The author of this paper formulates a thesis that – in a semantic lexicographic description – two seemingly contradictory trends need to be continuously reconciled, namely striving for an adequate generalisation of the properties of the describes expressions and the obligation to draw conclusions from detailed data. The failure to satisfy any of these requirements directly leads to basic errors in the proposed definitions of meanings.
This thesis is illustrated with examples of expressions falling under the entry spódnica (a skirt) in Wielki słownik języka polskiego (Great Dictionary of Polish) edited by P. Żmigrodzki. This paper primarily provides a critical commentary to the description of the unit _w spódnicy (_in a skirt), which is included in this study and which the author finds inadequate and incomplete. In the conclusion part of the text, she presents her own solution to this mini-problem.
The object of the description in this paper are perceptual language units with the segment czuć (to feel) and their equivalents in English and French. This paper is a contribution to a detailed semantic analysis of these units.
Research on verbal units of language is conducted in the context of other linguistic studies, in particular the study by Romuald Grzesiak (1983), Åke Viberg (1983) and Anna Wierzbicka (2006). Certain theses on the discussed units, which were formulated by the mentioned authors, are subject to criticism. Grzesiak’s conviction about the existence of three homonymic perceptual predicates czuć I (to feel I), czuć II (to feel II) and czuć III (to feel III) and Wierzbicka’s idea according to which czuć (to feel) is considered an elementary unit are found most controversial. The presented discussion on semantic properties of the discussed units prove the falseness of those theses. At the same time, semantic components of perceptual units with the segment czuć (to feel), which should be used in semantic explication of the units, emerge as a result of the research.
