Geszeft and landara: on the causes of giving pejorative meaning to loanwords Cover Image

Geszeft i landara: o przyczynach pejoratywizacji zapożyczeń
Geszeft and landara: on the causes of giving pejorative meaning to loanwords

Author(s): Mirosław Bańko
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: lexical borrowings; historical evolution of the Polish language; pejorative influence on word meaning

Summary/Abstract: In evolution of a language, words, occasionally, are affected by a more pejorative or ameliorated effect on their meaning, i.e. deterioration or improvement of their content. The mechanism of these phenomena is not completely clear, and their causes have not been explained in sufficient detail. This article focuses on several words whose meaning has become significantly more pejorative under the influence of factors which were both external or internal with respect to the language. Among the latter ones attention was predominantly paid to the effect of words of similar structure carrying negative features.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 20
  • Page Range: 33-43
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish