Primarily, it presents an ongoing debate in cognitive linguistics about the modelling of prepositional polysemy, known as "the story of over". Additionally, it discusses a Polish counterpart - "the story of za(-)" (a preposition and a verbal prefix). Its further aim is to reveal a deep divergence of perspectives between the cognitive and hermeneutical approaches to the meaning of words. The argument could be summarised as follows: the issue of the representation of lexical senses (available out of context) presupposes the issue of distinct meanings of words in communal use, which in turn presupposes the question of the transformative power of words (in linguistics, articulated by Humboldt as energeia). In short, the book proposes to complement a post hoc static cognitive approach with a dynamic "expressive" one.

Andrzej Pawelec teaches cognitive linguistics and translation in the Institute of English Philology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow. His research, in general, is focused on the communal background of symbolic meaning. In linguistics, he aims to probe current theories from the vantage point provided by the "expressive" conception of language, as developed in philosophical hermeneutics (Merleau-Ponty and Charles Taylor being his main sources of inspiration). He has published two books so far. In Znaczenie ucieleśnione (2005) ["Embodied meaning"], he opposes the cognitive position on the "embodiment of meaning", as described by Lakoff and his associates, to the hermeneutical interpretation of this notion in terms of articulation. In Metafora pojęciowa a tradycja (2006) ["Conceptual metaphor and tradition"], he offers a critique of the cognitive theory of metaphor in terms of the "interactive theory" and the "Romantic tradition".