Studia Filologiczne UJK

Summary

The aim of the paper is an attempt to find an answer the the question what mechanisms made the noun woman /in Polish: kobieta/ undergo syntactic ameliorative change, meaning that it shifted from a lower stylistic register to a higher one. The term amelioration cannot be found in many linguistic lexicons. It is rather generally accepted that it defines a semantic change in which a word takes on positive semantic colouring. This definition should be broadened to include transition of a form having a negative stylistic value to a class of words having neutral colouring rather then merely taking on a positive colouring. The analysis allows us to ascertain that it was the case of the noun woman which shifted from a group of lexemes of a negative colouring to the one of a neutral colouring. Yet the original neutral negative colouring of the word subject to analysis is not a result of its etymology, as its etymology is vague. In all likelihood, it is a result of the 16th century semantic and cultural conventions and a growing frequency of use of this word, which resulted in obliteration of its semantic pejoration.