EMOTIVE CONTINUANTS OF PROTO-SLAVIC *GROZA AND *POLХATI IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE (AGAINST THE COMMON SLAVIC BACKGROUND)

Abstract

This article is dedicated to a comprehensive semantic-cognitive and historical-etymological analysis of the continuants of the Proto-Slavic lexemes *groza and *polхati in contemporary Polish. It focuses on revealing their semantic structure, reconstructing their internal form, and tracing changes and transformations throughout the historical development of the Polish language. Diachronic studies of emotive vocabulary play a crucial role in modern linguistic-cognitive and linguistic-cultural studies as they allow for tracing the evolution of emotional verbalization methods over different historical periods and identifying the intralingual and/or extralingual factors that influenced the semantic development of words denoting feelings and emotional experiences. The conducted analysis demonstrated that the continuant of Proto-Slavic *groza had varying semantic scopes across different periods of the Polish language. In the 13th–15th centuries, the corresponding noun, in addition to denoting a human emotional state, also referred to «threat», «treachery», «ambush», «cunning», and had a significantly broader range of derivatives. In the 16th–19th centuries, the analyzed lexeme also referred to «severe punishment», «discipline», «absolute subjugation», «obedience», «cruelty», «violence», «power causing anxiety», and a «sign foretelling something dreadful». Over time, the noun significantly narrowed its semantics to denote experiencing intense fear, as well as something dreadful that provokes such fear or horror (as evidenced by contemporary lexicographic sources in Polish). The emotive popłoch in Polish refers to a collective, mass emotion that predominantly arises in areas of large gatherings of people. It originates from the Proto-Slavic verb polхati, whose original sense is associated with the causation of mental experiences and can be reconstructed as: «to strike, hit → to cause movement, escape → to frighten, terrify, startle». Over its historical development, the analyzed lexeme underwent a transformation typical for emotive vocabulary, shifting its semantics from the concrete meaning of «disarray, chaos, danger» to the abstract, psychological meaning of «fear, anxiety» (as a result of secondary nomination).