Abstract:
The article presents the semantic changes of the Polish lexical item kabała ‘cabala’ and related units: kabalistyka ‘cabalism’, kabalista ‘cabalist, fortune-teller’, wpaść w kabałę ‘get oneself into a bad fix’, stawiać kabałę ‘to tell future’. With time, these items lost their links with their primary meanings and changed the semantic domain of application from religious (or even mystical) to colloquial. The study shows in what way these semantic shifts originated and were effected. The analysis has revealed not only the paths of semantic development of these word-forms, but also show the changes in the linguistic awareness (worldview) of the speakers of Polish.
