Polysemy treatments in structuralist and cognitive linguistics are contrasted, sketching the history of the elaboration and application of the radial structure method. Its beginnings are traced to C, M. Brugman's (1981) PhD. thesis, whereas its popularization is attributed to G. Lakoff's 'Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind' (Chicago, 1987). The image-schema transformations, metaphors, and metonyms are characterized as the three basic mechanisms underlying the generation of new meanings. The central role of image-schemas in the creation of radial categories is noted, including a description of image-schemas in terms of bodily experience, structural elements, and basic logic. The polysemy of the Russian adjective 'kruglyy' (round) is accounted for in terms of six image-schemas: (I) circle, (2) cycle, (3) path (from source to end), (4) completeness, (5) smoothness, and (6) center-periphery. A diagrammatic representation of this adjective's semantic radial structure is included, and some comparisons with French and English equivalents are made. (Z. Dubiel in LLBA 2002, vol. 36, n. 4)