JAK CIĘ NAZWAĆ, TEN TYLKO SIĘ DOWIE, KTO CIĘ STRACIŁ – RZECZ O NIEPODLEGŁOŚCI
How to name you will only know the one who has lost you – a thing on niepodległość (independence)

Summary/Abstract: Until the end of the 18th century, the word niepodległy (independent) was rarely used in Polish and had a slightly different meaning than it has today. The semantic change occurs after the loss of independence, which is also the period when the noun niepodległość (independence), which refers to the political independence of a state, comes into use. Old and new semantic elements are present in both words over successive decades of the 19th century as the development process of a new meaning is quick: it takes one generation. Axiological phenomena are equally dynamic; in the romanticists’ world of values independence is ranked very high. Its devaluation, which can be noticed in some utterances and statements from the past three decades, is a slow process and it does not seen to influence the semantics of the word or its functioning in the language.

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