On presentiments: between mystery and inference

Abstract

The term used in the title of the paper has not, so far, been the subject of a more extensive linguistic reflection. The author of the paper aims at describing the lexical units containing the item przeczuć, ‘to sense’, with respect to their structure and meaning. The method of analysis is based on putting forward appropriate hypotheses in the form of analytical implications and subjecting them to falsification by bringing them down to contradiction. The paper focuses on the reconstruction of the forms of lexical units (on the basis of segmental and supra-segmental signals), and the reconstruction of the hierarchy of meaningful components. The discussion is also concerned with the following notions: stać się ‘become’, wiedzieć ‘know’ and być gotowym powiedzieć ‘be ready to say’. The author tries to prove that those components belong to the semantic structure of the examined phrase; he also proposes a preliminary explication of meanings in terms of Natural Semantic Metalanguage.