EN
This paper contains a semantic and syntactic analysis of two verbal language units identifi ed by the author and represented by the forms zaprzepaścić (to squander) and przepaść (to be lost), namely [ktośᵢ] zaprzepaścił [cośⱼ] ([someoneᵢ] squandered [somethingⱼ]) and [cośᵢ] przepadło ([somethingᵢ] was lost). By means of language tests, the author tries to reconstruct their semantic properties (which imply their formal features), the result of which is the proposed (working) explications of the units.