The study analyses both the similar and different conceptualizations of the sections of the world reflected in Slovak adverbials dávno [‘a long time ago’] and dlho [‘for a long time’]. Lexicographic research documents that the adverbial dávno is ambisemantic and specifies temporal localization as well as durability; the adverbial dlho is monosemantic and expresses only durability. The author attempts to identify connections, which determine their semantic and communicative compatibility and complementarity as well as incompatibility and opposition. She deals with the issues of interrelatedness of semantic, grammatical and pragmatic perspectives, discursive use of adverbials within the framework of intentionality in communication (determinacy and indeterminacy), register of interpretation (narrative, dialogical), role in the communicative structure of the sentence (position of the theme and the position of the rheme), position of an observer (relativized or maximized), etc. Using the corpus findings, the paper clarifies the influence of the adverbial, pronominal and particular modifiers (už [‘already’] and ešte [‘yet’] in particular) on the meanings of both adverbials and their impact in the pragmatics of reasoning and doubt.
