Současný vývoj sémantiky prefixu pro-

Abstract

The paper aims to describe the meanings of the prefix pro- found in Czech verbal neologisms. The first section characterizes verbal prefixation and describes two principal functions of prefixes — the lexical and the aspectual. The subsequent section deals with the Neomat electronic neologism database, which is the primary source of material for the paper and the basis for a discussion of its methodology. Subsequently, the difference between polysemy, cosemy and homonymy is explained and cosemy is shown on the example of the verb probruslit. Next, classifications of the prefix propresented in Czech linguistic sources (especially in grammars) are compared, the principal problems of classification are addressed, and meanings mentioned in all the sources are identified. The final section analyses meanings of the prefix pro- in verbal neologisms (prototypical, spatial meaning ‘through’ being described first). The most frequent meanings of the prefix pro- in verbal neologisms are ‘to get somewhere/to accomplish something‘, ‘to pass time’, ‘to lose something’ or ‘to do intensively’.