Jak się ma младенец do młodzieńca, czyli o polsko-rosyjskich aproksymatach

The paper deals with the phenomenon of approximate, taking into consideration Polish and Russian. Approximate is understood as sound similarity of words which have different meanings. The research material consists of approximate nouns excerpted from two dictionaries: Rosyjsko-polski słownik paraleli leksykalnych [The Russian-Polish dictionary of lexical parallels] by W. Dubiczyński (in preparation) and Rosyjsko-polski słownik homonimów międzyjęzykowych [The Russian-Polish dictionary of interlingual homonyms] by K. Kusal. Approximate may be divided into two basic groups: complete approximate, which have identical graphic notation and sound almost identical, but differ in meaning, and incomplete approximate, which have different degrees of graphic similarity and sound similar, but differ in meaning. Complete approximate are, for example, УРÓК ‘lesson’ – UROK ‘spell, charm, grace’, and incomplete homonyms include, for example, ДИВÁН ‘sofa’ – DYWAN ‘carpet’. Approximate are subjected to lexical-semantic analysis. The method of profiling meanings is used as well. It is possible to distinguish the following types of homonyms: homonyms of antonymic meanings (e.g. ЗАПОМИНAНИЕ ‘memorizing’ – ZAPOMINANIE ‘forgetting’), homonyms with different scopes of meaning (e.g. НЕДÉЛЯ ‘week’, broader meaning – NIEDZIELA ‘Sunday’, one day of the week, narrower meaning) and homonyms having different connotations (e.g. ЛЕНЬ ‘lazy person’ – LEŃ ‘state of being lazy’).