Struktura znaczeniowa słownictwa anatomicznego w Nowym dykcjonarzu M.A. Troca

Abstract

This article is an attempt to perform a semantic analysis of anatomical vocabulary collected by Michał Abraham Troc in Nowy dykcjonarz, published in Lipsk in 1764. The aim of individual analyses based on the lexical field theory is to demonstrate the meaning of lexemes, to determine their place within a field, as well as to disclose semantic relationships: synonymy, polysemy and hyponymy. The semantic analysis presented in this article clearly demonstrates abundance and differentiation of 18th century anatomical vocabulary, as well as prevalence of native over borrowed words. Among 250 names, only eleven units are borrowings from foreign languages: seven Latin and four German ones. This provides evidence there is a fundamental role of native lexis, especially colloquial vocabulary, in the formation of Polish anatomical terminology, and, more extensively, also medical terminology, in the first phase of its development which continued until the end of the 18th century. Of note is also the non-uniform arrangement of lexemes in individual fields and asymmetry in their number. Selected lexical fields are characterised by non-uniform size, different level of semantic stratification and differentiated degree of generality of words they contain. On the other hand, semantic relations observed in the analysed anatomical vocabulary, especially synonymy and polysemy, confirm there is a differentiation of anatomical lexis, on the other hand, they indicate lack of precision in expressing content by the discussed lexical units.