Word-formation and semantics of understanding from ahistorical perspective — a case study of the reconstruction of the notion of STATE
The aim of the article is to present one of the possible ways of reconstructing the notion of STATE more specifically — one of its spheres: the fragment which is concentrated around the domain [POWER] based on the assumptions of cognitivism. The study is conducted from the perspective of the history of language as it encompasses the Polish language used in the literal era until the end of the 16th century and includes word-formative relations of words organized around the notion of STATE.
The starting point for the author is an analysis of the hyperonym of the notion in question, that is the lexeme state in this case. She examines its word-formative construction by characterising its more closely distinguished components. Then she studies selected derivatives which represent the same conceptual framework. Additionally, her analyses are accompanied by descriptions of formations characterised by adifferent word-formative construction, whose lexical meanings are synonymous to the analysed profiles of the lexeme state. The author is also interested in particular words which are related to the discussed synonyms on the basis of belonging to the same word-formative nest.
The presented analyses aim at showing the advantages of using semantics of understanding to study historical materials.