In the sea of semantic neologisms

The article is an analysis of semantic neologisms extracted from the Culture section of Przekrój weekly. Semantic neologisms have been confronted with the definitions derived from the dictionary of Polish language and defined using cognitive methods. Most space is devoted to the adjective/adverb korzenny/korzennie (“spicy”), representing the same semantic domain. In order to determine their meaning, a radial network of the noun korzeń (“root”) was used and a contextual analysis was conducted. The following findings were reported. Semantic neologisms constitute an indispensable component of the Polish vocabulary. They are understandable for the users through the context and through the semantic link to the radial network to which they belong.The article is an analysis of semantic neologisms extracted from the Culture section of Przekrój weekly. Semantic neologisms have been confronted with the defi nitions derived from the dictionary of Polish language and defi ned using cognitive methods. Most space is devoted to the adjective/adverb korzenny/korzennie (“spicy”), representing the same semantic domain. In order to determine their meaning, a radial network of the noun korzeń (“root”) was used and a contextual analysis was conducted. The following fi ndings were reported. Semantic neologisms constitute an indispensable component of the Polish vocabulary. They are understandable for the users through the context and through the semantic link to the radial network to which they belong