Abstract
The paper aims to describe meanings of prefix pro- used in Czech verbal neologisms. The first part characterizes verbal prefixation and describes two principal functions of prefixes - lexical and aspectual ones.
The following section deals with the electronic neology database Neomat, which is the primary source of material for the paper and it discusses its methodology. Subsequently, the difference between polysemy, cosemy and homonymy is explained and cosemy is shown on the example of verb probruslit.
In the following part, classifications of prefix pro- presented in Czech linguistic sources (especially in grammars) are compared, principal problems of classification are referred to and meanings mentioned in all the sources are identified. The final section analyses meanings of prefix pro- in verbal neologisms (prototypical, spatial meaning 'through' being described first).
The most frequent meanings of prefix pro- in verbal neologisms are 'to get somewhere/to accomplish something', 'to pass time', 'to lose something' or 'to do with intensity '.