Consider how the verb root wiedzieć (to know) is subtly but significantly transformed from the addition of one, two or (rarely) three of these prefixes:
dowiedzieć
się - to
discover, find something out (+ genitive); to learn about (+ instrumental)
powiedzieć - to say, speak, talk
dopowiedzieć - say the unspoken, fill in, add
odpowiedzieć - tell, narrate,
recount; with się espouse, voice support for
naopowiedzieć - say quite
enough
opowiedzieć - tell, narrate, recount (same
as odpowiedzieć)
podpowiedzieć - hint at, suggest, prompt
przepowiedzieć - foretell
rozpowiedzieć - air about, disseminate, spread
(news)
wypowiedzieć - declare, renounce, give notice;
with się, come out in favor of
zapowiedzieć - announce, signal, forecast,
foreshadow, presage; with się, promise to be ( + accusative)
The copy of Barron's 2000 edition of "301 Polish Verbs" has a less thorough chart describing prefixes. Most of the explanations are oversimplified. E.g. "Do = to, toward; na = on, upon, in, completing; nad = above, near," and so on. I don't find this very helpful, and rather prefer Morfill's attempt, but I feel that it's probably a bit out of date, and could be expanded upon.
ReplyDeleteAnother observation, the verbs "odpowiedzieć" and "opowiedzieć" actually have different meanings. "Odpowiedzieć" rather means "to answer, to reply," whereas "opowiedzieć" means "to tell, to narrate, to explain." You can actually find this in the prefixes, where you can see that "od/e/" means "from a place," thus "to answer" is to give some information "from" a source, whereas the prefix "o-, ob/e/" can be associated with the preposition "o," meaning "about." Therefore, "opowiedzieć" is clearly related to the idea of "saying/talking about."