Polonisms among the Belarusian Names of Cognitive Events

Abstract

Semantic study of verbs – names of cognitive events - in the Belarusian language has not been conducted before. As a separate lexical-semantic subsystem, verbs with the semantics of mental events were not considered on the material of other languages. The relevance of the article is due to the lack of a comprehensive description of this lexical and semantic sphere. The aim of the article is a comprehensive description of the names of cognitive events in the Belarusian language. The study reveals the semantic and syntactic characteristics of each verb and the types of relationships between them. The lexical values are determined accordingly; the type of each token chosen by the verb's mode of action, i.e Aktionsart; actant type of the verb and its syntagmatic connections. Polonisms are singled out and described in the article. Names of cognitive events are verbs with the semantics ‘вырашыць, ‘угадаць’, ‘зразумець’, ‘даведацца’, ‘запомніць’, ‘успомніць’, ‘вынайсці’ [decide, conclude, guess, understand, learn, remember, recall, invent]. Of the forty units, seven lexemes are borrowed from the Polish language or the Polish language has acted as an intermediary in their borrowing. In the subgroup with the semantics ‘вырашыць, зрабiць вывад’ [decide, conclude] the lexemes дэдукаваць, разважыць, размеркаваць, разрахаваць [deduce, reflect, distribute, calculate] were borrowed in Belarusian through the Polish language. Three other Polonisms have a common semantics of ‘зразумець’, ‘даведацца’ [understand, learn]. The lexemes дапяць і распрацаваць [finish and develop] were borrowed from the Polish language. The Belarusian word асэнсаваць [sense] has Latin roots, but it got into Belarusian through Polish mediation. At the same time, the verb formation exists today only in the Belarusian language. All these polonisms, except of the modern borrowing дапяць [achieve your own, finish], were already used in the old Belarusian language. They are transitive - the same rule was inherent in these verbs in the Polish language. The new borrowing дапяць [achieve your own, finish] is used without object or with an added sentence.