Analiza rozwoju semantycznego leksemów płytki i miałki
An Analysis of the Semantic Development of płytki and miałki Lexemes

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to present the semantic evolution of the lexeme – płytki, in the light of some important lexicographical sources and selected texts. The word płytki, the use of which has been observed in the Polish language since 1556, was initially one of a few adjectives that meant – ‘not deep’. Till the second half of the 19th century, the word miałki was the most significant one from among those adjectives. In the 16th century, the word miałki was an adjective of the broadest range of use, however, since the 17th century, this range has begun to be narrowed down to the description of shallow water and a ditch (18th–19th century) and, finally, solely to the description of water (the first half of the 20th century). The meaning of the word miałki understood as ‘not deep’ disappeared in the second half of the 20th century. This adjective preserved, however, the meanings: ‘fine, powdery’, which have been functioning in the Polish language since the 15th century. Throughout the 19th century, the meaning of the word płytki denoting ‘thin, flat, sharp, suddenly striking’ disappeared, which resulted in the loss of the former polysemy that this adjective implied. Simultaneously, since the 18th century, the scope of its use in the ‘not deep’ sense has been growing. Since the 16th century, it has been used more often to denote a shallow vessel or an object (a canoe or a ditch – 17th century), and since the 18th century (or maybe already in the 16th century) it started to be used to describe water as well. Hence, in the second half of the 20th century, it could already replace the adjective miałki in the ‘not deep’ meaning.

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