of specialties, such as rafting, mining, metallurgy, forestry, meteorology, gardening, fine arts and others. Until the beginning of the 21st century, out of 838 analysed lexical units a diversified life cycle was preserved by 321 (38.3%), and 517 (61.7%) were transferred to linguistic archives of the Polish Language. In analysed vocabulary of German origin, actively used in the most recent Polish Language, biased lexis is dominant – in terms of terminology and style; less frequently these are words with a neutral character, regarded as basic vocabulary. Analysed Germanisms have also undergone semantic changes, i.e. specialisation, generalisation, metaphorisation and partial transformations. Germanisms in the Polish Language of the 19th century are a cultural and linguistic fact, which is characterised by certain specific conditions, also in terms of the time of their use and functionality, which has been emphasised on numerous occasions by their researcher – Bogusław Nowowiejski.

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