Studies in Polish Linguistics
Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL) focuses on linguistic theory as well as theory-informed descriptive work, especially empirically oriented studies of Polish and Slavic languages.
See issues
Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL) focuses on linguistic theory as well as theory-informed descriptive work, especially empirically oriented studies of Polish and Slavic languages.
See issues
Description
The journal offers articles devoted to a variety of topics such as phonology, morphology, morphonology, syntax, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, information structure, linguistic stylistics, phraseology, discourse analysis, lexicology and lexicography, language contact, language typology, generative linguistics, cognitive linguistics, quantitative linguistics, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, and translation studies.
ISSN: 1732-8160
eISSN: 2300-5920
MNiSW points: 70
UIC ID: 26621
DOI: 10.4467/23005920SPL
Editorial team
Affiliation
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Publication date: 2024
This publication was supported by a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Excellence Initiative – Research University programme at the Jagiellonian University.
Marcin R. Dadan
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 1, Volume 19 (2024), pp. 1 - 36
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.24.001.19742Morphosyntactic marking connected with the Middle contexts, broadly speaking expressing the involvement and affectedness of the subject (Cotticelli Kurras and Rizza 2013, Inglese 2020), tends to give rise to characteristic Voice syncretism, i.e., the appearance of different readings, e.g., inherently reflexive, anticausatives, antipassive, etc., which are argued to occur via allosemy at LF (Arad 2003, 2005; Marantz 2013a, 2013b; Wood 2015, 2016; Wood and Marantz 2017; Oikonomou and Alexiadou 2022).1 Looking at reflexiva tantum (RT), i.e., predicates with reflexive clitic się (SE) without any non-się marked counterparts, this paper claims that in a language like Polish, where the Middle readings are not expressed by non-active/mediopassive synthetic morphology, this class of contexts does not have to be related to one specification of the Voice, but since it depends on the reflexive SE-clitic, the syntax of the Middle encompasses all the contexts that license the insertion of this element. Only a subset of the syncretic readings in Polish arises as post-syntactic allosemy, and unergative and unaccusative SE-reflexives differ with regards to the base-generation of the nominative-marked subject. Importantly, agentive readings involve the agentive Voice with the NP argument merged in its specifier. Polish reflexiva tantum are discussed in cross-linguistic contexts of other non-alternating predicates, i.e., media tantum and deponents, and it is shown that they cover the same semantic spectrum, but differ in the syntax, especially in their active and agentive readings. It is shown that the idiosyncratic and omplex nature of reflexive tantum is reflected in its potential to create idiomatic extensions, which arise due to both overt syntax and post-spellout allosemy.
Jolanta Latkowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 1, Volume 19 (2024), pp. 37 - 60
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.24.002.19743This study examines the temporal architecture of Polish film retellings within the research framework developed by Christiane von Stutterheim and colleagues, who identified grammaticalized progressive and imperfective aspects as powerful agents capable of influencing event construal, and through it, the organisation of discourse. Based on this finding, the study explores 30 offline film retellings to find out whether their narrative structure reflects the patterns attributed to the influence of a grammaticalised imperfective (IMPF). The results show that narrators consistently build the storyline using the present tense and the IMPF. In Polish, present tense verb forms encode the IMPF predominantly in the stem or in a grammaticalised secondary imperfective (SI) marker. As revealed by the study, the SI is used rather sparingly in the retellings. Another feature of note is a scarcity of connectives, found to coincide with the presence of grammaticalised imperfective markers in the languages examined under the framework. The study concludes that, due to low usage rates for the SI, there is not sufficient evidence to support the existence of a causal relationship between the grammaticalisation of the IMPF and narrative frames in Polish, and points to a formative role of discourse mode dynamics in shaping temporal progression.
Marcin R. Dadan
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 1, Volume 19 (2024), pp. 1 - 36
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.24.001.19742Morphosyntactic marking connected with the Middle contexts, broadly speaking expressing the involvement and affectedness of the subject (Cotticelli Kurras and Rizza 2013, Inglese 2020), tends to give rise to characteristic Voice syncretism, i.e., the appearance of different readings, e.g., inherently reflexive, anticausatives, antipassive, etc., which are argued to occur via allosemy at LF (Arad 2003, 2005; Marantz 2013a, 2013b; Wood 2015, 2016; Wood and Marantz 2017; Oikonomou and Alexiadou 2022).1 Looking at reflexiva tantum (RT), i.e., predicates with reflexive clitic się (SE) without any non-się marked counterparts, this paper claims that in a language like Polish, where the Middle readings are not expressed by non-active/mediopassive synthetic morphology, this class of contexts does not have to be related to one specification of the Voice, but since it depends on the reflexive SE-clitic, the syntax of the Middle encompasses all the contexts that license the insertion of this element. Only a subset of the syncretic readings in Polish arises as post-syntactic allosemy, and unergative and unaccusative SE-reflexives differ with regards to the base-generation of the nominative-marked subject. Importantly, agentive readings involve the agentive Voice with the NP argument merged in its specifier. Polish reflexiva tantum are discussed in cross-linguistic contexts of other non-alternating predicates, i.e., media tantum and deponents, and it is shown that they cover the same semantic spectrum, but differ in the syntax, especially in their active and agentive readings. It is shown that the idiosyncratic and omplex nature of reflexive tantum is reflected in its potential to create idiomatic extensions, which arise due to both overt syntax and post-spellout allosemy.
Jolanta Latkowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 1, Volume 19 (2024), pp. 37 - 60
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.24.002.19743This study examines the temporal architecture of Polish film retellings within the research framework developed by Christiane von Stutterheim and colleagues, who identified grammaticalized progressive and imperfective aspects as powerful agents capable of influencing event construal, and through it, the organisation of discourse. Based on this finding, the study explores 30 offline film retellings to find out whether their narrative structure reflects the patterns attributed to the influence of a grammaticalised imperfective (IMPF). The results show that narrators consistently build the storyline using the present tense and the IMPF. In Polish, present tense verb forms encode the IMPF predominantly in the stem or in a grammaticalised secondary imperfective (SI) marker. As revealed by the study, the SI is used rather sparingly in the retellings. Another feature of note is a scarcity of connectives, found to coincide with the presence of grammaticalised imperfective markers in the languages examined under the framework. The study concludes that, due to low usage rates for the SI, there is not sufficient evidence to support the existence of a causal relationship between the grammaticalisation of the IMPF and narrative frames in Polish, and points to a formative role of discourse mode dynamics in shaping temporal progression.
Editor-in-Chief : Magdalena Szczyrbak
Deputy Editor-in-Chief:
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
This publication was supported by a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Excellence Initiative – Research University programme at the Jagiellonian University.
Eugeniusz Cyran
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Early Access
Izabela Duraj-Nowosielska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Early Access
Eugeniusz Cyran
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Early Access
Izabela Duraj-Nowosielska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Early Access
Editor-in-Chief : Magdalena Szczyrbak
Deputy Editor-in-Chief:
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
This publication was supported by a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Excellence Initiative – Research University programme at the Jagiellonian University.
Eugeniusz Cyran
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 2, Early Access
Nawoja Mikołajczak-Matyja
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 2, Early Access
Eugeniusz Cyran
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 2, Early Access
Nawoja Mikołajczak-Matyja
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 19, Issue 2, Early Access
Publication date: 2023
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
The publication of volumes 17 and 18 was financed by a grant from the Priority Research Area and a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Magdalena Pastuch
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 4, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 145 - 167
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.007.18682The article demonstrates the importance of subjectification processes in shaping the metatextual layer of language. Using three lexical units (prawda ‘true, right’, pewnie ‘sure, certainly’ and szalenie ‘extremely, madly’) as examples, the author shows how the enrichment of their semantic structure with a subjective component led to the emergence of new propositional functions and ultimately to the establishment of a new meaning. The study is conducted diachronically, drawing on the oldest attestations of the lexemes in question. Based on a contextual analysis, the moment the meanings with a subjective component appeared is identified. The results unequivocally demonstrate that subjectification has its origin in the pragmatic domain, while its consequences are visible on the semantic level. The language material comes from both lexicographic sources and corpora. The analysis shows that subjectification is correlated with formal changes including loss of inflectional endings, loss of morphological properties, recategorization, and syntactic isolation. The paper provides evidence for the need for in-depth comparative diachronic research on subjectification.
Sebastian Wasak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 4, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 169 - 192
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.008.18683In Polish, passive potential adjectives are productively formed by means of attaching the suffix -alny to transitive verbs (Szymanek 2010). They have been shown to project the external argument of their verbs, as well as being able to co-occur with agentive przez-phrases and instrumental phrases (Bloch-Trojnar 2019). Hence, under a syntactic approach to word formation such as Distributed Morphology, they are derived via outer affixation, with their structure containing the vP and VoiceP heads. A small subset of Polish passive potential adjectives are derived with affixes other than -alny. These include czytelny ‘legible, readable, understandable’, strawny ‘digestible’ and zrozumiały ‘understandable, comprehensible’. In this paper, it is demonstrated that while these adjectives behave similarly to -alny adjectives in terms of licensing Voice-related modifiers, they are excluded from a wide range of verbal contexts available to regularly derived passive potential adjectives. As such, czytelny, strawny and zrozumiały offer evidence for the claim that the layer that introduces event implications is distinct from the verbal head that triggers spell-out. Specifically, adjectives such as czytelny, strawny and zrozumiały can be argued to contain the little v head, but not the cyclic vP projection, which is in line with the architecture of grammar as proposed by Embick (2010).
Magdalena Pastuch
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 4, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 145 - 167
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.007.18682The article demonstrates the importance of subjectification processes in shaping the metatextual layer of language. Using three lexical units (prawda ‘true, right’, pewnie ‘sure, certainly’ and szalenie ‘extremely, madly’) as examples, the author shows how the enrichment of their semantic structure with a subjective component led to the emergence of new propositional functions and ultimately to the establishment of a new meaning. The study is conducted diachronically, drawing on the oldest attestations of the lexemes in question. Based on a contextual analysis, the moment the meanings with a subjective component appeared is identified. The results unequivocally demonstrate that subjectification has its origin in the pragmatic domain, while its consequences are visible on the semantic level. The language material comes from both lexicographic sources and corpora. The analysis shows that subjectification is correlated with formal changes including loss of inflectional endings, loss of morphological properties, recategorization, and syntactic isolation. The paper provides evidence for the need for in-depth comparative diachronic research on subjectification.
Sebastian Wasak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 4, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 169 - 192
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.008.18683In Polish, passive potential adjectives are productively formed by means of attaching the suffix -alny to transitive verbs (Szymanek 2010). They have been shown to project the external argument of their verbs, as well as being able to co-occur with agentive przez-phrases and instrumental phrases (Bloch-Trojnar 2019). Hence, under a syntactic approach to word formation such as Distributed Morphology, they are derived via outer affixation, with their structure containing the vP and VoiceP heads. A small subset of Polish passive potential adjectives are derived with affixes other than -alny. These include czytelny ‘legible, readable, understandable’, strawny ‘digestible’ and zrozumiały ‘understandable, comprehensible’. In this paper, it is demonstrated that while these adjectives behave similarly to -alny adjectives in terms of licensing Voice-related modifiers, they are excluded from a wide range of verbal contexts available to regularly derived passive potential adjectives. As such, czytelny, strawny and zrozumiały offer evidence for the claim that the layer that introduces event implications is distinct from the verbal head that triggers spell-out. Specifically, adjectives such as czytelny, strawny and zrozumiały can be argued to contain the little v head, but not the cyclic vP projection, which is in line with the architecture of grammar as proposed by Embick (2010).
Publication date: 2023
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
The publication of volumes 17 and 18 was financed by a grant from the Priority Research Area and a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Željko Bošković
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 3, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 85 - 95
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.005.18680The paper presents a unified account of a number of superficially very different cases from Japanese, Serbo-Croatian, German, and Dutch where a phonologically weak element is stranded without a host. It proposes a new typology regarding when a phonologically weak element can be stranded where adjacency to a prosodic boundary is necessary for such stranding, with parametrization regarding the strength of the prosodic boundary: it can be an utterance boundary (║) or an intonational-phrase boundary (#), or either║or # (in the last case, both boundaries can license the stranding). Furthermore, the difference in the direction of adjacency to the prosodic boundary mirrors the difference in the adjacency to the host: if the relevant element is a prefix/proclitic, both the host and the prosodic boundary follow it, if it is an enclitic/suffix, they both precede it.
Bartosz Wiland
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 3, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 97 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.006.18681The paper investigates the morphosyntax of Polish synthetic comparative adjectives and adverbs. It is argued that we can predict the distribution of different classes of adjectival roots and suffixes if we adopt the idea that both types of morphemes lexicalize syntactic constituents, the central tenet of Nanosyntax. The paper makes a case for two central claims. One is that the syn-sem properties of adjectives can be described with a finegrained syntactic sequence proposed for Slovak in Vanden Wyngaerd et al. (2020). The other one is that the lexical properties of Polish gradable adverbs follow from the syntactic representation of the adverb as properly containing the syntactic representation of the adjective.
Željko Bošković
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 3, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 85 - 95
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.005.18680The paper presents a unified account of a number of superficially very different cases from Japanese, Serbo-Croatian, German, and Dutch where a phonologically weak element is stranded without a host. It proposes a new typology regarding when a phonologically weak element can be stranded where adjacency to a prosodic boundary is necessary for such stranding, with parametrization regarding the strength of the prosodic boundary: it can be an utterance boundary (║) or an intonational-phrase boundary (#), or either║or # (in the last case, both boundaries can license the stranding). Furthermore, the difference in the direction of adjacency to the prosodic boundary mirrors the difference in the adjacency to the host: if the relevant element is a prefix/proclitic, both the host and the prosodic boundary follow it, if it is an enclitic/suffix, they both precede it.
Bartosz Wiland
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 3, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 97 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.006.18681The paper investigates the morphosyntax of Polish synthetic comparative adjectives and adverbs. It is argued that we can predict the distribution of different classes of adjectival roots and suffixes if we adopt the idea that both types of morphemes lexicalize syntactic constituents, the central tenet of Nanosyntax. The paper makes a case for two central claims. One is that the syn-sem properties of adjectives can be described with a finegrained syntactic sequence proposed for Slovak in Vanden Wyngaerd et al. (2020). The other one is that the lexical properties of Polish gradable adverbs follow from the syntactic representation of the adverb as properly containing the syntactic representation of the adjective.
Publication date: 06.2023
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
The publication of volumes 17 and 18 was financed by a grant from the Priority Research Area and a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Krystyna Kleszczowa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 2, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 55 - 67
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.003.18044Paulina Polak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 2, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 69 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.004.18045This paper focuses on the use of diminutives in Polish to express irony. The phenomenon is analyzed from the perspective of morphopragmatics (Dressler, Merlini Barbaresi 1994; Merlini Barbaresi 2015; Nagórko 2015) and reports on the results of a small-scale informant-based study, in which twelve respondents described their evaluation of the pragmatic meaning contributed by diminutives in three naturally-occurring spoken sentences. In most cases, there was a negative reaction to the diminutives as it was considered they represent an arrogant type of irony.
Krystyna Kleszczowa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 2, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 55 - 67
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.003.18044Paulina Polak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 2, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 69 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.004.18045This paper focuses on the use of diminutives in Polish to express irony. The phenomenon is analyzed from the perspective of morphopragmatics (Dressler, Merlini Barbaresi 1994; Merlini Barbaresi 2015; Nagórko 2015) and reports on the results of a small-scale informant-based study, in which twelve respondents described their evaluation of the pragmatic meaning contributed by diminutives in three naturally-occurring spoken sentences. In most cases, there was a negative reaction to the diminutives as it was considered they represent an arrogant type of irony.
Publication date: 01.08.2023
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
The publication of volumes 17 and 18 was financed by a grant from the Priority Research Area and a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Agnieszka Cierpich-Kozieł, Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld, Alicja Witalisz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 1, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 1 - 23
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.001.17852In recent decades, Polish has experienced an unprecedented influx of English-sourced borrowings, both overt (loanwords) and covert (calques). This linguistic influence echoes the social, technological, environmental and ideological transformations, with these changes reflected in the Polish lexicon. The paper describes a lexicographic project aimed at updating the Słownik zapożyczeń angielskich w polszczyźnie (A Dictionary of Anglicisms in Polish) that was published in 2010. We discuss the theoretical assumptions, the content and the sources of the data for a new, corpus-based dictionary that is in the making, and illustrate the lexicographic solutions we adopted with regard to both well-established and the most recent direct and indirect Anglicisms. We also address the issue of the frequency and the usage of the latter in present-day Polish.
Magdalena Szczyrbak, Anna Tereszkiewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 1, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 25 - 54
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.002.17853This paper examines the ways in which New Zealand and Polish government officials communicated the easing of COVID restrictions to the general public. The study aimed to identify legitimising strategies used to justify the lifting of restrictions and related measures, and to establish how agency and responsibility were discursively constructed in the subgenre of political press conference in two different socio-political settings. Informed by the notions of legitimisation (Chilton 2004), speaker commitment and stance (Marín Arrese 2011, 2015, 2021), the research looked into the linguistic marking of effective stance (deonticity, assessments, attitudinals and directives) and epistemic stance (epistemic modality, truth-factual validity as well as experiential, cognitive and communicative stance), considering both the subjectivity/intersubjectivity dimension and the explicitness/implicitness of the speaker’s role. In addition, the study considered the key discursive strategies used to (de)construct agency in the discourses of NZ and Polish policymakers seen as proponents of divergent public health policies. As the findings indicate, the Polish officials conveyed chiefly experiential stance and projected less involvement, whereas the NZ Prime Minister favoured cognitive stance and deonticity as well as direct appeals to the audience. The analysis shows that the speaker’s (dis)identification with the respective policy finds reflection in the varying degrees of speaker commitment and the (de)construction of agency.
Agnieszka Cierpich-Kozieł, Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld, Alicja Witalisz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 1, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 1 - 23
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.001.17852In recent decades, Polish has experienced an unprecedented influx of English-sourced borrowings, both overt (loanwords) and covert (calques). This linguistic influence echoes the social, technological, environmental and ideological transformations, with these changes reflected in the Polish lexicon. The paper describes a lexicographic project aimed at updating the Słownik zapożyczeń angielskich w polszczyźnie (A Dictionary of Anglicisms in Polish) that was published in 2010. We discuss the theoretical assumptions, the content and the sources of the data for a new, corpus-based dictionary that is in the making, and illustrate the lexicographic solutions we adopted with regard to both well-established and the most recent direct and indirect Anglicisms. We also address the issue of the frequency and the usage of the latter in present-day Polish.
Magdalena Szczyrbak, Anna Tereszkiewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 18, Issue 1, Volume 18 (2023), pp. 25 - 54
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.23.002.17853This paper examines the ways in which New Zealand and Polish government officials communicated the easing of COVID restrictions to the general public. The study aimed to identify legitimising strategies used to justify the lifting of restrictions and related measures, and to establish how agency and responsibility were discursively constructed in the subgenre of political press conference in two different socio-political settings. Informed by the notions of legitimisation (Chilton 2004), speaker commitment and stance (Marín Arrese 2011, 2015, 2021), the research looked into the linguistic marking of effective stance (deonticity, assessments, attitudinals and directives) and epistemic stance (epistemic modality, truth-factual validity as well as experiential, cognitive and communicative stance), considering both the subjectivity/intersubjectivity dimension and the explicitness/implicitness of the speaker’s role. In addition, the study considered the key discursive strategies used to (de)construct agency in the discourses of NZ and Polish policymakers seen as proponents of divergent public health policies. As the findings indicate, the Polish officials conveyed chiefly experiential stance and projected less involvement, whereas the NZ Prime Minister favoured cognitive stance and deonticity as well as direct appeals to the audience. The analysis shows that the speaker’s (dis)identification with the respective policy finds reflection in the varying degrees of speaker commitment and the (de)construction of agency.
Publication date: 31.03.2023
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
The publication of volumes 17 and 18 was financed by a grant from the Priority Research Area and a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Ewelina Mokrosz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 4, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 145 - 176
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.007.17645In this paper we show that there are different topic dislocations in Polish, each representing a specific type of a discourse function. With a battery of diagnostic tests we analyse each dislocation and propose their classification. As it turns out, constructions implementing a contrastive topic exhibit features of both A and A’-movement, which turns out problematic for a uniform analysis. We demonstrate that the movement in them is non-quantificational. The movement targeting TopP consists of at least two steps. An object undergoes A-movement and lands in the specifier of an Aboutness Phrase. Then it moves to SpecTopP where it checks a discourse feature.
Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 4, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 177 - 216
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.008.17646The paper proposes that the phonological make-up of segments is influenced by the activity of the constraint *Hydra, which penalizes the presence of more than one headed element per one phonological expression. *Hydra influences the shape of the inventories and the phonological behaviour of nasal vowels in languages such as French and Brazilian Portuguese. At the same time, the behaviour of nasal vowels in Yoruba shows that *Hydra a violable constraint. In Polish, the high ranking of *Hydra proves necessary to account for the absence of Surface Velar Palatalization before the front nasal vowel /ɛ/. It also allows us to formulate a unified account of the 1st Velar and Anterior Palatalization, which have very different structural descriptions but take place before the same set of derivational affixes.
Ewelina Mokrosz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 4, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 145 - 176
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.007.17645In this paper we show that there are different topic dislocations in Polish, each representing a specific type of a discourse function. With a battery of diagnostic tests we analyse each dislocation and propose their classification. As it turns out, constructions implementing a contrastive topic exhibit features of both A and A’-movement, which turns out problematic for a uniform analysis. We demonstrate that the movement in them is non-quantificational. The movement targeting TopP consists of at least two steps. An object undergoes A-movement and lands in the specifier of an Aboutness Phrase. Then it moves to SpecTopP where it checks a discourse feature.
Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 4, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 177 - 216
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.008.17646The paper proposes that the phonological make-up of segments is influenced by the activity of the constraint *Hydra, which penalizes the presence of more than one headed element per one phonological expression. *Hydra influences the shape of the inventories and the phonological behaviour of nasal vowels in languages such as French and Brazilian Portuguese. At the same time, the behaviour of nasal vowels in Yoruba shows that *Hydra a violable constraint. In Polish, the high ranking of *Hydra proves necessary to account for the absence of Surface Velar Palatalization before the front nasal vowel /ɛ/. It also allows us to formulate a unified account of the 1st Velar and Anterior Palatalization, which have very different structural descriptions but take place before the same set of derivational affixes.
Publication date: 2022
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
The publication of volumes 17 and 18 was financed by a grant from the Priority Research Area and a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik, Jolanta Klimek-Grądzka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 3, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 93 - 114
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.005.16731The objective of this paper is to bring to light an important early 16th-century Polish rendition of the Psalter, Żołtarz Dawidów, translated by Walenty Wróbel and prepared for print by Andrzej Glaber. We argue that in spite of its unique position in the line of Psalter translations into Polish, the Żołtarz has not received a comprehensive and exhaustive treatment. While some detailed issues have been diligently addressed by individual scholars, research on the Żołtarz has generally been overshadowed by Brückner’s (1902) pioneering study, to the extent that one of its two surviving manuscript copies has not received official recognition in the scholarly literature. In particular, alongside the Kórnik manuscript (from 1528) described by Brückner, there exists another 16th-century exemplar (1536), which has been in the possession of the Jagiellonian Library since 1928. Its rediscovery by the authors of the present paper has two important consequences. First of all, the Jagiellonian Żołtarz should become an object of study in its own right. Secondly, its existence requires a re-assessment of the current state of knowledge on the Żołtarz in the light of the data it contains.
Magdalena Danielewiczowa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 3, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 115 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.006.16732The article seeks to determine the status of adverbial superlative forms which do not ex- press the superlative and which thus fall outside the degree system in contemporary Pol- ish. Some of these expressions have become lexicalized and have entered two classes of units: particles (e.g., najpewniej ‘surely’, najwidoczniej ‘apparently’, najwyraźniej ‘clear- ly’) and adverbial meta-predicates (e.g., najspokojniej ‘calmly’, najzwyczajniej ‘simply’, najlepiej ‘the best’). Others have become elements of idiomatic expressions or performa- tives such as, e.g. najmocniej przepraszam ‘I sincerely apologize’, najserdeczniej witam ‘I cordially welcome (you)’, najuprzejmiej dziękuję ‘I kindly thank (you)’, najgoręcej namawiam ‘I highly recommend’. However, there are also superlative forms which act as the domain of several interesting operations, see, e.g., Bogusławski (1978, 1987, 2010a), the latter being of a grammatical, rather than lexical nature. One such operation re- sults in the creation of expressions such as jak najszybciej ‘in the quickest possible way’, jak najweselej ‘in the most enjoyable way’, jak najdłużej ‘in the longest possible way’, etc. Another important operation yields such constructions as najpóźniej w środę ‘on Wednesday at the latest’, najdalej 20 kilometrów od centrum ‘at most 20 km away from the centre’, najrzadziej raz do roku ‘at least once a year’, najgrubiej na pół centymetra ‘half a centimeter at the thickest’, etc. Contrary to the view held by Grochowski (2008), it is argued here that the superlatives which occur in these constructions should not be re- garded as independent lexical units. Nor should the metatextual comments such as naj krócej <mówiąc> ‘to put it briefly / briefly put [lit. <speaking> most briefly]’, najogólniej <rzecz biorąc> ‘most generally <speaking>’ be regarded as such, though for a different reason. In these comments, the superlatives – referring to the act of speaking – retain their standard meanings (cf. krótko / krócej <mówiąc> ‘<speaking> succinctly / more succinctly’, ogólnie / ogólniej <rzecz biorąc> ‘generally / more generally <speaking>’). A number of pragmatic effects associated with the use of superlative forms also deserve individual treatment; they include, for instance, metonymic shortcuts (najlepsi ‘the best’ [pl.], najbogatsi ‘the richest’ [pl.]) or conversational implicatures (wypadł nie najgorzej → wypadł całkiem dobrze ‘he did not do so badly / he did not do so bad’ → ‘he did pretty well’).
Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik, Jolanta Klimek-Grądzka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 3, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 93 - 114
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.005.16731The objective of this paper is to bring to light an important early 16th-century Polish rendition of the Psalter, Żołtarz Dawidów, translated by Walenty Wróbel and prepared for print by Andrzej Glaber. We argue that in spite of its unique position in the line of Psalter translations into Polish, the Żołtarz has not received a comprehensive and exhaustive treatment. While some detailed issues have been diligently addressed by individual scholars, research on the Żołtarz has generally been overshadowed by Brückner’s (1902) pioneering study, to the extent that one of its two surviving manuscript copies has not received official recognition in the scholarly literature. In particular, alongside the Kórnik manuscript (from 1528) described by Brückner, there exists another 16th-century exemplar (1536), which has been in the possession of the Jagiellonian Library since 1928. Its rediscovery by the authors of the present paper has two important consequences. First of all, the Jagiellonian Żołtarz should become an object of study in its own right. Secondly, its existence requires a re-assessment of the current state of knowledge on the Żołtarz in the light of the data it contains.
Magdalena Danielewiczowa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 3, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 115 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.006.16732The article seeks to determine the status of adverbial superlative forms which do not ex- press the superlative and which thus fall outside the degree system in contemporary Pol- ish. Some of these expressions have become lexicalized and have entered two classes of units: particles (e.g., najpewniej ‘surely’, najwidoczniej ‘apparently’, najwyraźniej ‘clear- ly’) and adverbial meta-predicates (e.g., najspokojniej ‘calmly’, najzwyczajniej ‘simply’, najlepiej ‘the best’). Others have become elements of idiomatic expressions or performa- tives such as, e.g. najmocniej przepraszam ‘I sincerely apologize’, najserdeczniej witam ‘I cordially welcome (you)’, najuprzejmiej dziękuję ‘I kindly thank (you)’, najgoręcej namawiam ‘I highly recommend’. However, there are also superlative forms which act as the domain of several interesting operations, see, e.g., Bogusławski (1978, 1987, 2010a), the latter being of a grammatical, rather than lexical nature. One such operation re- sults in the creation of expressions such as jak najszybciej ‘in the quickest possible way’, jak najweselej ‘in the most enjoyable way’, jak najdłużej ‘in the longest possible way’, etc. Another important operation yields such constructions as najpóźniej w środę ‘on Wednesday at the latest’, najdalej 20 kilometrów od centrum ‘at most 20 km away from the centre’, najrzadziej raz do roku ‘at least once a year’, najgrubiej na pół centymetra ‘half a centimeter at the thickest’, etc. Contrary to the view held by Grochowski (2008), it is argued here that the superlatives which occur in these constructions should not be re- garded as independent lexical units. Nor should the metatextual comments such as naj krócej <mówiąc> ‘to put it briefly / briefly put [lit. <speaking> most briefly]’, najogólniej <rzecz biorąc> ‘most generally <speaking>’ be regarded as such, though for a different reason. In these comments, the superlatives – referring to the act of speaking – retain their standard meanings (cf. krótko / krócej <mówiąc> ‘<speaking> succinctly / more succinctly’, ogólnie / ogólniej <rzecz biorąc> ‘generally / more generally <speaking>’). A number of pragmatic effects associated with the use of superlative forms also deserve individual treatment; they include, for instance, metonymic shortcuts (najlepsi ‘the best’ [pl.], najbogatsi ‘the richest’ [pl.]) or conversational implicatures (wypadł nie najgorzej → wypadł całkiem dobrze ‘he did not do so badly / he did not do so bad’ → ‘he did pretty well’).
Publication date: 2022
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Tom 17 (2022) czasopisma został sfinansowany ze środków Priorytetowego Obszaru Badawczego (Dofinansowanie czasopism w modelu otwartego dostępu OA (edycja 1)) oraz ze środków Wydziału Filologicznego w ramach Programu Strategicznego Inicjatywa Doskonałości w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Dorota Klimek-Jankowska, Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Justyna Wieczorek
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 2, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 55 - 73
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.003.16380This two-part paper bridges insights from psycholinguistics and from theoretical and computational lexicography to develop a fine-grained classification of polysemy organized along a wider spectrum of sense remoteness of ambiguous words in Polish based on the investigation of a large collection of linguistic data. In the second part, we show that polysemy is not a stable phenomenon and relations between senses may differ across language users. For instance, our fifty-fifty class or borderline cases may be represented differently by different language users depending on their perception of the world, world knowledge, associations. We point to some parameters of variation in the class of polysemy by metonymy and polysemy by metaphor which may affect their sense remoteness and consequently also the way they are represented in the mental lexicon.
Jadwiga Waniakowa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 2, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 75 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.004.16381The aim of the article is to describe and analyse the tasks and perspectives within contemporary etymological research in Poland. The article begins with a brief outline of the first Slavic etymological dictionaries. Next, contemporary etymological dictionaries in Poland and the contemporary methodology of etymological research are briefly discussed. Then the author refers to the digital breakthrough in etymological research and describes the present-day model of linguistic education in Poland. A sharp decline in the number of specialists in etymology is argued to be a result of the withdrawal of historical-linguistic and historical-comparative subjects in university curricula and the author suggests various ways of encouraging students to study etymology. The article finishes with a discussion of the challenges facing etymologists, including research into the roots of ancient, dialectal, colloquial, and sociolectal vocabulary, as well as the origins of the vocabulary of endangered languages, followed by suggestions for how these can be overcome in the future.
Dorota Klimek-Jankowska, Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Justyna Wieczorek
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 2, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 55 - 73
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.003.16380This two-part paper bridges insights from psycholinguistics and from theoretical and computational lexicography to develop a fine-grained classification of polysemy organized along a wider spectrum of sense remoteness of ambiguous words in Polish based on the investigation of a large collection of linguistic data. In the second part, we show that polysemy is not a stable phenomenon and relations between senses may differ across language users. For instance, our fifty-fifty class or borderline cases may be represented differently by different language users depending on their perception of the world, world knowledge, associations. We point to some parameters of variation in the class of polysemy by metonymy and polysemy by metaphor which may affect their sense remoteness and consequently also the way they are represented in the mental lexicon.
Jadwiga Waniakowa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 2, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 75 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.004.16381The aim of the article is to describe and analyse the tasks and perspectives within contemporary etymological research in Poland. The article begins with a brief outline of the first Slavic etymological dictionaries. Next, contemporary etymological dictionaries in Poland and the contemporary methodology of etymological research are briefly discussed. Then the author refers to the digital breakthrough in etymological research and describes the present-day model of linguistic education in Poland. A sharp decline in the number of specialists in etymology is argued to be a result of the withdrawal of historical-linguistic and historical-comparative subjects in university curricula and the author suggests various ways of encouraging students to study etymology. The article finishes with a discussion of the challenges facing etymologists, including research into the roots of ancient, dialectal, colloquial, and sociolectal vocabulary, as well as the origins of the vocabulary of endangered languages, followed by suggestions for how these can be overcome in the future.
Publication date: 2022
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Tom 17 (2022) czasopisma został sfinansowany ze środków Priorytetowego Obszaru Badawczego (Dofinansowanie czasopism w modelu otwartego dostępu OA (edycja 1)) oraz ze środków Wydziału Filologicznego w ramach Programu Strategicznego Inicjatywa Doskonałości w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Mojmír Dočekal, Hana Strachoňová
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 1, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 1 - 29
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.001.15758This article describes a distributivity pattern in Czech Sign Language. The pattern is signed via a reduplication at the R-loci and resembles the distributivity behavior of the binominal each that is known in spoken languages. Nevertheless, there are important differences between the sign language reduplication and the spoken language distributivity that is seen in the binominal each; the most significant concerns the range of readings available for the sign language reduplication. We describe the data we gathered, and then formalize them in the Plural Compositional Discourse Representation Theory. The formal framework allows us to analyze the data and explain certain questions which arise from them.
Dorota Klimek-Jankowska, Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Justyna Wieczorek
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 1, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 31 - 53
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.002.15759This two-part paper bridges insights from psycholinguistics and from theoretical and computational lexicography to develop a fine-grained classification of polysemy organized along a wider spectrum of sense remoteness of ambiguous words in Polish based on the investigation of a large collection of linguistic data.1 In the first part, we equip readers with background knowledge on different psycholinguistic views on polysemy and we introduce the basic spectrum of sense remoteness proposed in earlier literature. We also present the methodology of our research and we report the results of our quantitative study based on a large sample of sense pairs randomly extracted from plWordNet This two-part paper bridges insights from psycholinguistics and from theoretical and computational lexicography to develop a fine-grained classification of polysemy organized along a wider spectrum of sense remoteness of ambiguous words in Polish based on the investigation of a large collection of linguistic data.1 In the first part, we equip readers with background knowledge on different psycholinguistic views on polysemy and we introduce the basic spectrum of sense remoteness proposed in earlier literature. We also present the methodology of our research and we report the results of our quantitative study based on a large sample of sense pairs randomly extracted from plWordNet (Słowosieć) thanks to the resources received from the CLARIN-PL Language Technology Center (the Polish section of the European research infrastructure CLARIN ERIC). We show that the most widely represented polysemy types are nested polysemy, polysemy by metaphor and polysemy by metonymy. The second part proposes an extended spectrum of sense remoteness and presents insights on different types of polysemy included in this spectrum with a special attention paid to nested polysemy.
Mojmír Dočekal, Hana Strachoňová
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 1, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 1 - 29
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.001.15758This article describes a distributivity pattern in Czech Sign Language. The pattern is signed via a reduplication at the R-loci and resembles the distributivity behavior of the binominal each that is known in spoken languages. Nevertheless, there are important differences between the sign language reduplication and the spoken language distributivity that is seen in the binominal each; the most significant concerns the range of readings available for the sign language reduplication. We describe the data we gathered, and then formalize them in the Plural Compositional Discourse Representation Theory. The formal framework allows us to analyze the data and explain certain questions which arise from them.
Dorota Klimek-Jankowska, Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Justyna Wieczorek
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 17, Issue 1, Volume 17 (2022), pp. 31 - 53
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.22.002.15759This two-part paper bridges insights from psycholinguistics and from theoretical and computational lexicography to develop a fine-grained classification of polysemy organized along a wider spectrum of sense remoteness of ambiguous words in Polish based on the investigation of a large collection of linguistic data.1 In the first part, we equip readers with background knowledge on different psycholinguistic views on polysemy and we introduce the basic spectrum of sense remoteness proposed in earlier literature. We also present the methodology of our research and we report the results of our quantitative study based on a large sample of sense pairs randomly extracted from plWordNet This two-part paper bridges insights from psycholinguistics and from theoretical and computational lexicography to develop a fine-grained classification of polysemy organized along a wider spectrum of sense remoteness of ambiguous words in Polish based on the investigation of a large collection of linguistic data.1 In the first part, we equip readers with background knowledge on different psycholinguistic views on polysemy and we introduce the basic spectrum of sense remoteness proposed in earlier literature. We also present the methodology of our research and we report the results of our quantitative study based on a large sample of sense pairs randomly extracted from plWordNet (Słowosieć) thanks to the resources received from the CLARIN-PL Language Technology Center (the Polish section of the European research infrastructure CLARIN ERIC). We show that the most widely represented polysemy types are nested polysemy, polysemy by metaphor and polysemy by metonymy. The second part proposes an extended spectrum of sense remoteness and presents insights on different types of polysemy included in this spectrum with a special attention paid to nested polysemy.
Publication date: 11.2021
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Faculty of Philology.
Mateusz Urban
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 4, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 187 - 205
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.009.14677The current study is exploratory in character and aims to investigate the extent to which dialectal features are present in a stylised version of a regional variety of Polish. The focus is on three traditional features of Podhale Goralian that make it markedly different from Standard Polish: the treatment of Middle Polish raised vowels ė ȧ ȯ, prenasal raising and the Podhale archaism. The material analysed comprises a selection of recordings of Józef Tischner’s Historii filozofii po góralsku [A Goral History of Philosophy] performed by himself. The recordings were subjected to acoustic analysis to obtain values of the first two formants of the relevant vowels. An analysis was then conducted with the help of vowel plots created on the basis of the measurements. The conclusions indicate that the traditional features of Podhale Goralian are not always consistently realized in the recordings, which in the majority of cases may be attributed to the influence of Standard Polish.
Bartosz Wiland
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 4, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 207 - 227
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.010.14678The traditional description of Polish abstract nouns such as lekkość‘ lightness’or jasność ‘brightness’ holds that they are formed with an adjectival root and the nominalizing suffix -ość. The paper considers an alternative analysis where -o-ść is a complex marker and such nominals go through an adverbial stage in their formation, rendering them [[[ A ] Adv ] N ] structures, a possibility suggested by the fact that the -o itself is an adverbial marker.
Mateusz Urban
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 4, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 187 - 205
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.009.14677The current study is exploratory in character and aims to investigate the extent to which dialectal features are present in a stylised version of a regional variety of Polish. The focus is on three traditional features of Podhale Goralian that make it markedly different from Standard Polish: the treatment of Middle Polish raised vowels ė ȧ ȯ, prenasal raising and the Podhale archaism. The material analysed comprises a selection of recordings of Józef Tischner’s Historii filozofii po góralsku [A Goral History of Philosophy] performed by himself. The recordings were subjected to acoustic analysis to obtain values of the first two formants of the relevant vowels. An analysis was then conducted with the help of vowel plots created on the basis of the measurements. The conclusions indicate that the traditional features of Podhale Goralian are not always consistently realized in the recordings, which in the majority of cases may be attributed to the influence of Standard Polish.
Bartosz Wiland
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 4, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 207 - 227
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.010.14678The traditional description of Polish abstract nouns such as lekkość‘ lightness’or jasność ‘brightness’ holds that they are formed with an adjectival root and the nominalizing suffix -ość. The paper considers an alternative analysis where -o-ść is a complex marker and such nominals go through an adverbial stage in their formation, rendering them [[[ A ] Adv ] N ] structures, a possibility suggested by the fact that the -o itself is an adverbial marker.
Publication date: 09.2021
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Rafał L. Górski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 3, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 145 - 162
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.007.14261The paper discusses the benefits and shortcomings of modelling a language change with logistic regression, an approach often called the Piotrowski-Altmann law. It is shown with an example of an isolated change, which occurred in Middle Polish, namely barzo > bardzo. The study is based on a historical corpus of Polish consisting of several hundreds of texts with over 12 million running words. Logistic regression based on the entire dataset shows relatively high goodness of fit, still there are some data points, especially close to the end of the process, which are quite far removed from the idealised trajectory. In the article, the author seeks to answer the question: to what extent the quality of the corpus affects the model. An experiment was conducted: a number of texts were randomly removed in order to create a smaller corpus, containing 90%, 75% and 50% of the texts of the entire set. Since such procedure is repeated 200 times, it is possible to compare the distribution of the scores indicating the goodness of fit of the model. It turns out that the smaller the corpus, the more diverse the goodness of fit, and in some rare cases it is even better than its counterpart for a larger corpus. Still the larger the corpus, the scores indicating goodness of fit tend to be higher.
Maria Jodłowiec
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 3, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 163 - 185
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.008.14262The main goal of this paper is to argue that the way explicitly communicated content is approached in leading pragmatic theories is flawed, since it is posited that explicature generation involves pragmatic enrichment of the decoded logical form of the utterance to full propositionality. This kind of enhancement postulated to underlie explicature generation appears to be theoretically inadequate and not to correspond to the psychological reality of utterance interpretation. Drawing on earlier critique of extant pragmatic positions on explicatures, mainly by Borg (2016) and Jary (2016), I add further arguments against modelling explicitly communicated import in the way leading verbal communication frameworks do. It is emphasized that the cognitively plausible theory of communicated meaning is compromised at the cost of theory-internal concerns.
Rafał L. Górski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 3, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 145 - 162
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.007.14261The paper discusses the benefits and shortcomings of modelling a language change with logistic regression, an approach often called the Piotrowski-Altmann law. It is shown with an example of an isolated change, which occurred in Middle Polish, namely barzo > bardzo. The study is based on a historical corpus of Polish consisting of several hundreds of texts with over 12 million running words. Logistic regression based on the entire dataset shows relatively high goodness of fit, still there are some data points, especially close to the end of the process, which are quite far removed from the idealised trajectory. In the article, the author seeks to answer the question: to what extent the quality of the corpus affects the model. An experiment was conducted: a number of texts were randomly removed in order to create a smaller corpus, containing 90%, 75% and 50% of the texts of the entire set. Since such procedure is repeated 200 times, it is possible to compare the distribution of the scores indicating the goodness of fit of the model. It turns out that the smaller the corpus, the more diverse the goodness of fit, and in some rare cases it is even better than its counterpart for a larger corpus. Still the larger the corpus, the scores indicating goodness of fit tend to be higher.
Maria Jodłowiec
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 3, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 163 - 185
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.008.14262The main goal of this paper is to argue that the way explicitly communicated content is approached in leading pragmatic theories is flawed, since it is posited that explicature generation involves pragmatic enrichment of the decoded logical form of the utterance to full propositionality. This kind of enhancement postulated to underlie explicature generation appears to be theoretically inadequate and not to correspond to the psychological reality of utterance interpretation. Drawing on earlier critique of extant pragmatic positions on explicatures, mainly by Borg (2016) and Jary (2016), I add further arguments against modelling explicitly communicated import in the way leading verbal communication frameworks do. It is emphasized that the cognitively plausible theory of communicated meaning is compromised at the cost of theory-internal concerns.
Publication date: 06.2021
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Sylwester Jaworski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 79 - 97
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.004.13958This paper reports the results of an acoustic study concerned with deletion of intervocalic [w] in contemporary Polish. The data for analysis were obtained by asking twenty monolingual native speakers of Polish, ten males and ten females, to tell the story of a film or a book whose protagonist was female. The results revealed that approximately 25% of the sound combinations in question were reduced phonetically to a vowel geminate. In cases of deletion, the formant trajectories of the examined sound sequences either did not show any signs of the glide or the expected drop in formant frequencies throughout the glide section is so slight that it is rather unlikely to produce an auditory impression of a [w] sound. Importantly, in the analysed recordings, w-dropping affects only the glide elements found in various verb forms, while intervocalic [w] appears to be resistant to deletion in the few cases where the glide constitutes an element of the stem, e.g. in the nouns skała ‘rock’and szkoła ‘school’.
Katarzyna Pawłowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 99 - 119
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.005.13959The paper aims at demonstrating the creative perlocutionary potential of interdiscursive production and interpretation of conceptual metaphor used in socio-political persuasion, simultaneously interpreted as mental phenomenon and discursive practice that is historically entrenched and highly ideological.
The Critical Metaphor Analysis model is used to investigate the interdiscursive application of two PLAGUE metaphors (COMMUNISM IS A PLAGUE and LGBT IS A PLAGUE) as an example of deliberate transcending of genre boundaries in the increasingly intertextual and interdiscursive world of both socio-political and religious discourses. The empirical part provides a qualitative study of the historical background, structure and persuasive effects of the rainbow plague metaphor (Pol. tęczowa zaraza), publicly used by the Archbishop of Cracow, Marek Jędraszewski, in reference to the LGBT community in Poland, conducted in relation to the original text on which it draws, namely the more historically entrenched red plague (Pol. czerwona zaraza) metaphor made popular by the Polish poet Józef Szczepański in his poem composed during the Warsaw Uprising 1944.
Marta Ruda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 121 - 144
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.006.13960Pronominal clitics in South Slavic languages have been shown to manifest the strict/sloppy reading ambiguity effect. In this paper I examine Polish object pronouns from this perspective, observing that even though they are not clitics, they can still be compatible with the sloppy interpretation if the right type of context is provided. The data speak against an ellipsis-based approach, aligning with the view that the sloppy reading is not a viable test for ellipsis. I thus pursue an alternative analysis on which the strict and sloppy readings are associated with a structural difference in the composition of the pronoun (PersP vs. NumP respectively), offering along the way additional evidence pointing to the importance of pragmatic distinctions in investigations of the interpretive properties of different types of nominal elements. From a more general point of view, the discussion suggests that the empirical picture related to the sloppy interpretation is highly complex, making an investigation of a broader spectrum of languages and contexts indispensable for disentangling all the relevant factors and developing an optimal theoretical approach.
Sylwester Jaworski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 79 - 97
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.004.13958This paper reports the results of an acoustic study concerned with deletion of intervocalic [w] in contemporary Polish. The data for analysis were obtained by asking twenty monolingual native speakers of Polish, ten males and ten females, to tell the story of a film or a book whose protagonist was female. The results revealed that approximately 25% of the sound combinations in question were reduced phonetically to a vowel geminate. In cases of deletion, the formant trajectories of the examined sound sequences either did not show any signs of the glide or the expected drop in formant frequencies throughout the glide section is so slight that it is rather unlikely to produce an auditory impression of a [w] sound. Importantly, in the analysed recordings, w-dropping affects only the glide elements found in various verb forms, while intervocalic [w] appears to be resistant to deletion in the few cases where the glide constitutes an element of the stem, e.g. in the nouns skała ‘rock’and szkoła ‘school’.
Katarzyna Pawłowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 99 - 119
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.005.13959The paper aims at demonstrating the creative perlocutionary potential of interdiscursive production and interpretation of conceptual metaphor used in socio-political persuasion, simultaneously interpreted as mental phenomenon and discursive practice that is historically entrenched and highly ideological.
The Critical Metaphor Analysis model is used to investigate the interdiscursive application of two PLAGUE metaphors (COMMUNISM IS A PLAGUE and LGBT IS A PLAGUE) as an example of deliberate transcending of genre boundaries in the increasingly intertextual and interdiscursive world of both socio-political and religious discourses. The empirical part provides a qualitative study of the historical background, structure and persuasive effects of the rainbow plague metaphor (Pol. tęczowa zaraza), publicly used by the Archbishop of Cracow, Marek Jędraszewski, in reference to the LGBT community in Poland, conducted in relation to the original text on which it draws, namely the more historically entrenched red plague (Pol. czerwona zaraza) metaphor made popular by the Polish poet Józef Szczepański in his poem composed during the Warsaw Uprising 1944.
Marta Ruda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 121 - 144
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.006.13960Pronominal clitics in South Slavic languages have been shown to manifest the strict/sloppy reading ambiguity effect. In this paper I examine Polish object pronouns from this perspective, observing that even though they are not clitics, they can still be compatible with the sloppy interpretation if the right type of context is provided. The data speak against an ellipsis-based approach, aligning with the view that the sloppy reading is not a viable test for ellipsis. I thus pursue an alternative analysis on which the strict and sloppy readings are associated with a structural difference in the composition of the pronoun (PersP vs. NumP respectively), offering along the way additional evidence pointing to the importance of pragmatic distinctions in investigations of the interpretive properties of different types of nominal elements. From a more general point of view, the discussion suggests that the empirical picture related to the sloppy interpretation is highly complex, making an investigation of a broader spectrum of languages and contexts indispensable for disentangling all the relevant factors and developing an optimal theoretical approach.
Publication date: 03.2021
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Jasmin Hodžić
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 1 - 21
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.001.13955Contemporary Bosnian normative accentuation shares common features with Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian and Serbo-Croatian standard, and therefore in order to determine precisely which elements of the orthoepic norm are Bosnian, it should be considered above all in its own context. However, due to discrepancies, instabilities, and root variation, the task of establishing the principles of an efficient orthoepic norm remains a difficult one, unless such a solution were to tolerate a wide variety of accentual variants. This paper studies accentual doublets of verbs in the Bosnian standard. To this end, it is particularly important to assume a contrastive-comparative perspective, by evaluating varying usage in the standard languages with a Neo-Štokavian base.
Marta Ruda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 23 - 40
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.002.13956In this short contribution I suggest that Polish personal pronouns have two available representations: first and second person pronouns are PersPs, whereas third person pronouns are either PersPs or NumPs. This structural difference is responsible for the availability of not only definite, but also indefinite (including unspecific) readings of personal pronouns in Polish, regardless of their morphological complexity (i.e., both full and reduced forms can have different types of interpretations). This follows on the assumption that NumPs can be interpreted as property anaphora.
Ewa Willim
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 41 - 71
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.003.13957Polish perfective psych verbs are generally analyzed as inceptive predicates denoting the beginning of an emotional state holding of an experiencer. However, a perfective psych verb can also denote an event of gradual scalar change. In this paper, I argue that on the inceptive reading a perfective psych predicate denotes a transition from a state in which
p does not hold to a state in which p holds of an experiencer. In events of gradual change, there is an increase in the degree on the scale of intensity of a given psych state or on the (abstract) extent scale contributed by a verb’s argument. As the internal temporal structure of the events denoted by perfective psych predicates can depend on elements of syntactic context outside the verb, the domain of aspectual composition in Polish is not the verb, pace Rothstein (2020), but VoiceP/vP.
Jasmin Hodžić
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 1 - 21
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.001.13955Contemporary Bosnian normative accentuation shares common features with Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian and Serbo-Croatian standard, and therefore in order to determine precisely which elements of the orthoepic norm are Bosnian, it should be considered above all in its own context. However, due to discrepancies, instabilities, and root variation, the task of establishing the principles of an efficient orthoepic norm remains a difficult one, unless such a solution were to tolerate a wide variety of accentual variants. This paper studies accentual doublets of verbs in the Bosnian standard. To this end, it is particularly important to assume a contrastive-comparative perspective, by evaluating varying usage in the standard languages with a Neo-Štokavian base.
Marta Ruda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 23 - 40
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.002.13956In this short contribution I suggest that Polish personal pronouns have two available representations: first and second person pronouns are PersPs, whereas third person pronouns are either PersPs or NumPs. This structural difference is responsible for the availability of not only definite, but also indefinite (including unspecific) readings of personal pronouns in Polish, regardless of their morphological complexity (i.e., both full and reduced forms can have different types of interpretations). This follows on the assumption that NumPs can be interpreted as property anaphora.
Ewa Willim
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Volume 16 (2021), pp. 41 - 71
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.003.13957Polish perfective psych verbs are generally analyzed as inceptive predicates denoting the beginning of an emotional state holding of an experiencer. However, a perfective psych verb can also denote an event of gradual scalar change. In this paper, I argue that on the inceptive reading a perfective psych predicate denotes a transition from a state in which
p does not hold to a state in which p holds of an experiencer. In events of gradual change, there is an increase in the degree on the scale of intensity of a given psych state or on the (abstract) extent scale contributed by a verb’s argument. As the internal temporal structure of the events denoted by perfective psych predicates can depend on elements of syntactic context outside the verb, the domain of aspectual composition in Polish is not the verb, pace Rothstein (2020), but VoiceP/vP.
Publication date: 2020
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
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Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 4, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 177 - 197
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.008.13161In this text we consider properties of stative passive participles corresponding to roz- Object Experiencer verbs in Polish. They are viewed in the light of the distinction between Davidsonian states (Davidson 1967) and Kimian states (Kim 1976). Polish statives with roz- passive participles seem to show features of both Kimian and Davidsonian states. We will consider the results of various tests proposed in the literature to discover the properties of the relevant Polish structures and offer an explanation for the areas in which roz- structures diverge from the characteristics of Kimian states.
Matic Pavlič
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 4, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 199 - 220
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.009.13162The basic sign order in Slovenian Sign Language (SZJ) is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). This is shown by analysing non-topicalised or focalised transitive and ditransitive sentences that were elicited from first language SZJ informants using Picture Description Task. The data further reveal that the visual-gestural modality, through which SZJ is transmitted, plays a role in linearization since visually influenced classifier predicates trigger the non-basic SOV sign order in this language.
Ewa Willim
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 4, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 221 - 247
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.010.13163Polish perfective psych verbs are generally analyzed as inceptive predicates focusing the beginning of an emotional state holding of an experiencer. However, a perfective psych verb can also denote an event of gradual scalar change. In this paper, I argue that on the inceptive reading a perfective psych predicate denotes a transition from a state in which p does not hold to a state in which p holds of an experiencer. In events of gradual change, there is an increase in the degree on the scale of intensity of a given psych state or on the (abstract) extent scale contributed by a verb’s argument. As the internal temporal structure of the events denoted by perfective psych predicates can depend on elements of syntactic context outside the verb, the domain of aspectual composition in Polish is not the verb, pace Rothstein (2020), but VoiceP/vP.
Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 4, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 177 - 197
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.008.13161In this text we consider properties of stative passive participles corresponding to roz- Object Experiencer verbs in Polish. They are viewed in the light of the distinction between Davidsonian states (Davidson 1967) and Kimian states (Kim 1976). Polish statives with roz- passive participles seem to show features of both Kimian and Davidsonian states. We will consider the results of various tests proposed in the literature to discover the properties of the relevant Polish structures and offer an explanation for the areas in which roz- structures diverge from the characteristics of Kimian states.
Matic Pavlič
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 4, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 199 - 220
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.009.13162The basic sign order in Slovenian Sign Language (SZJ) is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). This is shown by analysing non-topicalised or focalised transitive and ditransitive sentences that were elicited from first language SZJ informants using Picture Description Task. The data further reveal that the visual-gestural modality, through which SZJ is transmitted, plays a role in linearization since visually influenced classifier predicates trigger the non-basic SOV sign order in this language.
Ewa Willim
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 4, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 221 - 247
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.010.13163Polish perfective psych verbs are generally analyzed as inceptive predicates focusing the beginning of an emotional state holding of an experiencer. However, a perfective psych verb can also denote an event of gradual scalar change. In this paper, I argue that on the inceptive reading a perfective psych predicate denotes a transition from a state in which p does not hold to a state in which p holds of an experiencer. In events of gradual change, there is an increase in the degree on the scale of intensity of a given psych state or on the (abstract) extent scale contributed by a verb’s argument. As the internal temporal structure of the events denoted by perfective psych predicates can depend on elements of syntactic context outside the verb, the domain of aspectual composition in Polish is not the verb, pace Rothstein (2020), but VoiceP/vP.
Publication date: 2020
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Dorota Klimek-Jankowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 103 - 127
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.005.12977This study aims to account for the microvariation in aspect choices in factual imperfective contexts in Polish. To this goal an online questionnaire was conducted in which the participants from western and eastern Poland were asked to fill in the missing verbs in presuppositional and existential factual contexts involving an Elaboration coherence relation. The study shows that perfective aspect is preferred in presuppositional factual contexts and imperfective is preferred in existential factual contexts in both regions. Additionally, imperfective is generally more often used in factual contexts in eastern Poland than in western Poland. The study accounts for the observed preferences by resorting to the interaction between the Elaboration relation and (in)definiteness of the temporal variable (introduced at the level of AspP) with respect to the temporal trace of a complex event decomposed in the first phase syntax.
Adam Przepiórkowski, Agnieszka Patejuk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 129 - 150
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.006.12978The aim of this paper is to compare two Polish predicative constructions with infinitival subjects, namely those with predicative adverbs and those with predicative adjectives. The latter construction, of the form “predicative adjective + copula + infinitival subject”, has hardly been noticed in Polish literature on predication, copulas, or infinitival subjects. On the basis of corpus data, mainly from the National Corpus of Polish, we demonstrate that this construction is much rarer than the analogous construction with predicative adverbs. We also show that roughly the same predicates may be expressed as either adverbs or as adjectives when the subject is an infinitival phrase – any observed differences are not systematic but rather stem from lexical gaps and differences in the meanings of particular adverbs and adjectives. In particular, certain modal predicates may only be expressed as adjectives because the corresponding adverbs do not express the same non-epistemic modal meanings. Finally, we provide new corpus evidence for an earlier claim that predicative adjectives are much rarer than adverbs when the subject is infinitival because they require this subject to undergo covert nominalisation; as adverbs combine with infinitival subjects directly, they are usually preferred.
Ewelina Wojtkowiak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 151 - 175
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.007.12979This paper presents an acoustic study devised to investigate the effects of three presumably distinct prosodic position on the phonetic realisation of Polish front vowels in #CV (that is, following a prosodic boundary and a consonantal onset) and #VC sequences (that is, immediately following a prosodic boundary). The results of the experiment suggest that Polish does not seem to distinguish between utterance-initial and phrase-initial positions, with some contrasts present between these two positions and phrase-medial tokens with respect to F1. No effects of position have been found for F2 or vowel duration. There are also no clear differences on the acoustic realisation of vowels depending on whether or not they are adjacent to the prosodic boundary. These results raise questions about the nature of prosodic structure in Polish as compared to other languages which show more robust effects.
Dorota Klimek-Jankowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 103 - 127
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.005.12977This study aims to account for the microvariation in aspect choices in factual imperfective contexts in Polish. To this goal an online questionnaire was conducted in which the participants from western and eastern Poland were asked to fill in the missing verbs in presuppositional and existential factual contexts involving an Elaboration coherence relation. The study shows that perfective aspect is preferred in presuppositional factual contexts and imperfective is preferred in existential factual contexts in both regions. Additionally, imperfective is generally more often used in factual contexts in eastern Poland than in western Poland. The study accounts for the observed preferences by resorting to the interaction between the Elaboration relation and (in)definiteness of the temporal variable (introduced at the level of AspP) with respect to the temporal trace of a complex event decomposed in the first phase syntax.
Adam Przepiórkowski, Agnieszka Patejuk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 129 - 150
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.006.12978The aim of this paper is to compare two Polish predicative constructions with infinitival subjects, namely those with predicative adverbs and those with predicative adjectives. The latter construction, of the form “predicative adjective + copula + infinitival subject”, has hardly been noticed in Polish literature on predication, copulas, or infinitival subjects. On the basis of corpus data, mainly from the National Corpus of Polish, we demonstrate that this construction is much rarer than the analogous construction with predicative adverbs. We also show that roughly the same predicates may be expressed as either adverbs or as adjectives when the subject is an infinitival phrase – any observed differences are not systematic but rather stem from lexical gaps and differences in the meanings of particular adverbs and adjectives. In particular, certain modal predicates may only be expressed as adjectives because the corresponding adverbs do not express the same non-epistemic modal meanings. Finally, we provide new corpus evidence for an earlier claim that predicative adjectives are much rarer than adverbs when the subject is infinitival because they require this subject to undergo covert nominalisation; as adverbs combine with infinitival subjects directly, they are usually preferred.
Ewelina Wojtkowiak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 151 - 175
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.007.12979This paper presents an acoustic study devised to investigate the effects of three presumably distinct prosodic position on the phonetic realisation of Polish front vowels in #CV (that is, following a prosodic boundary and a consonantal onset) and #VC sequences (that is, immediately following a prosodic boundary). The results of the experiment suggest that Polish does not seem to distinguish between utterance-initial and phrase-initial positions, with some contrasts present between these two positions and phrase-medial tokens with respect to F1. No effects of position have been found for F2 or vowel duration. There are also no clear differences on the acoustic realisation of vowels depending on whether or not they are adjacent to the prosodic boundary. These results raise questions about the nature of prosodic structure in Polish as compared to other languages which show more robust effects.
Publication date: 30.06.2020
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Damian Herda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 2, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 59 - 83
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.003.12883While the attachment of diminutive morphology to concrete nouns, gradable adjectives and adverbs, as well as interjections has already received a well-merited share of attention in Polish, diminutivization of vague quantifiers remains empirically understudied. The present paper takes a first step towards filling in this gap by reporting on a corpus-based investigation of the numeralized partitive garść ‘handful’ and its diminutive variant Garstka ‘handful.dim’. The results of a collocational analysis of both forms corroborate the hypothesis that diminutivization further enhances scalar implications inherent in the base ‘small size’ item, as reflected in the diminutive form’s significantly higher frequency of quantifier attestations. Apart from exhibiting a substantially greater proportion of quantifier uses, the latter element displays an overwhelming predilection for animate N2-collocates, which suggests that diminutivization may not only intensify a paucal quantifier’s expressivity but also lead to conspicuous changes in its distributional profile.
Irena Sawicka, Tatiana Zinowjewa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 2, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 85 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.004.12884The article reports the commencement of the process of change of the syllable pattern in Polish, consisting in the syllabification of liquid sonorants in some contexts in less sonorous segmental environment (in final clusters with an obstruent in the first position). A short pilot study was conducted, in which the pronunciation of the word wiatr ‘wind’ was analysed.
Damian Herda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 2, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 59 - 83
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.003.12883While the attachment of diminutive morphology to concrete nouns, gradable adjectives and adverbs, as well as interjections has already received a well-merited share of attention in Polish, diminutivization of vague quantifiers remains empirically understudied. The present paper takes a first step towards filling in this gap by reporting on a corpus-based investigation of the numeralized partitive garść ‘handful’ and its diminutive variant Garstka ‘handful.dim’. The results of a collocational analysis of both forms corroborate the hypothesis that diminutivization further enhances scalar implications inherent in the base ‘small size’ item, as reflected in the diminutive form’s significantly higher frequency of quantifier attestations. Apart from exhibiting a substantially greater proportion of quantifier uses, the latter element displays an overwhelming predilection for animate N2-collocates, which suggests that diminutivization may not only intensify a paucal quantifier’s expressivity but also lead to conspicuous changes in its distributional profile.
Irena Sawicka, Tatiana Zinowjewa
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 2, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 85 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.004.12884The article reports the commencement of the process of change of the syllable pattern in Polish, consisting in the syllabification of liquid sonorants in some contexts in less sonorous segmental environment (in final clusters with an obstruent in the first position). A short pilot study was conducted, in which the pronunciation of the word wiatr ‘wind’ was analysed.
Publication date: 03.2020
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Joanna Błaszczak, Juliane Domke
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 1, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 7 - 36
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.001.11958In this part of the paper we report the results of an ERP study on the processing of two types of compound future in Polish, with infinitival and participial complements. In the study we monitored the EEG correlates of two types of temporal mismatches. Tense mismatches between the future auxiliary and the past tense modifier wczoraj (‘yesterday’) relative to the jutro (‘tomorrow’) baseline resulted in a biphasic (LAN + P600) signature. Aspect mismatches between the future auxiliary and the perfective aspect of the lexical complement (relative to the imperfective baseline) triggered a widely distributed positivity with a posterior maximum (P600). In addition, we wanted to assess whether matching tense specifi cations in different words of a sentence can cause grammatical illusions. To this aim, we tested whether the presence of the adverb wczoraj (‘yesterday’) (specified for [past]) could give rise to an illusion of grammaticality for perfectives as l-participles (allegedly [past] marked), but not as infinitives (not having any [past] specification). Neither behavioral nor electrophysiological results of the present study provided support for this hypothesis. Rather, the findings seem to suggest that TENSE might not belong to the features that are relevant for grammatical illusions, unlike NEGATION, COMPARATIVE, CASE, NUMBER, GENDER, which have been shown to be suspectible to grammatical illusions. We conclude with a discussion of possible underlying reasons for this negative result.
Bożena Cetnarowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 1, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 37 - 58
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.002.11959This paper examines expressive sentences in Polish, such as Idiota, nie kierowca! (lit. idiot, not driver) ‘an idiot of a driver’ and Potwór, nie matka! (lit. monster, not mother) ‘a monster of a mother’. Variants of the “X, not Y” construction, its optional and obligatory elements are identifi ed. Differences are emphasised between the emphatic “X, not Y construction” and non-emphatic negative copular clauses. Moreover, relatedness is discussed between expressive NN juxtapositions, such as kierowca idiota (lit. driver idiot) ‘an idiot of a driver’ or matka potwór (lit. mother monster) ‘a monster of a mother’, and the “X, not Y” construction. Semantic-structural types of expressive NN juxtapositions are considered, following the cross-linguistic classification of multiword units proposed by Scalise and Bisetto (2009). The reversibility of NN juxtapositions is taken into account as well. The question is addressed which types of juxtapositions allow their constituents to appear in the “X, not Y” construction.
Joanna Błaszczak, Juliane Domke
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 1, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 7 - 36
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.001.11958In this part of the paper we report the results of an ERP study on the processing of two types of compound future in Polish, with infinitival and participial complements. In the study we monitored the EEG correlates of two types of temporal mismatches. Tense mismatches between the future auxiliary and the past tense modifier wczoraj (‘yesterday’) relative to the jutro (‘tomorrow’) baseline resulted in a biphasic (LAN + P600) signature. Aspect mismatches between the future auxiliary and the perfective aspect of the lexical complement (relative to the imperfective baseline) triggered a widely distributed positivity with a posterior maximum (P600). In addition, we wanted to assess whether matching tense specifi cations in different words of a sentence can cause grammatical illusions. To this aim, we tested whether the presence of the adverb wczoraj (‘yesterday’) (specified for [past]) could give rise to an illusion of grammaticality for perfectives as l-participles (allegedly [past] marked), but not as infinitives (not having any [past] specification). Neither behavioral nor electrophysiological results of the present study provided support for this hypothesis. Rather, the findings seem to suggest that TENSE might not belong to the features that are relevant for grammatical illusions, unlike NEGATION, COMPARATIVE, CASE, NUMBER, GENDER, which have been shown to be suspectible to grammatical illusions. We conclude with a discussion of possible underlying reasons for this negative result.
Bożena Cetnarowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 15, Issue 1, Volume 15 (2020), pp. 37 - 58
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.20.002.11959This paper examines expressive sentences in Polish, such as Idiota, nie kierowca! (lit. idiot, not driver) ‘an idiot of a driver’ and Potwór, nie matka! (lit. monster, not mother) ‘a monster of a mother’. Variants of the “X, not Y” construction, its optional and obligatory elements are identifi ed. Differences are emphasised between the emphatic “X, not Y construction” and non-emphatic negative copular clauses. Moreover, relatedness is discussed between expressive NN juxtapositions, such as kierowca idiota (lit. driver idiot) ‘an idiot of a driver’ or matka potwór (lit. mother monster) ‘a monster of a mother’, and the “X, not Y” construction. Semantic-structural types of expressive NN juxtapositions are considered, following the cross-linguistic classification of multiword units proposed by Scalise and Bisetto (2009). The reversibility of NN juxtapositions is taken into account as well. The question is addressed which types of juxtapositions allow their constituents to appear in the “X, not Y” construction.
Publication date: 2019
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Edited by : Ewa Willim, Mateusz Urban
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Gurmeet Kaur, Louise Raynaud
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 11 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.004.10984This paper introduces two instances of person effects with 3rd person items – the reflexive clitic se in French and the non-honorific clitic pronoun suu in Punjabi. Examining the properties of these items, we argue against the phi-feature based accounts of person licensing. Instead, we re-conceptualize it as a syntactico-semantic phenomenon, which requires a pronominal to be contextually-anchored via a feature labeled [F]. More globally, this paper attempts to work out the special status of person and articulate why person requires special licensing in grammar.
M. Rita Manzini
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 35 - 51
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.005.10985The core proposal of this contribution is that in [P DP] or [K DP] structures, where K, P are oblique prepositions or cases, either P/K or DP can label the resulting constituent. If PP/KP is the resulting label, the constituent does not provide a goal for Agree. If DP is the resulting label, the constituent behaves like any other DP, providing a goal for Agree. This is what we call the agreement parameter for structural obliques. Inherent obliques, i.e. those selected by a predicate, obligatorily project as PP/KP. In section 1 we use this hypothesis to explain variation in the agreement pattern of pseudopartitives, in section 2 we institue a parallelism with Differential Object Marking (DOM). In section 3, we illustrate a consequence of the same labelling algorithm independent of agreement, arguing that so-called Romance partitive articles include the partitive preposition di ‘of ’, but at the same time project as DPs.
Franc Lanko Marušič, Petra Mišmaš, Rok Žaucer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 53 - 75
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.006.10986With the multiplication of various functional projections, syntactic structures became very complex entities. Approaches like Cartography (e.g. Cinque and Rizzi 2008) went one step further than most other approaches, proposing that each sentence comprises of a number of universal, strictly ordered functional projections. In the noun phrase, the strictly ordered functional projections are said to be responsible not only for the relative order of numerals, demonstratives and nouns (cf. Cinque 2005), but also for the universal order of various types of adjectives (cf. Hetzron 1978; Sproat and Shih 1991; Cinque 1994; Scott 2002, etc.). Cinque and Rizzi (2008) discuss possible origins of the many hierarchies of functional projections and suggest that they might derive from general cognition. If cognition and its restrictions are behind the hierarchy of functional projections, then the order of projections hosting adjectives should be reflected in various non-linguistic cognitive processes. We designed several experiments to test this hypothesis. Our experiments did not confirm our hypothesis; but as we have also identified problems in the design of our experiments, our results do not warrant a clear rejection of the hypothesis either.
Bożena Rozwadowska, Anna Bondaruk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 77 - 97
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.007.10987The paper examines Object Experiencer (henceforth, OE)/Subject Experiencer (henceforth, SE) verb alternations in Polish in order to check whether Polish exhibits the causative/ anticausative alternation in the psych domain (psych causative alternation of Alexiadou and Iordăchioaia 2014, henceforth A&I 2014). The focus is on two types of SE reflexive alternants of OE verbs, i.e., (i) SE forms with an obligatory instrumental case-marked DP derived from stative OE roots, and (ii) SE forms with an optional instrumental DP derived from eventive OE roots. It is argued that in both cases the reflexive SE alternants of either stative or eventive OE verbs have an obligatory or optional instrumental DP which acts as a complement and represents a Target/Subject Matter (henceforth, T/SM, cf. Pesetsky 1995), not a Cause. Therefore, the reflexive OE/SE verb alternation cannot be of the causative/anticausative type. Monovalent reflexive SE verbs, lacking an instrumental DP altogether, are unergative (Reinhart 2001), not unaccusative (contra A&I 2014). The overall conclusion reached in the paper is that the psych causative alternation is absent in Polish.
Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 99 - 123
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.008.10988Polish adnominal participles accept a wide range of event modifiers except when they are additionally modified by focus or phase particles corresponding to still. The paper argues that the semantic contribution of still is incompatible with the change-of-state component of the meaning of participles. While still presupposes that the property denoted by the participle holds over the initial proper subinterval during which the focalized state holds, the measure-of-change function found in resultative participles entails that the relevant subinterval corresponds to the change of state over which the relevant property does not hold yet. The participles modifiable by still are argued to lack the change-of-state component.
Tobias Scheer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 127 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.009.10989The paper argues that sonority on the one hand and other segmental properties such as place of articulation (labiality etc.) and laryngeal properties (voicing etc.) on the other hand are different in kind and must therefore not be represented alike: implementations on a par e.g. as features ([±voc], [±son], [±lab], [±voice] etc.) are misled. Arguments come from a number of broad, cross-linguistically stable facts concerning visibility of items below and above the skeleton in phonological and morphological processing: sonority, but no other segmental property, is taken into account when syllable structure is built (upward visibility); processes located above the skeleton (infixation, phonologically conditioned allomorphy, stress, tone, positional strength) do make reference to sonority, but never to labiality, voicing etc. (downward visibility). Approaches are discussed where sonority is encoded as structure, rather than as primes (features or Elements). In some cases not only sonority but also other segmental properties are structuralized, a solution that does not do justice to the insight that sonority and melody are different in kind. Also, the approaches that structuralize sonority are not concerned with the question how the representations they entertain come into being: representations are not contained in the phonetic signal that is the input to the linguistic system, nor do they fall from heaven – they are built by some computation. It is therefore concluded that what really segregates sonority and melody is their belonging to two distinct computational systems (modules in the Fodorian sense) which operate over distinct vocabularies and produce distinct structure: sonority primes are used to build syllable structure, while other computations take other types of primes as an input. The computation carrying out a palatalization for example works with melodic primes. The segment, then, is a lexical recording that has different compartments containing domain-specific primes [
Barbara Vogt
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 153 - 169
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.010.10990This contribution deals with secondary stress in Modern Standard German (MSG) and its relevance in affixation using the verbal prefix ver-. While the pattern ver+stressed syllable or ver+schwa is allowed, ver+unstressed syllable is avoided in contemporary German (see also Kaltenbacher 1999). Diachronical data reveals that in earlier stages this prosodic restriction was not as strong as in MSG. The consistency with which verbs with the pattern ver+unstressed syllable are discarded in MSG (confirmed by look-ups in corpora and dictionaries) is a strong argument for the hypothesis that the relinquishment is due to a form of blocking related to the stress properties of the direct base: The affix ver- needs a direct base with some initial prominence, that is with primary or secondary stress. The only (apparent) exception to this stress condition is a base containing a schwa syllable which seems to be “invisible” for the stress-seeking prefix. Verbal derivation with the prefix ver-demonstrates that the stress properties of the base have to be taken into account also with regard to secondary stress. The data provided in this paper can count as further evidence for the existence and relevance of secondary stress in Modern Standard German and its interaction with morphology
Mojmír Dočekal, Iveta Šafratová
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 171 - 187
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.011.10991In this study, we report an experiment focusing on pragmatic factors (unlikelihood presupposition) in licensing of Czech superstrong negative polarity items.
Olga Pekelis
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 189 - 205
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.012.10992The paper presents an analysis of three pronouns used to refer to a right-peripheral complement clause in Russian. It is demonstrated that two of them exhibit properties associated with expletives, which is unexpected at first sight, Russian being a (partial) null subject language. However, these pronouns are shown to have a discourse-related function rather than a syntactic one. The third pronoun under discussion, though used in the same grammatical context, turns out to be referential. The paper offers an account for this fact and proposes that the parameters that have proved to be relevant for differentiating expletives and non-expletives in Russian should be regarded as general criteria for expletiveness.
Anna Szeteli, Mónika Dóla, Gábor Alberti
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 207 - 225
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.013.10993The Hungarian inferential-evidential expression szerint ‘according to somebody/something’ is highly multifaceted. It can be furnished with person and number suffixes. It can occur in all major sentence types but with different person features and/or collocations. It can be associated with a quotative meaning and can express some kind of judgment in declarative sentences and questions, too. Imperative sentences can serve as a source of its further uses: it can be interpreted both as advice and as an expression of the speaker’s firm stance typically based on moral concerns. We intend to account for this extremely complex distribution with respect to person, attitude, sentence type and collocation in a highly systematic and explanatorily adequate manner in the “cognitively viable” representationalist dynamic discourse- and mind-representation theory ReALIS. We attempt to carry out this task in a way that sheds new light on how such expressions make language a basic means of achieving epistemic control and intersubjective alignment.
Gurmeet Kaur, Louise Raynaud
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 11 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.004.10984This paper introduces two instances of person effects with 3rd person items – the reflexive clitic se in French and the non-honorific clitic pronoun suu in Punjabi. Examining the properties of these items, we argue against the phi-feature based accounts of person licensing. Instead, we re-conceptualize it as a syntactico-semantic phenomenon, which requires a pronominal to be contextually-anchored via a feature labeled [F]. More globally, this paper attempts to work out the special status of person and articulate why person requires special licensing in grammar.
M. Rita Manzini
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 35 - 51
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.005.10985The core proposal of this contribution is that in [P DP] or [K DP] structures, where K, P are oblique prepositions or cases, either P/K or DP can label the resulting constituent. If PP/KP is the resulting label, the constituent does not provide a goal for Agree. If DP is the resulting label, the constituent behaves like any other DP, providing a goal for Agree. This is what we call the agreement parameter for structural obliques. Inherent obliques, i.e. those selected by a predicate, obligatorily project as PP/KP. In section 1 we use this hypothesis to explain variation in the agreement pattern of pseudopartitives, in section 2 we institue a parallelism with Differential Object Marking (DOM). In section 3, we illustrate a consequence of the same labelling algorithm independent of agreement, arguing that so-called Romance partitive articles include the partitive preposition di ‘of ’, but at the same time project as DPs.
Franc Lanko Marušič, Petra Mišmaš, Rok Žaucer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 53 - 75
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.006.10986With the multiplication of various functional projections, syntactic structures became very complex entities. Approaches like Cartography (e.g. Cinque and Rizzi 2008) went one step further than most other approaches, proposing that each sentence comprises of a number of universal, strictly ordered functional projections. In the noun phrase, the strictly ordered functional projections are said to be responsible not only for the relative order of numerals, demonstratives and nouns (cf. Cinque 2005), but also for the universal order of various types of adjectives (cf. Hetzron 1978; Sproat and Shih 1991; Cinque 1994; Scott 2002, etc.). Cinque and Rizzi (2008) discuss possible origins of the many hierarchies of functional projections and suggest that they might derive from general cognition. If cognition and its restrictions are behind the hierarchy of functional projections, then the order of projections hosting adjectives should be reflected in various non-linguistic cognitive processes. We designed several experiments to test this hypothesis. Our experiments did not confirm our hypothesis; but as we have also identified problems in the design of our experiments, our results do not warrant a clear rejection of the hypothesis either.
Bożena Rozwadowska, Anna Bondaruk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 77 - 97
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.007.10987The paper examines Object Experiencer (henceforth, OE)/Subject Experiencer (henceforth, SE) verb alternations in Polish in order to check whether Polish exhibits the causative/ anticausative alternation in the psych domain (psych causative alternation of Alexiadou and Iordăchioaia 2014, henceforth A&I 2014). The focus is on two types of SE reflexive alternants of OE verbs, i.e., (i) SE forms with an obligatory instrumental case-marked DP derived from stative OE roots, and (ii) SE forms with an optional instrumental DP derived from eventive OE roots. It is argued that in both cases the reflexive SE alternants of either stative or eventive OE verbs have an obligatory or optional instrumental DP which acts as a complement and represents a Target/Subject Matter (henceforth, T/SM, cf. Pesetsky 1995), not a Cause. Therefore, the reflexive OE/SE verb alternation cannot be of the causative/anticausative type. Monovalent reflexive SE verbs, lacking an instrumental DP altogether, are unergative (Reinhart 2001), not unaccusative (contra A&I 2014). The overall conclusion reached in the paper is that the psych causative alternation is absent in Polish.
Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 99 - 123
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.008.10988Polish adnominal participles accept a wide range of event modifiers except when they are additionally modified by focus or phase particles corresponding to still. The paper argues that the semantic contribution of still is incompatible with the change-of-state component of the meaning of participles. While still presupposes that the property denoted by the participle holds over the initial proper subinterval during which the focalized state holds, the measure-of-change function found in resultative participles entails that the relevant subinterval corresponds to the change of state over which the relevant property does not hold yet. The participles modifiable by still are argued to lack the change-of-state component.
Tobias Scheer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 127 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.009.10989The paper argues that sonority on the one hand and other segmental properties such as place of articulation (labiality etc.) and laryngeal properties (voicing etc.) on the other hand are different in kind and must therefore not be represented alike: implementations on a par e.g. as features ([±voc], [±son], [±lab], [±voice] etc.) are misled. Arguments come from a number of broad, cross-linguistically stable facts concerning visibility of items below and above the skeleton in phonological and morphological processing: sonority, but no other segmental property, is taken into account when syllable structure is built (upward visibility); processes located above the skeleton (infixation, phonologically conditioned allomorphy, stress, tone, positional strength) do make reference to sonority, but never to labiality, voicing etc. (downward visibility). Approaches are discussed where sonority is encoded as structure, rather than as primes (features or Elements). In some cases not only sonority but also other segmental properties are structuralized, a solution that does not do justice to the insight that sonority and melody are different in kind. Also, the approaches that structuralize sonority are not concerned with the question how the representations they entertain come into being: representations are not contained in the phonetic signal that is the input to the linguistic system, nor do they fall from heaven – they are built by some computation. It is therefore concluded that what really segregates sonority and melody is their belonging to two distinct computational systems (modules in the Fodorian sense) which operate over distinct vocabularies and produce distinct structure: sonority primes are used to build syllable structure, while other computations take other types of primes as an input. The computation carrying out a palatalization for example works with melodic primes. The segment, then, is a lexical recording that has different compartments containing domain-specific primes [
Barbara Vogt
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 153 - 169
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.010.10990This contribution deals with secondary stress in Modern Standard German (MSG) and its relevance in affixation using the verbal prefix ver-. While the pattern ver+stressed syllable or ver+schwa is allowed, ver+unstressed syllable is avoided in contemporary German (see also Kaltenbacher 1999). Diachronical data reveals that in earlier stages this prosodic restriction was not as strong as in MSG. The consistency with which verbs with the pattern ver+unstressed syllable are discarded in MSG (confirmed by look-ups in corpora and dictionaries) is a strong argument for the hypothesis that the relinquishment is due to a form of blocking related to the stress properties of the direct base: The affix ver- needs a direct base with some initial prominence, that is with primary or secondary stress. The only (apparent) exception to this stress condition is a base containing a schwa syllable which seems to be “invisible” for the stress-seeking prefix. Verbal derivation with the prefix ver-demonstrates that the stress properties of the base have to be taken into account also with regard to secondary stress. The data provided in this paper can count as further evidence for the existence and relevance of secondary stress in Modern Standard German and its interaction with morphology
Mojmír Dočekal, Iveta Šafratová
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 171 - 187
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.011.10991In this study, we report an experiment focusing on pragmatic factors (unlikelihood presupposition) in licensing of Czech superstrong negative polarity items.
Olga Pekelis
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 189 - 205
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.012.10992The paper presents an analysis of three pronouns used to refer to a right-peripheral complement clause in Russian. It is demonstrated that two of them exhibit properties associated with expletives, which is unexpected at first sight, Russian being a (partial) null subject language. However, these pronouns are shown to have a discourse-related function rather than a syntactic one. The third pronoun under discussion, though used in the same grammatical context, turns out to be referential. The paper offers an account for this fact and proposes that the parameters that have proved to be relevant for differentiating expletives and non-expletives in Russian should be regarded as general criteria for expletiveness.
Anna Szeteli, Mónika Dóla, Gábor Alberti
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume 1 (2019), Special Volume, pp. 207 - 225
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.013.10993The Hungarian inferential-evidential expression szerint ‘according to somebody/something’ is highly multifaceted. It can be furnished with person and number suffixes. It can occur in all major sentence types but with different person features and/or collocations. It can be associated with a quotative meaning and can express some kind of judgment in declarative sentences and questions, too. Imperative sentences can serve as a source of its further uses: it can be interpreted both as advice and as an expression of the speaker’s firm stance typically based on moral concerns. We intend to account for this extremely complex distribution with respect to person, attitude, sentence type and collocation in a highly systematic and explanatorily adequate manner in the “cognitively viable” representationalist dynamic discourse- and mind-representation theory ReALIS. We attempt to carry out this task in a way that sheds new light on how such expressions make language a basic means of achieving epistemic control and intersubjective alignment.
Publication date: 12.2019
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Joanna Błaszczak, Juliane Domke
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 4, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 149 - 170
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.018.11336This two-part paper is concerned with the processing of two types of compound future in Polish, with infinitival and participial complements. In the first part we present a design and predictions of an ERP study whose goal was to monitor the EEG correlates of two types of temporal mismatches: i) tense mismatches between the future auxiliary and the past tense modifier wczoraj (‘yesterday’) relative to the jutro (‘tomorrow’) baseline and ii) aspect mismatches between the future auxiliary and the perfective aspect of the lexical complement relative to the imperfective baseline. In addition, we wanted to assess whether matching tense specifications in different words of a sentence can cause grammatical illusions. To this aim, we tested whether the presence of the adverb wczoraj (‘yesterday’) (specified for [past]) could give rise to an illusion of grammaticality for perfectives as l-participles (allegedly [past] marked), but not as infinitives (not having any [past] specification). The study and its results as well as a general discussion of the findings will be presented in Part II of the paper.
Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld, Alicja Witalisz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 4, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 171 - 190
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.019.11337While electronic corpora may not seem adequate sources for anglicisms retrieval, since despite promising attempts they still lack readily available and efficient tools for foreign loans identification, they are indispensable in a systematic verification of the use of preidentified loans. The article offers an assessment of an electronic corpus of Polish in reference to its usefulness for the study of English loans. Though we test a selected corpus and its tools, and use Polish anglicisms as exemplifications, the findings presented in the article pertain to other large corpora and anglicisms in other languages. Corpus tools allow for a multidimensional analysis of loans, yet they fail to meet the requirements of more in-depth analyses of anglicisms, related to their semantics and structure. The limitations of corpora tools will be illustrated with authentic attempted-but-failed corpus searches.
Jerzy Rubach
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 4, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 191 - 217
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.020.11338In classic generative phonology (The Sound Pattern of English, Lexical Phonology) underlying representations and associated rules account for generalizations of two types: alternation-based generalizations and distribution-based generalizations. This article addresses the issue of how distribution-based generalizations are handled in Standard Optimality Theory and in Derivational Optimality Theory. The former uses the principle of the Richness of the Base, the latter relies on underspecification. It is argued that the Richness of the Base and the associated principle of Lexicon Optimization are unable to provide an adequate analysis of three types of generalizations: Nasal Assimilation in English, Vowel Retraction in the process of assimilating borrowings into Polish, and a presonorant voicing process called Cracow Voicing.
Joanna Błaszczak, Juliane Domke
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 4, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 149 - 170
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.018.11336This two-part paper is concerned with the processing of two types of compound future in Polish, with infinitival and participial complements. In the first part we present a design and predictions of an ERP study whose goal was to monitor the EEG correlates of two types of temporal mismatches: i) tense mismatches between the future auxiliary and the past tense modifier wczoraj (‘yesterday’) relative to the jutro (‘tomorrow’) baseline and ii) aspect mismatches between the future auxiliary and the perfective aspect of the lexical complement relative to the imperfective baseline. In addition, we wanted to assess whether matching tense specifications in different words of a sentence can cause grammatical illusions. To this aim, we tested whether the presence of the adverb wczoraj (‘yesterday’) (specified for [past]) could give rise to an illusion of grammaticality for perfectives as l-participles (allegedly [past] marked), but not as infinitives (not having any [past] specification). The study and its results as well as a general discussion of the findings will be presented in Part II of the paper.
Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld, Alicja Witalisz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 4, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 171 - 190
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.019.11337While electronic corpora may not seem adequate sources for anglicisms retrieval, since despite promising attempts they still lack readily available and efficient tools for foreign loans identification, they are indispensable in a systematic verification of the use of preidentified loans. The article offers an assessment of an electronic corpus of Polish in reference to its usefulness for the study of English loans. Though we test a selected corpus and its tools, and use Polish anglicisms as exemplifications, the findings presented in the article pertain to other large corpora and anglicisms in other languages. Corpus tools allow for a multidimensional analysis of loans, yet they fail to meet the requirements of more in-depth analyses of anglicisms, related to their semantics and structure. The limitations of corpora tools will be illustrated with authentic attempted-but-failed corpus searches.
Jerzy Rubach
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 4, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 191 - 217
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.020.11338In classic generative phonology (The Sound Pattern of English, Lexical Phonology) underlying representations and associated rules account for generalizations of two types: alternation-based generalizations and distribution-based generalizations. This article addresses the issue of how distribution-based generalizations are handled in Standard Optimality Theory and in Derivational Optimality Theory. The former uses the principle of the Richness of the Base, the latter relies on underspecification. It is argued that the Richness of the Base and the associated principle of Lexicon Optimization are unable to provide an adequate analysis of three types of generalizations: Nasal Assimilation in English, Vowel Retraction in the process of assimilating borrowings into Polish, and a presonorant voicing process called Cracow Voicing.
Publication date: 10.2019
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Magdalena Derecka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 3, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 101 - 123
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.016.11081This article aims to investigate the linguistic means of transphobic discrimination observed on the Internet. The languages analysed are English and Polish, since they both offer their speakers direct and indirect ways that discrimination manifests itself, yet Polish seems to enable a more noticeable means because of the presence of grammatical gender in the language. The paper discusses twelve samples of Computer-Mediated Communication, using the methodological tools offered by Critical Discourse Analysis and Queer Theory. Based on the analysis of the samples, the article shows that even though transphobia lies mainly in lexical choices of the speaker, it is not always direct, i.e. visible in insults and attacks on a trans person, but is oftentimes indirect, i.e. visible in the incorrect use of personal pronouns in both English and Polish, or in the incorrect use of grammatical gender in Polish. Moreover, while transphobia visible in language is not always intended by the speaker, it can still be considered to be discriminatory.
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 3, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 125 - 147
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.017.11082This paper presents a comparison between to-bearing relative clauses, adverbials and interrogatives on the one hand, vs. their to-less variants on the other, and discusses the functions associated with the presence of to. It is argued that at least three different instances of to should be distinguished. One converts relative clauses into appositive ones, which are necessarily semantically connected to the matrix clause and it makes the semantic connection override even apparent lack of appropriate syntactic connection. It attaches to relativizers, including gdzie ‘where’ and kiedy ‘when’ relative clauses. It is argued that the same segment is present in adverbials, triggering a factitive presupposition, as is the case of appositive relatives generally. The second to links the content of a kind relative, an adverbial or a wh-interrogative to previous contexts, possibly triggering a pragmatic presupposition. The third converts standard wh-interrogatives into either rhetorical or thetic questions. It is argued that while in the third instance we are dealing with a separate word and in the second with a clitic, the first to, hitherto unidentified or possibly falsely identified in relevant literature, appears to have both some characteristics of a clitic and of an affix.
Magdalena Derecka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 3, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 101 - 123
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.016.11081This article aims to investigate the linguistic means of transphobic discrimination observed on the Internet. The languages analysed are English and Polish, since they both offer their speakers direct and indirect ways that discrimination manifests itself, yet Polish seems to enable a more noticeable means because of the presence of grammatical gender in the language. The paper discusses twelve samples of Computer-Mediated Communication, using the methodological tools offered by Critical Discourse Analysis and Queer Theory. Based on the analysis of the samples, the article shows that even though transphobia lies mainly in lexical choices of the speaker, it is not always direct, i.e. visible in insults and attacks on a trans person, but is oftentimes indirect, i.e. visible in the incorrect use of personal pronouns in both English and Polish, or in the incorrect use of grammatical gender in Polish. Moreover, while transphobia visible in language is not always intended by the speaker, it can still be considered to be discriminatory.
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 3, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 125 - 147
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.017.11082This paper presents a comparison between to-bearing relative clauses, adverbials and interrogatives on the one hand, vs. their to-less variants on the other, and discusses the functions associated with the presence of to. It is argued that at least three different instances of to should be distinguished. One converts relative clauses into appositive ones, which are necessarily semantically connected to the matrix clause and it makes the semantic connection override even apparent lack of appropriate syntactic connection. It attaches to relativizers, including gdzie ‘where’ and kiedy ‘when’ relative clauses. It is argued that the same segment is present in adverbials, triggering a factitive presupposition, as is the case of appositive relatives generally. The second to links the content of a kind relative, an adverbial or a wh-interrogative to previous contexts, possibly triggering a pragmatic presupposition. The third converts standard wh-interrogatives into either rhetorical or thetic questions. It is argued that while in the third instance we are dealing with a separate word and in the second with a clitic, the first to, hitherto unidentified or possibly falsely identified in relevant literature, appears to have both some characteristics of a clitic and of an affix.
Publication date: 06.2019
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Steven Franks
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 2, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 61 - 80
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.014.11079In a series of works and using a variety of diagnostics, Bošković argues that languages can be divided into those in which nominals project to DP and those in which they do not. Since Bulgarian (and Macedonian) express definiteness morphologically, they would appear to differ from Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (and Slovenian) in countenancing DP, but recent work argues that evidence for Bg as a DP-language is not so clear cut. In an attempt to set the record straight about the South Slavic data she describes, this paper addresses the criticisms specifically raised by LaTerza (2016), who explores Despić’s (2009, 2011, 2013) observations about binding and phasehood in BCMS. In revisiting her claims it will be shown that the relevant differences between the South Slavic languages do in fact lend support to the “parameterized DP” account of the different binding possibilities.
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 2, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 81 - 99
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.015.11080This paper presents a comparison between to-bearing relative clauses, adverbials and interrogatives on the one hand, vs. their to-less variants on the other, and discusses the functions associated with the presence of to. It is argued that at least three different instances of to should be distinguished. One converts relative clauses into appositive ones, which are necessarily semantically connected to the matrix clause and it makes the semantic connection override even apparent lack of appropriate syntactic connection. It attaches to relativizers, including gdzie ‘where’ and kiedy ‘when’ relative clauses. It is argued that the same segment is present in adverbials, triggering a factitive presupposition, as is the case of appositive relatives generally. The second to links the content of a kind relative, an adverbial or a wh-interrogative to previous contexts, possibly triggering a pragmatic presupposition. The third converts standard wh-interrogatives into either rhetorical or thetic questions. It is argued that while in the third instance we are dealing with a separate word and in the second with a clitic, the first to, hitherto unidentified or possibly falsely identified in relevant literature, appears to have both some characteristics of a clitic and of an affix.
Steven Franks
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 2, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 61 - 80
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.014.11079In a series of works and using a variety of diagnostics, Bošković argues that languages can be divided into those in which nominals project to DP and those in which they do not. Since Bulgarian (and Macedonian) express definiteness morphologically, they would appear to differ from Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (and Slovenian) in countenancing DP, but recent work argues that evidence for Bg as a DP-language is not so clear cut. In an attempt to set the record straight about the South Slavic data she describes, this paper addresses the criticisms specifically raised by LaTerza (2016), who explores Despić’s (2009, 2011, 2013) observations about binding and phasehood in BCMS. In revisiting her claims it will be shown that the relevant differences between the South Slavic languages do in fact lend support to the “parameterized DP” account of the different binding possibilities.
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 2, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 81 - 99
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.015.11080This paper presents a comparison between to-bearing relative clauses, adverbials and interrogatives on the one hand, vs. their to-less variants on the other, and discusses the functions associated with the presence of to. It is argued that at least three different instances of to should be distinguished. One converts relative clauses into appositive ones, which are necessarily semantically connected to the matrix clause and it makes the semantic connection override even apparent lack of appropriate syntactic connection. It attaches to relativizers, including gdzie ‘where’ and kiedy ‘when’ relative clauses. It is argued that the same segment is present in adverbials, triggering a factitive presupposition, as is the case of appositive relatives generally. The second to links the content of a kind relative, an adverbial or a wh-interrogative to previous contexts, possibly triggering a pragmatic presupposition. The third converts standard wh-interrogatives into either rhetorical or thetic questions. It is argued that while in the third instance we are dealing with a separate word and in the second with a clitic, the first to, hitherto unidentified or possibly falsely identified in relevant literature, appears to have both some characteristics of a clitic and of an affix.
Publication date: 20.03.2019
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Digitization of the academic journal "Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL)" to ensure and maintain open access of the Internet – task financed from the from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for science dissemination activities., under contract 688/P-DUN/2018.
Bożena Cetnarowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 1, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 1 - 18
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.001.10281In this paper I will examine N+N juxtapositions in Polish, such as kobieta anioł (woman angel) ‘an angel of a woman’, praca marzenie (job dream) ‘dream job’, dziecko geniusz (child genius) ‘prodigy child’ and kierowca cham (driver lout) ‘a lout of a driver’. I will demonstrate that they exhibit properties of expressive combinations, as discussed for English by Potts (2007) and for German by Meibauer (2013). It will be proposed that Polish expressive N+N juxtapositions under analysis fall into two groups. Juxtapositions belonging to the first group, e.g. kierowca cham ‘a lout of a driver’, behave like coordinate compound-like units. Juxtapositions which form the second group of expressive complexes, such as kobieta anioł ‘an angel of a woman’ and praca marzenie ‘dream job’, can be treated as attributive-appositive (ATAP) combinations (in Scalise and Bisetto’s 2009 classification). The occurrence of a cline between coordinate and attributive multi-word units is postulated.
Damian Herda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 1, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 19 - 42
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.002.10282Based on diachronic data extracted from the available lexicographic sources and historical corpora of Polish, this paper aims at determining whether the initial stage of the adverbialization of indefinite quantifiers of nominal origin typically involves extent modification, degree modification being a posterior development. The results of an investigation into the evolution of the functionalstatusof the commonly used quantifiers trochę ‘a bit’, odrobinę ‘a bit’, as well as masę ‘a lot’ indicate that prior to establishing themselves as degree modifiers, the items function as extent modifiers, i.e. duratives or frequentatives. In their earliest adverbial attestations recorded in the analysed material, the quantifiers under scrutiny modify the duration or frequency of the action denoted by the associated verbal element, or, if the pertinent verb encodes a punctual event, of the resultant state, and only later do they start to combine with scalar predicates, i.e. degree verbs as well as gradable adjectives and adverbs, including adverbials in the form of prepositional phrases. Exceptional in this respect is masę ‘a lot’, as it (still) appears incapable of serving as a degree intensifier
Marijana Marelj
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 1, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 43 - 59
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.003.10283Under any derivational approach, syntactic computations proceed from more complex to less complex domains. Though such multiple workspaces get to be resolved into a single – matrix – workspace, the issue of timing– i.e. the point when multiple workspaces must resolve to a single derivational space has not been addressed in the literature. I argue that not only the direction, but also the timing of syntactic computations is guided by a more general requirement to reduce the computational complexity and I propose Multiple Workspaces Earliness Hypothesis to address this issue. On the empirical side, the technical apparatus and the analysis I propose allow me to capture the seemingly contradictory binding facts involving locative PPs as well as to treat adjuncts as relation, rather than absolute notions.
Bożena Cetnarowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 1, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 1 - 18
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.001.10281In this paper I will examine N+N juxtapositions in Polish, such as kobieta anioł (woman angel) ‘an angel of a woman’, praca marzenie (job dream) ‘dream job’, dziecko geniusz (child genius) ‘prodigy child’ and kierowca cham (driver lout) ‘a lout of a driver’. I will demonstrate that they exhibit properties of expressive combinations, as discussed for English by Potts (2007) and for German by Meibauer (2013). It will be proposed that Polish expressive N+N juxtapositions under analysis fall into two groups. Juxtapositions belonging to the first group, e.g. kierowca cham ‘a lout of a driver’, behave like coordinate compound-like units. Juxtapositions which form the second group of expressive complexes, such as kobieta anioł ‘an angel of a woman’ and praca marzenie ‘dream job’, can be treated as attributive-appositive (ATAP) combinations (in Scalise and Bisetto’s 2009 classification). The occurrence of a cline between coordinate and attributive multi-word units is postulated.
Damian Herda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 1, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 19 - 42
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.002.10282Based on diachronic data extracted from the available lexicographic sources and historical corpora of Polish, this paper aims at determining whether the initial stage of the adverbialization of indefinite quantifiers of nominal origin typically involves extent modification, degree modification being a posterior development. The results of an investigation into the evolution of the functionalstatusof the commonly used quantifiers trochę ‘a bit’, odrobinę ‘a bit’, as well as masę ‘a lot’ indicate that prior to establishing themselves as degree modifiers, the items function as extent modifiers, i.e. duratives or frequentatives. In their earliest adverbial attestations recorded in the analysed material, the quantifiers under scrutiny modify the duration or frequency of the action denoted by the associated verbal element, or, if the pertinent verb encodes a punctual event, of the resultant state, and only later do they start to combine with scalar predicates, i.e. degree verbs as well as gradable adjectives and adverbs, including adverbials in the form of prepositional phrases. Exceptional in this respect is masę ‘a lot’, as it (still) appears incapable of serving as a degree intensifier
Marijana Marelj
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue 1, Volume 14 (2019), pp. 43 - 59
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.003.10283Under any derivational approach, syntactic computations proceed from more complex to less complex domains. Though such multiple workspaces get to be resolved into a single – matrix – workspace, the issue of timing– i.e. the point when multiple workspaces must resolve to a single derivational space has not been addressed in the literature. I argue that not only the direction, but also the timing of syntactic computations is guided by a more general requirement to reduce the computational complexity and I propose Multiple Workspaces Earliness Hypothesis to address this issue. On the empirical side, the technical apparatus and the analysis I propose allow me to capture the seemingly contradictory binding facts involving locative PPs as well as to treat adjuncts as relation, rather than absolute notions.
Publication date: 31.10.2018
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Krzysztof Migdalski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 4, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 187 - 208
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.009.9258This paper accounts for the distribution of two second position effects, the V2 (verb second) order observed in continental Germanic languages and second position cliticization, attested in some Slavic languages. The first part of this paper (Migdalski 2018), published in the previous issue of this journal, showed that it is necessary to distinguish two types of second position effects: one of them affects finite verbs and pronominal and auxiliary clitics, whereas the other one is restricted to the contexts of marked illocution and is observed among a small class of so-called operator clitics. Furthermore, the first part of Migdalski (2018) addressed Bošković’s (2016) generalization concerning the distribution of clitics, which states that second position pronominal and auxiliary clitics are found only in languages without articles. It showed that although this generalization is empirically correct, it does not account for the distribution of auxiliary clitics and is not supported by diachronic considerations. The second part of this paper proposes an alternative generalization, which restricts verb-adjacent cliticization to tensed environments.
Magdalena Szczyrbak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 4, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 209 - 236
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.010.9259This article reports on a study into epistemic strategies used in the trial on the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 air crash which took the lives of many high-ranking Polish officials including the President of Poland. It follows the KUB model proposed by Bongelli and Zuczkowski (2008), in which three epistemic stances are distinguished: Knowing, Unknowing and Believing. Taking into account the political context of the trial, the study focuses on the ways in which the witness, Poland’s former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, communicates his knowledge (certainty), unknowledge (neither certainty nor uncertainty) and belief (uncertainty). As the data reveal, when referring to the circumstances of the crash itself, the witness most willingly communicates unknowledge and belief while his declarations of certitude (knowledge) concern mostly procedural matters which are not directly related to the crash. As regards the explicit marking of (un)knowledge with the verb wiedzieć (‘know’), both wiem (‘I know’) and nie wiem (‘I don’t know’) are used rather sparingly. By contrast, phrases including references to the witness’s memory (e.g. to, co mam w pamięci [‘what I can remember’]) – marking either unknowledge or limited/uncertain knowledge (belief) – resurface as the witness’s preferred strategy. The data also demonstrate frequent co-occurrences of ‘knowing,’ ‘unknowing’ and ‘believing’ markers, reducing the overall degree of certainty communicated by the speaker. In sum, the study reveals how Poland’s former Prime Minister skillfully avoids unequivocal or categorical answersand conveys a low degree of certainty in his testimony.
Krzysztof Migdalski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 4, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 187 - 208
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.009.9258This paper accounts for the distribution of two second position effects, the V2 (verb second) order observed in continental Germanic languages and second position cliticization, attested in some Slavic languages. The first part of this paper (Migdalski 2018), published in the previous issue of this journal, showed that it is necessary to distinguish two types of second position effects: one of them affects finite verbs and pronominal and auxiliary clitics, whereas the other one is restricted to the contexts of marked illocution and is observed among a small class of so-called operator clitics. Furthermore, the first part of Migdalski (2018) addressed Bošković’s (2016) generalization concerning the distribution of clitics, which states that second position pronominal and auxiliary clitics are found only in languages without articles. It showed that although this generalization is empirically correct, it does not account for the distribution of auxiliary clitics and is not supported by diachronic considerations. The second part of this paper proposes an alternative generalization, which restricts verb-adjacent cliticization to tensed environments.
Magdalena Szczyrbak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 4, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 209 - 236
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.010.9259This article reports on a study into epistemic strategies used in the trial on the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 air crash which took the lives of many high-ranking Polish officials including the President of Poland. It follows the KUB model proposed by Bongelli and Zuczkowski (2008), in which three epistemic stances are distinguished: Knowing, Unknowing and Believing. Taking into account the political context of the trial, the study focuses on the ways in which the witness, Poland’s former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, communicates his knowledge (certainty), unknowledge (neither certainty nor uncertainty) and belief (uncertainty). As the data reveal, when referring to the circumstances of the crash itself, the witness most willingly communicates unknowledge and belief while his declarations of certitude (knowledge) concern mostly procedural matters which are not directly related to the crash. As regards the explicit marking of (un)knowledge with the verb wiedzieć (‘know’), both wiem (‘I know’) and nie wiem (‘I don’t know’) are used rather sparingly. By contrast, phrases including references to the witness’s memory (e.g. to, co mam w pamięci [‘what I can remember’]) – marking either unknowledge or limited/uncertain knowledge (belief) – resurface as the witness’s preferred strategy. The data also demonstrate frequent co-occurrences of ‘knowing,’ ‘unknowing’ and ‘believing’ markers, reducing the overall degree of certainty communicated by the speaker. In sum, the study reveals how Poland’s former Prime Minister skillfully avoids unequivocal or categorical answersand conveys a low degree of certainty in his testimony.
Publication date: 31.10.2018
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Hanna Kędzierska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 3, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 145 - 166
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.007.9256The main aim of the reported study is to establish the stage of grammaticalisation of the indefinite article in Polish by contributing the results of a corpus study. We selected and analysed 20.000 sentences containing the word jeden. The obtained results demonstrate that the uses of jeden as a presentative marker and a specific marker have been both attested, which would suggest that Polish numeral has already reached the specific marker stage. Based on the statistical analysis carried out for the obtained results, a statistically significant increase in the use of jeden as an indefinite marker has been revealed. This may be interpreted as evidence for the grammaticalisation phenomena, enhanced by language contacts with article-possessing languages (English and German).
Krzysztof Migdalski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 3, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 167 - 185
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.008.9257This paper accounts for the distribution of two second position effects, the V2 (verb second) order observed in continental Germanic languages and second position cliticization, attested in some Slavic languages. It shows that it is necessary to distinguish two types of second position effects: one of them affects finite verbs and pronominal and auxiliary clitics, whereas the other one is restricted to the contexts of marked illocution and is observed among a small class of so-called operator clitics. Furthermore, this paper addresses Bošković’s (2016) generalization concerning the distribution of clitics, which states that second position pronominal and auxiliary clitics are found only in languages without articles. This paper shows that although this generalization is empirically correct, it does not account for the distribution of auxiliary clitics and is not supported by diachronic considerations. It proposes an alternative generalization, which restricts verb-adjacent cliticization to tensed environments.
Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Hanna Kędzierska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 3, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 145 - 166
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.007.9256The main aim of the reported study is to establish the stage of grammaticalisation of the indefinite article in Polish by contributing the results of a corpus study. We selected and analysed 20.000 sentences containing the word jeden. The obtained results demonstrate that the uses of jeden as a presentative marker and a specific marker have been both attested, which would suggest that Polish numeral has already reached the specific marker stage. Based on the statistical analysis carried out for the obtained results, a statistically significant increase in the use of jeden as an indefinite marker has been revealed. This may be interpreted as evidence for the grammaticalisation phenomena, enhanced by language contacts with article-possessing languages (English and German).
Krzysztof Migdalski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 3, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 167 - 185
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.008.9257This paper accounts for the distribution of two second position effects, the V2 (verb second) order observed in continental Germanic languages and second position cliticization, attested in some Slavic languages. It shows that it is necessary to distinguish two types of second position effects: one of them affects finite verbs and pronominal and auxiliary clitics, whereas the other one is restricted to the contexts of marked illocution and is observed among a small class of so-called operator clitics. Furthermore, this paper addresses Bošković’s (2016) generalization concerning the distribution of clitics, which states that second position pronominal and auxiliary clitics are found only in languages without articles. This paper shows that although this generalization is empirically correct, it does not account for the distribution of auxiliary clitics and is not supported by diachronic considerations. It proposes an alternative generalization, which restricts verb-adjacent cliticization to tensed environments.
Publication date: 29.06.2018
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Maria Bloch-Trojnar
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 2, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 69 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.004.8743The paper presents the constraints on the formation of dispositional adjectives in Polish marked with the suffix -liw(y) and situates the process in a larger-scale picture of the entire class of deverbal adjectivizations. Derivatives with dispositional semanticsare argued to be a subclass of Subject adjectivizations/potential adjectives since both are one-participant eventualities, the sole participant being mapped onto the subject position of the main verb. The difference between dispositional and potential semantics is not categorical but a matter of degree. The domain of this process includes intransitive verbs of communication and emission, reflexively marked intransitive verbs referring to emotional states (deponents), (reflexively marked) decausatives, verbs denoting psychological/emotional/mental experiences which syntactically may be transitive but can be viewed as one-participant internal eventualities, non-prototypical transitive verbs which take genitive- and dative-marked objects and verbal roots which alternate between transitive and middle semantics. The dispositional semantics of the adjective depends on the personal/animate or inanimate nature of the participant involved in the eventuality. Thus, it rests with the base (or partly with the nominal argument) and is not supplied by the suffix.
Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Hanna Kędzierska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 2, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 93 - 121
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.005.8744The aim of this paper is to assess the change of Polish numeral jeden ‘one’ into an indefinite marker in the view of the grammaticalization theory. Although Slavic languages are principally believed not to possess articles, certain usages of one (e.g., in Bulgarian and Macedonian) demonstrate the same features as the ones ascribed to the usages of indefinite articles in non-Slavic languages, such as English, German or Italian. Language contact of article-possessing languages is often claimed to enhance the grammaticalisation process of an indefinite article (Heine and Kuteva 2006). This type of grammaticalisation is said to follow five distinctive stages: (i) numeral, (ii) presentative marker, (iii) specific marker, (iv) non-specific marker and (v) generalized article (e.g., Givón 1981, Heine 1997). We assessed that in the case of Polish, the grammaticalisation stage is that of a specific marker, with some occasional uses leaning towards the non-specific marker stage. The conclusion was supported by the results of 53 native speakers’ judgments as well as the diagnostic tests based on relevant literature.
Ewelina Wojtkowiak, Geoffrey Schwartz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 2, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 123 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.006.8745Sandhi-voicing in dialectal Polish affects word-final obstruents in pre-sonorant and pre-vocalic environments. According to the standard descriptions, the process occurs irrespectively of the ‘underlying’ laryngeal specification of the consonant. The process has been problematic for phonological theory, with earlier accounts either requiring ad-hoc mechanisms to allow the ‘spreading’ of [voice], or providing an inadequate explanation of why the process is limited to word boundaries. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that sandhi-voicing dialects is a function of weaker word boundaries in the given dialects. Weaker boundaries go hand in hand with weaker initial syllables. We compare the speech of Standard Polish speakers (N=10) with speakers of the Poznań-Kraków dialect (N=10), who recorded sentences containing obstruent-sonorant sequences spanning word boundaries. We found acoustic evidence of weaker initial syllables for two prosodic parameters in the productions of dialect speakers. The relative strength of word-boundaries is described in the Onset Prominence model (OP; Schwartz 2010 et seq.), which also explains the role of manner of articulation in triggering the process.
Maria Bloch-Trojnar
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 2, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 69 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.004.8743The paper presents the constraints on the formation of dispositional adjectives in Polish marked with the suffix -liw(y) and situates the process in a larger-scale picture of the entire class of deverbal adjectivizations. Derivatives with dispositional semanticsare argued to be a subclass of Subject adjectivizations/potential adjectives since both are one-participant eventualities, the sole participant being mapped onto the subject position of the main verb. The difference between dispositional and potential semantics is not categorical but a matter of degree. The domain of this process includes intransitive verbs of communication and emission, reflexively marked intransitive verbs referring to emotional states (deponents), (reflexively marked) decausatives, verbs denoting psychological/emotional/mental experiences which syntactically may be transitive but can be viewed as one-participant internal eventualities, non-prototypical transitive verbs which take genitive- and dative-marked objects and verbal roots which alternate between transitive and middle semantics. The dispositional semantics of the adjective depends on the personal/animate or inanimate nature of the participant involved in the eventuality. Thus, it rests with the base (or partly with the nominal argument) and is not supplied by the suffix.
Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Hanna Kędzierska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 2, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 93 - 121
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.005.8744The aim of this paper is to assess the change of Polish numeral jeden ‘one’ into an indefinite marker in the view of the grammaticalization theory. Although Slavic languages are principally believed not to possess articles, certain usages of one (e.g., in Bulgarian and Macedonian) demonstrate the same features as the ones ascribed to the usages of indefinite articles in non-Slavic languages, such as English, German or Italian. Language contact of article-possessing languages is often claimed to enhance the grammaticalisation process of an indefinite article (Heine and Kuteva 2006). This type of grammaticalisation is said to follow five distinctive stages: (i) numeral, (ii) presentative marker, (iii) specific marker, (iv) non-specific marker and (v) generalized article (e.g., Givón 1981, Heine 1997). We assessed that in the case of Polish, the grammaticalisation stage is that of a specific marker, with some occasional uses leaning towards the non-specific marker stage. The conclusion was supported by the results of 53 native speakers’ judgments as well as the diagnostic tests based on relevant literature.
Ewelina Wojtkowiak, Geoffrey Schwartz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 2, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 123 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.006.8745Sandhi-voicing in dialectal Polish affects word-final obstruents in pre-sonorant and pre-vocalic environments. According to the standard descriptions, the process occurs irrespectively of the ‘underlying’ laryngeal specification of the consonant. The process has been problematic for phonological theory, with earlier accounts either requiring ad-hoc mechanisms to allow the ‘spreading’ of [voice], or providing an inadequate explanation of why the process is limited to word boundaries. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that sandhi-voicing dialects is a function of weaker word boundaries in the given dialects. Weaker boundaries go hand in hand with weaker initial syllables. We compare the speech of Standard Polish speakers (N=10) with speakers of the Poznań-Kraków dialect (N=10), who recorded sentences containing obstruent-sonorant sequences spanning word boundaries. We found acoustic evidence of weaker initial syllables for two prosodic parameters in the productions of dialect speakers. The relative strength of word-boundaries is described in the Onset Prominence model (OP; Schwartz 2010 et seq.), which also explains the role of manner of articulation in triggering the process.
Publication date: 06.04.2018
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Nawoja Mikołajczak-Matyja
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 1, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 1 - 23
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.001.8463This paper aims to use the results of linguistic analyses, including corpus studies, and psycholinguistic experiments to present the relation of semantic opposition in terms of the prototype theory of concepts. A synthesis of linguists’ views on the factors defining the prototype of the category of semantic opposition is presented, and an attempt is made to determine the relationship between these factors. The need to distinguish prototypical and canonical examples of the relationship is also indicated. The results of the most important corpus studies concerning the relation of opposition are analysed in order to find ways of delineating the peripheral zones and the boundaries of the relation based on real contexts of use. The particular role of opposition pairs extracted from cohyponymic multi-element sets in forming the boundary areas of the category of opposition is highlighted. It is determined, on the basis of selected studies, which psycholinguistic techniques can provide evidence of the psychological reality of the prototypical nature of the category of semantic opposition, and which may serve as a basis for distinguishing the prototype of the category from the canon. In conclusion, some semantic, corporal, and psycholinguistic criteria are proposed for locating particular examples of the relation within the structure of the category of semantic opposition – that is, conditions for classifying examples as, accordingly: a) belonging to the strict centre of the category, b) lying near the centre, c) located in the peripheral part, or d) forming the fuzzy boundary of the category.
Agnieszka Piskorska, Maria Jodłowiec
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 1, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 25 - 44
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.002.8464The paper offers an analysis of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the production and comprehension of verbal jokes in terms of what relevance theorists refer to as weakly communicated import. While pragmatic analyses of humour emphasize the role of the inferential stages that the audience is intended (or even manipulated, Yus 2016) to go through in processing a joke, the weak communication model presented here focuses on the punch-line effect, exploring the nature of the “cognitive climax” that is created. On this account, a vast array of weakly communicated assumptions, resulting in a cognitive overload effect, rather than incongruity resolution on its own, is identified as the laughter-inducing mechanism underlying verbal humour. The central idea is that universal and culture-specific humour-generating elements in jokes have one quality in common, viz. their potential to cause a cognitive overload effect, which may, and often does, result in amusement. On this approach, what is typically recognized as national or ethnic humour is posited to recruit the same humour-invoking pragmatic mechanisms as in other kinds of jokes, the principal difference lying in the choice of the target being mocked, which must be well-known to the audience for the cognitive overload effect to be brought forth.
Alicja Witalisz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 1, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 45 - 67
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.003.8465While English-Polish language contact results chiefly in English lexical loans, the influence of English on Polish in recent decades has not been limited to lexis and semantics. English penetrates deep into the structural patterns of Polish, and English N+N compound loanwords and loanblends become models for Polish structural neologisms, whose coining may be seen as a violation of native word-formation rules or, at best, as the boosting of a native potential yet non-productive word-formation pattern. It is argued in the article that the increasing productivity of the word-formation rule for deriving right-headed interfixless N+N compounds in Polish is a by-product of intensive lexical borrowing from English. The article explains the mechanism that is responsible for the contact-induced increased productivity (or perhaps the adoption) of a word-formation rule in the recipient language and illustrates it with corpus-sourced material. Most of the newly coined contact-induced N+N formations in Polish are hybrid creations formed in series by analogy to English structural models. The identified formal features of the analysed N+N compounds place them outside of the traditionally recognized types of Polish compounds.
Nawoja Mikołajczak-Matyja
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 1, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 1 - 23
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.001.8463This paper aims to use the results of linguistic analyses, including corpus studies, and psycholinguistic experiments to present the relation of semantic opposition in terms of the prototype theory of concepts. A synthesis of linguists’ views on the factors defining the prototype of the category of semantic opposition is presented, and an attempt is made to determine the relationship between these factors. The need to distinguish prototypical and canonical examples of the relationship is also indicated. The results of the most important corpus studies concerning the relation of opposition are analysed in order to find ways of delineating the peripheral zones and the boundaries of the relation based on real contexts of use. The particular role of opposition pairs extracted from cohyponymic multi-element sets in forming the boundary areas of the category of opposition is highlighted. It is determined, on the basis of selected studies, which psycholinguistic techniques can provide evidence of the psychological reality of the prototypical nature of the category of semantic opposition, and which may serve as a basis for distinguishing the prototype of the category from the canon. In conclusion, some semantic, corporal, and psycholinguistic criteria are proposed for locating particular examples of the relation within the structure of the category of semantic opposition – that is, conditions for classifying examples as, accordingly: a) belonging to the strict centre of the category, b) lying near the centre, c) located in the peripheral part, or d) forming the fuzzy boundary of the category.
Agnieszka Piskorska, Maria Jodłowiec
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 1, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 25 - 44
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.002.8464The paper offers an analysis of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the production and comprehension of verbal jokes in terms of what relevance theorists refer to as weakly communicated import. While pragmatic analyses of humour emphasize the role of the inferential stages that the audience is intended (or even manipulated, Yus 2016) to go through in processing a joke, the weak communication model presented here focuses on the punch-line effect, exploring the nature of the “cognitive climax” that is created. On this account, a vast array of weakly communicated assumptions, resulting in a cognitive overload effect, rather than incongruity resolution on its own, is identified as the laughter-inducing mechanism underlying verbal humour. The central idea is that universal and culture-specific humour-generating elements in jokes have one quality in common, viz. their potential to cause a cognitive overload effect, which may, and often does, result in amusement. On this approach, what is typically recognized as national or ethnic humour is posited to recruit the same humour-invoking pragmatic mechanisms as in other kinds of jokes, the principal difference lying in the choice of the target being mocked, which must be well-known to the audience for the cognitive overload effect to be brought forth.
Alicja Witalisz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 13, Issue 1, Volume 13 (2018), pp. 45 - 67
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.18.003.8465While English-Polish language contact results chiefly in English lexical loans, the influence of English on Polish in recent decades has not been limited to lexis and semantics. English penetrates deep into the structural patterns of Polish, and English N+N compound loanwords and loanblends become models for Polish structural neologisms, whose coining may be seen as a violation of native word-formation rules or, at best, as the boosting of a native potential yet non-productive word-formation pattern. It is argued in the article that the increasing productivity of the word-formation rule for deriving right-headed interfixless N+N compounds in Polish is a by-product of intensive lexical borrowing from English. The article explains the mechanism that is responsible for the contact-induced increased productivity (or perhaps the adoption) of a word-formation rule in the recipient language and illustrates it with corpus-sourced material. Most of the newly coined contact-induced N+N formations in Polish are hybrid creations formed in series by analogy to English structural models. The identified formal features of the analysed N+N compounds place them outside of the traditionally recognized types of Polish compounds.
Publication date: 28.02.2018
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Damian Herda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 4, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 199 - 219
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.010.8242Drawing on corpus data, this paper investigates the hypothesis that the delexicalization of the English nouns pile and stack as well as their Polish counterparts sterta ‘pile’ and stos ‘stack’, evidenced by collocational expansion, is to a considerable extent fuelled by the conceptual contiguity between their prototypical concrete N2-collocates and certain abstract notions which may be instantiated by means thereof. It is postulated that this metonymic relation leads to the items gradually loosening their original selectional requirements, thereby contributing to the schematization of their source semantics. The results of an empirical analysis show that the collocational broadening of all of the nouns under scrutiny indeed largely stems from metonymization, yet the tendency is more pronounced in the case of the Polish items, particularly stos ‘stack’. This finding can be accounted for in view of the fact that in contrast to their English equivalents, they have not yet established themselves as schematic quantifiers, as corroborated by their current dictionary definitions, and therefore still heavily rely on the aforementioned conceptual mechanism in their delexicalization.
Kamil Stachowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 4, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 221 - 240
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.011.8243Apart from offering a contribution to perceptual dialectology of Poland, the paper discusses an experiment in which two groups were set a map drawing task. One group was given a map on which major cities were marked while the other a map with the main regions. The two maps combined from their answers have proven to be nothing alike, suggesting that this one detail in the design of the study can dramatically influence its results, and as such it needs to be paid particular attention and further investigated.
Damian Herda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 4, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 199 - 219
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.010.8242Drawing on corpus data, this paper investigates the hypothesis that the delexicalization of the English nouns pile and stack as well as their Polish counterparts sterta ‘pile’ and stos ‘stack’, evidenced by collocational expansion, is to a considerable extent fuelled by the conceptual contiguity between their prototypical concrete N2-collocates and certain abstract notions which may be instantiated by means thereof. It is postulated that this metonymic relation leads to the items gradually loosening their original selectional requirements, thereby contributing to the schematization of their source semantics. The results of an empirical analysis show that the collocational broadening of all of the nouns under scrutiny indeed largely stems from metonymization, yet the tendency is more pronounced in the case of the Polish items, particularly stos ‘stack’. This finding can be accounted for in view of the fact that in contrast to their English equivalents, they have not yet established themselves as schematic quantifiers, as corroborated by their current dictionary definitions, and therefore still heavily rely on the aforementioned conceptual mechanism in their delexicalization.
Kamil Stachowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 4, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 221 - 240
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.011.8243Apart from offering a contribution to perceptual dialectology of Poland, the paper discusses an experiment in which two groups were set a map drawing task. One group was given a map on which major cities were marked while the other a map with the main regions. The two maps combined from their answers have proven to be nothing alike, suggesting that this one detail in the design of the study can dramatically influence its results, and as such it needs to be paid particular attention and further investigated.
Publication date: 21.09.2017
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Anna Bondaruk, Bożena Rozwadowska, Wojciech Witkowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 3, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 123 - 144
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.006.7199The current paper is an attempt to provide a syntactic account of the immunity of Polish stative Object Experiencer (OE) verbs to verbal passivisation. In search for the syntactic structure of stative OE verbs, and the hierarchy of their arguments, it is demonstrated here that the evidence based on Condition A, pronominal variable binding, and Condition C effects is inconclusive, and hence does not allow us to determine which of the two arguments – the Experiencer or the Target/Subject Matter (T/SM) – is projected higher in the structure. It is then suggested that the answer to the question why stative OE verbs do not form verbal passives crucially relies on their having a complex ergative structure as in Bennis (2004), where both arguments are internal, while the external argument is missing altogether. At the same time, it is assumed after Landau (2010) that the Experiencer is projected higher than the T/SM.
Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Dorota Klimek-Jankowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 3, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 145 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.008.7200The main goal of the reported study is to test the cross-linguistic validity of the existing psycholinguistic models of morphological processing by contributing the results of a masked priming lexical decision experiment on the processing of Polish semantically transparent and opaque compounds. All these models are concerned with the question of whether morphologically complex words are decomposed during online processing or whether they are stored as chunks in the mental lexicon. We contribute new data from Polish showing that reaction times to target words semantically related to the heads of transparent compounds were significantly faster than to target words semantically related to the heads of opaque compounds in Polish. This may be interpreted as evidence in favour of the view that semantically transparent compound words are decomposed and we access the lemmas of their constituent elements whereas semantically opaque compounds are not decomposed and there is no access to their constituent lemmas.
James E. Lavine
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 3, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 173 - 198
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.009.7201This paper analyzes the historical divergence of predicates marked with old passive neuter -no/-to in Polish and Ukrainian. It is argued that the locus of change leading to the rise of the transitivity property involved a rearrangement of morphologically-eroded voice morphology. Despite the surface similarity of the Polish and Ukrainian constructions, their divergent distribution in the modern languages indicates that grammaticalization of the old passive morpheme proceeded along different pathways, implicating the internal structure of vP, and creating new accusative case-assigning possibilities.
Anna Bondaruk, Bożena Rozwadowska, Wojciech Witkowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 3, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 123 - 144
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.006.7199The current paper is an attempt to provide a syntactic account of the immunity of Polish stative Object Experiencer (OE) verbs to verbal passivisation. In search for the syntactic structure of stative OE verbs, and the hierarchy of their arguments, it is demonstrated here that the evidence based on Condition A, pronominal variable binding, and Condition C effects is inconclusive, and hence does not allow us to determine which of the two arguments – the Experiencer or the Target/Subject Matter (T/SM) – is projected higher in the structure. It is then suggested that the answer to the question why stative OE verbs do not form verbal passives crucially relies on their having a complex ergative structure as in Bennis (2004), where both arguments are internal, while the external argument is missing altogether. At the same time, it is assumed after Landau (2010) that the Experiencer is projected higher than the T/SM.
Krzysztof Hwaszcz, Dorota Klimek-Jankowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 3, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 145 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.008.7200The main goal of the reported study is to test the cross-linguistic validity of the existing psycholinguistic models of morphological processing by contributing the results of a masked priming lexical decision experiment on the processing of Polish semantically transparent and opaque compounds. All these models are concerned with the question of whether morphologically complex words are decomposed during online processing or whether they are stored as chunks in the mental lexicon. We contribute new data from Polish showing that reaction times to target words semantically related to the heads of transparent compounds were significantly faster than to target words semantically related to the heads of opaque compounds in Polish. This may be interpreted as evidence in favour of the view that semantically transparent compound words are decomposed and we access the lemmas of their constituent elements whereas semantically opaque compounds are not decomposed and there is no access to their constituent lemmas.
James E. Lavine
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 3, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 173 - 198
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.009.7201This paper analyzes the historical divergence of predicates marked with old passive neuter -no/-to in Polish and Ukrainian. It is argued that the locus of change leading to the rise of the transitivity property involved a rearrangement of morphologically-eroded voice morphology. Despite the surface similarity of the Polish and Ukrainian constructions, their divergent distribution in the modern languages indicates that grammaticalization of the old passive morpheme proceeded along different pathways, implicating the internal structure of vP, and creating new accusative case-assigning possibilities.
Publication date: 06.09.2017
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Anna Bondaruk, Bożena Rozwadowska, Wojciech Witkowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 57 - 73
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.003.7021The paper aims to verify Landau’s (2010) claim that the inability of stative Object Experiencer (OE) verbs to form verbal passives is directly linked to their unaccusativity. In the first part of the article it is shown that given the polysemous nature of OE verbs in Polish, the collected corpus data confirm that unambiguously stative OE verbs do not form verbal passives in Polish. However, it is argued that this fact cannot be taken as evidence for the unaccusativity of these predicates. A number of arguments are provided against the claim that Polish stative OE verbs are unaccusative. Firstly, in contrast to their English equivalents, stative OE verbs in Polish cannot co-occur with an expletive subject. Secondly, the accusative case of the Experiencer is clearly structural in Polish, as it is affected by the Genitive of Negation. The second part of the article (to be published in a forthcoming issue of this journal) focuses on the mutual hierarchy of the two arguments of OE verbs: the Experiencer and the Target/Subject Matter (T/SM). The evidence based on Condition A, pronominal variable binding, and Condition C effects is inconclusive, and hence does not allow us to determine which of the two arguments is projected higher in the structure. For this reason, it is assumed after Landau (2010) that the Experiencer is projected higher than the T/SM. The overall conclusion reached in the paper is that stative OE verbs in Polish are not syntactically unaccusative, and therefore their immunity to the verbal passive must be sought elsewhere. The answer to the question why stative OE verbs do not form verbal passives crucially relies on their having a complex ergative structure as in Bennis (2004), where both arguments are internal, while the external argument is missing altogether.
Björn Wiemer, Anna Socka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 75 - 95
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.004.7022The present study aims at differentiating between semantically-coded and pragmatically-conditioned meaning components of Polish and German sentence adverbs whose meaning is conventionally associated with hearsay (»Eng. allegedly, reportedly, supposedly). In the current part of the study, we argue why our objective should be reached on the basis of Generalized Conversational Implicatures (GCIs), and we show which particular communicative principles distinguished in Neo-Gricean frameworks can sensibly be considered as triggers of GCIs that evoke ‘epistemic overtones’ in the use of hearsay adverbs. We differentiate between GCIs which work for all relevant adverbs and implicatures which only apply to more individual properties of hearsay adverbs on more specific, “deeper” levels of their meaning structure. In accordance with this more descriptive task, we discuss general issues concerning presumable hierarchies of factors that influence (trigger or cancel) epistemic implicatures in the usage of lexical markers of information source. We argue that many discourse properties on the semantics-pragmatics interface which are characteristic of grammatical evidentials also hold true for lexical markers of information source.
Paulina Zydorowicz, Paula Orzechowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 97 - 121
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.005.7023The goal of this paper is to investigate Polish phonotactics from the point of view of different measures of phonotactic preferability. The inventory of word-initial and -final clusters is extracted from a dictionary and analysed in accordance with two principles of phonotactic complexity, namely, the Sonority Sequencing Generalisation and Net Auditory Distance. Sonority entails measurements of distances between consonants expressed by the manner of articulation, whereas NAD uses the manner of articulation, place of articulation as well as the obstruent/sonorant distinction. These differences are likely to contribute to a different assessment of clusters, which is the main focus of this paper. Moreover, since a set of Polish clusters arise due to morphology, a distinction is drawn between phonotactic and morphonotactic clusters, i.e. phonologically and morphologically motivated. We are interested in verifying to what extent the principles under investigation reflect the relation between cluster preferability and morphological complexity. The analysis shows that NAD, as a more restrictive measure of phonotactics, rejects a larger portion of word-initial and -final clusters on well-formedness grounds. Secondly, we demonstrate that both principles generally show a strong relation between cluster preferability and morphological complexity.
Anna Bondaruk, Bożena Rozwadowska, Wojciech Witkowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 57 - 73
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.003.7021The paper aims to verify Landau’s (2010) claim that the inability of stative Object Experiencer (OE) verbs to form verbal passives is directly linked to their unaccusativity. In the first part of the article it is shown that given the polysemous nature of OE verbs in Polish, the collected corpus data confirm that unambiguously stative OE verbs do not form verbal passives in Polish. However, it is argued that this fact cannot be taken as evidence for the unaccusativity of these predicates. A number of arguments are provided against the claim that Polish stative OE verbs are unaccusative. Firstly, in contrast to their English equivalents, stative OE verbs in Polish cannot co-occur with an expletive subject. Secondly, the accusative case of the Experiencer is clearly structural in Polish, as it is affected by the Genitive of Negation. The second part of the article (to be published in a forthcoming issue of this journal) focuses on the mutual hierarchy of the two arguments of OE verbs: the Experiencer and the Target/Subject Matter (T/SM). The evidence based on Condition A, pronominal variable binding, and Condition C effects is inconclusive, and hence does not allow us to determine which of the two arguments is projected higher in the structure. For this reason, it is assumed after Landau (2010) that the Experiencer is projected higher than the T/SM. The overall conclusion reached in the paper is that stative OE verbs in Polish are not syntactically unaccusative, and therefore their immunity to the verbal passive must be sought elsewhere. The answer to the question why stative OE verbs do not form verbal passives crucially relies on their having a complex ergative structure as in Bennis (2004), where both arguments are internal, while the external argument is missing altogether.
Björn Wiemer, Anna Socka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 75 - 95
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.004.7022The present study aims at differentiating between semantically-coded and pragmatically-conditioned meaning components of Polish and German sentence adverbs whose meaning is conventionally associated with hearsay (»Eng. allegedly, reportedly, supposedly). In the current part of the study, we argue why our objective should be reached on the basis of Generalized Conversational Implicatures (GCIs), and we show which particular communicative principles distinguished in Neo-Gricean frameworks can sensibly be considered as triggers of GCIs that evoke ‘epistemic overtones’ in the use of hearsay adverbs. We differentiate between GCIs which work for all relevant adverbs and implicatures which only apply to more individual properties of hearsay adverbs on more specific, “deeper” levels of their meaning structure. In accordance with this more descriptive task, we discuss general issues concerning presumable hierarchies of factors that influence (trigger or cancel) epistemic implicatures in the usage of lexical markers of information source. We argue that many discourse properties on the semantics-pragmatics interface which are characteristic of grammatical evidentials also hold true for lexical markers of information source.
Paulina Zydorowicz, Paula Orzechowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 97 - 121
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.005.7023The goal of this paper is to investigate Polish phonotactics from the point of view of different measures of phonotactic preferability. The inventory of word-initial and -final clusters is extracted from a dictionary and analysed in accordance with two principles of phonotactic complexity, namely, the Sonority Sequencing Generalisation and Net Auditory Distance. Sonority entails measurements of distances between consonants expressed by the manner of articulation, whereas NAD uses the manner of articulation, place of articulation as well as the obstruent/sonorant distinction. These differences are likely to contribute to a different assessment of clusters, which is the main focus of this paper. Moreover, since a set of Polish clusters arise due to morphology, a distinction is drawn between phonotactic and morphonotactic clusters, i.e. phonologically and morphologically motivated. We are interested in verifying to what extent the principles under investigation reflect the relation between cluster preferability and morphological complexity. The analysis shows that NAD, as a more restrictive measure of phonotactics, rejects a larger portion of word-initial and -final clusters on well-formedness grounds. Secondly, we demonstrate that both principles generally show a strong relation between cluster preferability and morphological complexity.
Publication date: 29.05.2017
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Wojciech Guz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 1, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 1 - 26
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.001.6728The paper examines syntactic features of non-canonical relativization in spoken Polish that loosen the structural integration of two types of relative clauses – one introduced by the complementizer co, the other by the wh-pronoun który. The resulting unintegration holds between the head NP and the co/który clause and contrasts with the integrated structure of canonical relatives. I discuss the range of unintegration features observed for both types in corpus data and indicate the distinct quantitative extents to which the two types are unintegrated. Although the nature of spontaneous conversation is such that it imposes some loosening of structural cohesion in both types, co clauses (especially non-subject relative clauses) are far more frequently unintegrated than który clauses. Also, co clauses depart functionally from the canonical relative structure in that the complementizer co serves functions other than that of a straightforward relativizer, namely it has conjunction-like uses (temporal, spatial, and general conjunction), indicating an expansion of the categorial status of co. The observed unintegration of Polish conversational relatives is in line with previous analyses of the syntax of unplanned speech (e.g. Miller and Weinert 1998)
Björn Wiemer, Anna Socka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 1, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 27 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.002.6729The present study aims at differentiating between semantically-coded and pragmatically-conditioned meaning components of Polish and German sentence adverbs whose meaning is conventionally associated with hearsay (≈ Eng. allegedly, reportedly, supposedly). In the first part, we present a systematic corpus study of hearsay adverbs in Polish and German providing the empirical basis for our analysis and conclusions. In the second part, we provide reasons why our objective should be reached on the basis of Generalized Conversational Implicatures (GCIs), and we show which particular communicative principles distinguished in Neo-Gricean frameworks can sensibly be considered as triggers of GCIs that evoke ‘epistemic overtones’ in the use of hearsay adverbs. We differentiate between GCIs which work for all relevant adverbs and implicatures which only apply to more individual properties of hearsay adverbs on more specific levels of their meaning structure. In accordance with this more descriptive task, we discuss general issues concerning presumable hierarchies of factors that influence (trigger or cancel) epistemic implicatures in the usage of lexical markers of information source. We argue that many discourse properties on the semantics-pragmatics interface which are characteristic of grammatical evidentials also hold true for lexical markers of information source
Wojciech Guz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 1, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 1 - 26
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.001.6728The paper examines syntactic features of non-canonical relativization in spoken Polish that loosen the structural integration of two types of relative clauses – one introduced by the complementizer co, the other by the wh-pronoun który. The resulting unintegration holds between the head NP and the co/który clause and contrasts with the integrated structure of canonical relatives. I discuss the range of unintegration features observed for both types in corpus data and indicate the distinct quantitative extents to which the two types are unintegrated. Although the nature of spontaneous conversation is such that it imposes some loosening of structural cohesion in both types, co clauses (especially non-subject relative clauses) are far more frequently unintegrated than który clauses. Also, co clauses depart functionally from the canonical relative structure in that the complementizer co serves functions other than that of a straightforward relativizer, namely it has conjunction-like uses (temporal, spatial, and general conjunction), indicating an expansion of the categorial status of co. The observed unintegration of Polish conversational relatives is in line with previous analyses of the syntax of unplanned speech (e.g. Miller and Weinert 1998)
Björn Wiemer, Anna Socka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 12, Issue 1, Volume 12 (2017), pp. 27 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.17.002.6729The present study aims at differentiating between semantically-coded and pragmatically-conditioned meaning components of Polish and German sentence adverbs whose meaning is conventionally associated with hearsay (≈ Eng. allegedly, reportedly, supposedly). In the first part, we present a systematic corpus study of hearsay adverbs in Polish and German providing the empirical basis for our analysis and conclusions. In the second part, we provide reasons why our objective should be reached on the basis of Generalized Conversational Implicatures (GCIs), and we show which particular communicative principles distinguished in Neo-Gricean frameworks can sensibly be considered as triggers of GCIs that evoke ‘epistemic overtones’ in the use of hearsay adverbs. We differentiate between GCIs which work for all relevant adverbs and implicatures which only apply to more individual properties of hearsay adverbs on more specific levels of their meaning structure. In accordance with this more descriptive task, we discuss general issues concerning presumable hierarchies of factors that influence (trigger or cancel) epistemic implicatures in the usage of lexical markers of information source. We argue that many discourse properties on the semantics-pragmatics interface which are characteristic of grammatical evidentials also hold true for lexical markers of information source
Publication date: 20.01.2017
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 167 - 187
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.009.6168The objective of the paper is to argue against a common denotation for Walenty Wróbel's sixteenth-century translation of the Psalter into Polish and its printed version prepared by Andrzej Glaber. It is customary to treat Glaber's interventions into Wróbel's rendition as purely editorial and, in effect, consider the printed version of the Żołtarz to be the work of Wróbel. On the basis of Glaber's treatment of one syntactic phenomenon (the placement of the possessive pronoun in an NP), the paper shows that Glaber's involvement into Wróbel's text far exceeds what Glaber is usually credited with. Therefore, the paper claims that the two works –the manuscript and its printed edition –should be classified and discussed as distinct productions.
Elżbieta Chrzanowska-Kluczewska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 189 - 208
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.008.6167The article refers briefly to the development, over the last half-century, of the sub-discipline of literary linguistics called literary semantics in anglophone tradition (mostly British), pointing out its roots in other scholarly paradigms (among others Russian formalism and the Moscow-Tartu school of semiotics) and its close connection with cognitive poetics. The author mentions also a development of studies on artistic language in contemporary Polish linguistic theorizing. Conceived by Trevor Eaton as a broad linguistic approach to literary texts, interdisciplinary in nature, literary semantics – in a natural way – enters into dialogue with translation studies in the area of research called comparative stylistics. The author discusses the notion of semantic dominant, introduced into linguistics by Roman Jakobson in 1976 and into the Polish critical theory of translation by Stanisław Barańczak (2004) to designate the most salient element of the poem’s complex structure, acting as a clue to its interpretation and translation. The examples provided by Barańczak, voiced as metalinguistic comments on the construal of his own translations of selected English poems as well as critical evaluation of other translators’ output, lead us to the conclusion that the concept of semantic dominant should be re-named stylistic dominant, the term that better reflects a peculiar characteristic of a multi-level and often multimodal nature of meaning in poetic texts (plurisignation, after Wheelwright 1954/1968). What’s more, we should talk about sets of stylistic dominants (rather than their single occurrences) that act as keys to complex semantics of poetry. An important dominant remains figuration (troping in particular) but the orchestration of the poem (the totality of its phonetics and versification) and often its graphic layout are of no less import in meaning construction.
Magdalena Szczyrbak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 209 - 234
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.010.6169Akin to stereotype, gossip is a transmission mechanism which fulfils persuasive functions, but which does not seek to answer questions about the genuineness of the transmitted information or its anchoring in reality other than the reality created during the communication process (Wagner 2006: 39). Such is also the case with online celebrity gossip, in the case of which writers recruit various strategies to vary the epistemic strength of their assessments and to claim or disclaim responsibility for the accuracy of the provided information. Given the foregoing, basing on English and Polish linguistic material, this article investigates elements of epistemological positioning (Bednarek 2006) which underlie the construction of online celebrity news in two languages lacking grammaticalised systems of evidentiality. To this end, the study outlines the main strategies related to the communication of knowledge and identifies the resources used for the construal of (un)certainty in this type of discourse. The sources of evidence analysed in the study include: ‘Perception/Inference,’ ‘General knowledge,’ ‘Proof,’ ‘Obviousness,’ ‘Unspecified,’ ‘Hearsay’ and ‘Mindsay,’ based on which diverse English and Polish EP markers are discussed. As the findings expose, rather than offer solid evidence, the authors of both sets of articles rely chiefly on perception, inference and hearsay, showing little epistemic commitment and decreasing the informative value of their reports.
Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 167 - 187
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.009.6168The objective of the paper is to argue against a common denotation for Walenty Wróbel's sixteenth-century translation of the Psalter into Polish and its printed version prepared by Andrzej Glaber. It is customary to treat Glaber's interventions into Wróbel's rendition as purely editorial and, in effect, consider the printed version of the Żołtarz to be the work of Wróbel. On the basis of Glaber's treatment of one syntactic phenomenon (the placement of the possessive pronoun in an NP), the paper shows that Glaber's involvement into Wróbel's text far exceeds what Glaber is usually credited with. Therefore, the paper claims that the two works –the manuscript and its printed edition –should be classified and discussed as distinct productions.
Elżbieta Chrzanowska-Kluczewska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 189 - 208
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.008.6167The article refers briefly to the development, over the last half-century, of the sub-discipline of literary linguistics called literary semantics in anglophone tradition (mostly British), pointing out its roots in other scholarly paradigms (among others Russian formalism and the Moscow-Tartu school of semiotics) and its close connection with cognitive poetics. The author mentions also a development of studies on artistic language in contemporary Polish linguistic theorizing. Conceived by Trevor Eaton as a broad linguistic approach to literary texts, interdisciplinary in nature, literary semantics – in a natural way – enters into dialogue with translation studies in the area of research called comparative stylistics. The author discusses the notion of semantic dominant, introduced into linguistics by Roman Jakobson in 1976 and into the Polish critical theory of translation by Stanisław Barańczak (2004) to designate the most salient element of the poem’s complex structure, acting as a clue to its interpretation and translation. The examples provided by Barańczak, voiced as metalinguistic comments on the construal of his own translations of selected English poems as well as critical evaluation of other translators’ output, lead us to the conclusion that the concept of semantic dominant should be re-named stylistic dominant, the term that better reflects a peculiar characteristic of a multi-level and often multimodal nature of meaning in poetic texts (plurisignation, after Wheelwright 1954/1968). What’s more, we should talk about sets of stylistic dominants (rather than their single occurrences) that act as keys to complex semantics of poetry. An important dominant remains figuration (troping in particular) but the orchestration of the poem (the totality of its phonetics and versification) and often its graphic layout are of no less import in meaning construction.
Magdalena Szczyrbak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 209 - 234
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.010.6169Akin to stereotype, gossip is a transmission mechanism which fulfils persuasive functions, but which does not seek to answer questions about the genuineness of the transmitted information or its anchoring in reality other than the reality created during the communication process (Wagner 2006: 39). Such is also the case with online celebrity gossip, in the case of which writers recruit various strategies to vary the epistemic strength of their assessments and to claim or disclaim responsibility for the accuracy of the provided information. Given the foregoing, basing on English and Polish linguistic material, this article investigates elements of epistemological positioning (Bednarek 2006) which underlie the construction of online celebrity news in two languages lacking grammaticalised systems of evidentiality. To this end, the study outlines the main strategies related to the communication of knowledge and identifies the resources used for the construal of (un)certainty in this type of discourse. The sources of evidence analysed in the study include: ‘Perception/Inference,’ ‘General knowledge,’ ‘Proof,’ ‘Obviousness,’ ‘Unspecified,’ ‘Hearsay’ and ‘Mindsay,’ based on which diverse English and Polish EP markers are discussed. As the findings expose, rather than offer solid evidence, the authors of both sets of articles rely chiefly on perception, inference and hearsay, showing little epistemic commitment and decreasing the informative value of their reports.
Publication date: 30.11.2016
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Barbara Citko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 3, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 85 - 110
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.005.5879While there has been a lot of research on the differences between restrictive and appositive relative clauses as well as on different types of restrictive relatives, distinctions within the class of appositive relatives have not been studied to the same extent till relatively recently (see, for example, Cinque (2008), Citko (2008b), Del Gobbo (2003, 2007, 2010)). My main goal in this paper is to add to this growing body of research on appositive relatives, by first reviewing the distinctions that have been pointed out to exist within this class, focusing on the distinction between what Cinque (2008) refers to as integrated and non-integrated appositives, and, second, by applying Cinque’s diagnostics to Polish, to show that Polish appositives are non-integrated. I then examine the structures Cinque assigns to the two types, pointing out some problems with assimilating non-integrated appositive relatives either to coordinate structures or to parentheticals in general. Drawing on recent views of labeling in syntax (Hornstein 2009 and Citko 2008c), I conclude by offering an alternative structure for non-integrated appositives relatives, on which the appositive CP starts out as a unlabeled DP adjunct, which forces it to move and adjoin to the root clause, thus deriving the main insight behind the so-called Main Clause Hypothesis for appositive relatives.
Paweł Rydzewski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 3, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 111 - 131
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.006.5880This article argues against the single-phoneme approach discussed in Padgett (2001, 2003, 2010), which does not recognize the phonemic status of the vowel [ɨ]. The relevant data are drawn from the processes of Polish palatalization in the class of velars, while the presented analyses are couched in the theory of Lexical Phonology. It is argued that the lack of [ɨ] enforces the use of diacritics and leads to the proliferation of rules that are necessary to accommodate diacritically-specified contexts of palatalization. It is also shown that the singlephoneme approach leads to the morphologization of processes that are typically phonological. On the other hand, assuming the existence of underlying [ɨ] allows for a transparent and uniform account of palatalization effects.
Bartosz Wiland
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 3, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 133 - 165
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.007.5881Remnant movement, once believed not to be a part of grammar at all, has since become a tool of analyzing phenomena like verb fronting, word order alternations, or covert movement. What has been largely missing from the discussion of remnant movement are the effects a remnant constituent has on the nodes in the clause it has crossed. This paper argues that remnant movement has particular consequences for clausal syntax since it gives rise to crossing and nesting movement dependencies. This point is illustrated on the example of certain robust asymmetries in the Polish OVS syntax. The analysis of Polish OVS sentences has a broader benefit, namely that the proper identification of crossing and nesting paths provides convergent evidence for the existence of remnant movement in the first place.
Barbara Citko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 3, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 85 - 110
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.005.5879While there has been a lot of research on the differences between restrictive and appositive relative clauses as well as on different types of restrictive relatives, distinctions within the class of appositive relatives have not been studied to the same extent till relatively recently (see, for example, Cinque (2008), Citko (2008b), Del Gobbo (2003, 2007, 2010)). My main goal in this paper is to add to this growing body of research on appositive relatives, by first reviewing the distinctions that have been pointed out to exist within this class, focusing on the distinction between what Cinque (2008) refers to as integrated and non-integrated appositives, and, second, by applying Cinque’s diagnostics to Polish, to show that Polish appositives are non-integrated. I then examine the structures Cinque assigns to the two types, pointing out some problems with assimilating non-integrated appositive relatives either to coordinate structures or to parentheticals in general. Drawing on recent views of labeling in syntax (Hornstein 2009 and Citko 2008c), I conclude by offering an alternative structure for non-integrated appositives relatives, on which the appositive CP starts out as a unlabeled DP adjunct, which forces it to move and adjoin to the root clause, thus deriving the main insight behind the so-called Main Clause Hypothesis for appositive relatives.
Paweł Rydzewski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 3, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 111 - 131
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.006.5880This article argues against the single-phoneme approach discussed in Padgett (2001, 2003, 2010), which does not recognize the phonemic status of the vowel [ɨ]. The relevant data are drawn from the processes of Polish palatalization in the class of velars, while the presented analyses are couched in the theory of Lexical Phonology. It is argued that the lack of [ɨ] enforces the use of diacritics and leads to the proliferation of rules that are necessary to accommodate diacritically-specified contexts of palatalization. It is also shown that the singlephoneme approach leads to the morphologization of processes that are typically phonological. On the other hand, assuming the existence of underlying [ɨ] allows for a transparent and uniform account of palatalization effects.
Bartosz Wiland
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 3, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 133 - 165
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.007.5881Remnant movement, once believed not to be a part of grammar at all, has since become a tool of analyzing phenomena like verb fronting, word order alternations, or covert movement. What has been largely missing from the discussion of remnant movement are the effects a remnant constituent has on the nodes in the clause it has crossed. This paper argues that remnant movement has particular consequences for clausal syntax since it gives rise to crossing and nesting movement dependencies. This point is illustrated on the example of certain robust asymmetries in the Polish OVS syntax. The analysis of Polish OVS sentences has a broader benefit, namely that the proper identification of crossing and nesting paths provides convergent evidence for the existence of remnant movement in the first place.
Publication date: 19.04.2016
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Renata Bronikowska, Włodzimierz Gruszczyński, Maciej Ogrodniczuk, Marcin Woliński
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 2, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 47 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.003.4818The History of the 17th and 18th c. Polish Language Laboratory, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, is in the process of creating two large databases: The Electronic Dictionary of the 17th−18th c. Polish and The Electronic Corpus of the 17th and 18th c. Polish Texts (up to 1772), the latter in cooperation with the Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences. It is expected that combining these two sets of data will help to achieve the objectives established for both database projects. The present article shows the benefits that the Corpus creators can get from the data gathered in the dictionary, with special emphasis put on the use of grammatical information included in the dictionary entries to design tools for automatic text annotation in the Corpus.
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 2, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 57 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.004.4819This work is sequel to my paper on the controversy concerning the appropriate syntactic and semantic account of the distinction between classificatory and qualifying adjectives in Polish (Linde-Usiekniewicz 2013). It develops the lines of inquiry suggested therein, mainly the claim that differences between the pre-nominal and post-nominal attributive syntax can only be adequately explained when the lexical meaning of the head noun and the attribute are taken into account – specifically, in the case of relational adjectives, the actual semantic relation between the head noun and the adjective. The interplay between the lexical meanings and the meanings imposed by syntactic order is presented within Encoding Grammar, a multi-layered framework devised in Linde-Usiekniewicz (2012). In particular, postposing of lexically qualitative adjectives and preposing of relational adjectives is presented as a type of coercion, in which the meaning imposed by syntax overrides the lexical meaning of the adjective. The possibilities for and restrictions on the order of multiple adjectives occurring within a noun phrase is explained by proposing a distinction between adjectives that saturate argument positions of the head noun, as in produkcja samochodowa ‘car production’, and adjectives that correspond to adjuncts, as in wycieczka samochodowa ‘car trip’ (cf. Bosque and Picallo 1996). A more fine-grained hierarchy within each class is proposed to account for possible noun—adjective(s) permutations.
Renata Bronikowska, Włodzimierz Gruszczyński, Maciej Ogrodniczuk, Marcin Woliński
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 2, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 47 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.003.4818The History of the 17th and 18th c. Polish Language Laboratory, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, is in the process of creating two large databases: The Electronic Dictionary of the 17th−18th c. Polish and The Electronic Corpus of the 17th and 18th c. Polish Texts (up to 1772), the latter in cooperation with the Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences. It is expected that combining these two sets of data will help to achieve the objectives established for both database projects. The present article shows the benefits that the Corpus creators can get from the data gathered in the dictionary, with special emphasis put on the use of grammatical information included in the dictionary entries to design tools for automatic text annotation in the Corpus.
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 2, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 57 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.004.4819This work is sequel to my paper on the controversy concerning the appropriate syntactic and semantic account of the distinction between classificatory and qualifying adjectives in Polish (Linde-Usiekniewicz 2013). It develops the lines of inquiry suggested therein, mainly the claim that differences between the pre-nominal and post-nominal attributive syntax can only be adequately explained when the lexical meaning of the head noun and the attribute are taken into account – specifically, in the case of relational adjectives, the actual semantic relation between the head noun and the adjective. The interplay between the lexical meanings and the meanings imposed by syntactic order is presented within Encoding Grammar, a multi-layered framework devised in Linde-Usiekniewicz (2012). In particular, postposing of lexically qualitative adjectives and preposing of relational adjectives is presented as a type of coercion, in which the meaning imposed by syntax overrides the lexical meaning of the adjective. The possibilities for and restrictions on the order of multiple adjectives occurring within a noun phrase is explained by proposing a distinction between adjectives that saturate argument positions of the head noun, as in produkcja samochodowa ‘car production’, and adjectives that correspond to adjuncts, as in wycieczka samochodowa ‘car trip’ (cf. Bosque and Picallo 1996). A more fine-grained hierarchy within each class is proposed to account for possible noun—adjective(s) permutations.
Publication date: 18.04.2016
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Miloje Despić
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 1, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 1 - 25
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.001.4816Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 1, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 27 - 46
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.002.4817In this paper we will present a theory on the source of prefixation differences between Polish analytic and synthetic anticausatives. Analytic anticausatives are freely prefixed with superlexical, lexical and ‘pure perfectivizer’ prefixes, while synthetic anticausatives show propensity for ‘pure perfectivizers’, if indeed they are prefixed at all. We have looked for a source of this distinction in OCS anticausative morpho-syntax. We claim that OCS analytic anticausatives are formed within the limits of the voice system of OCS as middle voice word-forms. As such, they have the same rich prefix inventory as other verbal stems that have the same roots, with some of the prefixes introducing changes in verbal lexical meaning. On the other hand, synthetic anticausatives are already at this time members of the OCS lexicon, mostly without any related verbal forms, but sharing roots with nouns and adjectives (for which prefixation is not a frequent operation in Slavic languages). The prefixes appearing with synthetic anticausatives have the function of realizing the viewpoint aspect, rather than word-formational functions. We have traced the distinction between the two classes of anticausatives from the OCS times to Present-Day Polish, quoting also some intermediate stages in the history of these verbs.
Miloje Despić
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 1, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 1 - 25
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.001.4816Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 11, Issue 1, Volume 11 (2016), pp. 27 - 46
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.16.002.4817In this paper we will present a theory on the source of prefixation differences between Polish analytic and synthetic anticausatives. Analytic anticausatives are freely prefixed with superlexical, lexical and ‘pure perfectivizer’ prefixes, while synthetic anticausatives show propensity for ‘pure perfectivizers’, if indeed they are prefixed at all. We have looked for a source of this distinction in OCS anticausative morpho-syntax. We claim that OCS analytic anticausatives are formed within the limits of the voice system of OCS as middle voice word-forms. As such, they have the same rich prefix inventory as other verbal stems that have the same roots, with some of the prefixes introducing changes in verbal lexical meaning. On the other hand, synthetic anticausatives are already at this time members of the OCS lexicon, mostly without any related verbal forms, but sharing roots with nouns and adjectives (for which prefixation is not a frequent operation in Slavic languages). The prefixes appearing with synthetic anticausatives have the function of realizing the viewpoint aspect, rather than word-formational functions. We have traced the distinction between the two classes of anticausatives from the OCS times to Present-Day Polish, quoting also some intermediate stages in the history of these verbs.
Publication date: 21.03.2016
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Dobromiła Jagiełła
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 175 - 196
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.008.1789Dorota Lockyer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 197 - 221
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.009.1790The paper provides a corpus analysis of diminutive interjections based on the National Corpus of Polish (NKJP) and the microblogging site Twitter to compare the collocations and emotional meanings of Polish interjections that contain the diminutive -k- affix, namely (o)jejku ( (o)jej). Diminutive interjections are an understudied area of Polish. Wierzbicka (1992) has labelled forms with -k- affixes as ‘children’s talk’; however, the collected data reveal that these forms may be used in more contexts than has been generally thought. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of frequent collocations and carried out here demonstrates a variety of meanings and pragmatic functions that they have in Polish. The results suggest that although the diminutive and non-diminutive interjections can appear in similar contexts, the diminutive forms display an additional emotional coloring not found in underived interjections, and also sometimes ‘softening’ of a negative emotion or situation. In addition, the results of the present study contribute to a better understanding of the use of less common forms of diminutives in contemporary Polish.
Tobias Scheer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 223 - 247
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.010.4719The current part of the article evaluates the idea that sonorants and vowels are phonologically unspecified for voicing in all languages. This is the central assumption made by Cyran (2014), which, however, remains unsubstantiated and does not follow from any property of Element Theory. Sonorants do not undergo final devoicing, and voicing is never used for distinctive purposes in vowels. Cases where it is reported to be used to contrast sonorants are rare and subject to caution since it may not always be clear that the contrastive property is really voicing.
The central testing ground is then intervocalic voicing. If sonorants and vowels are unable to spread voicing because they do not have any, the prediction is that intervocalic voicing is never assimilation. Instead it is argued to be a case of lenition in weak (intervocalic) position where obstruents are delaryngealized (i.e. lose their voicing prime) and therefore subject to phonetic (or interpretational) voicing. Lenition is positional and does not involve any transmission of primes. The common practice to analyse intervocalic voicing as both lenition and the spreading of some voice-related prime is inconsistent.
Dobromiła Jagiełła
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 175 - 196
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.008.1789Dorota Lockyer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 197 - 221
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.009.1790The paper provides a corpus analysis of diminutive interjections based on the National Corpus of Polish (NKJP) and the microblogging site Twitter to compare the collocations and emotional meanings of Polish interjections that contain the diminutive -k- affix, namely (o)jejku ( (o)jej). Diminutive interjections are an understudied area of Polish. Wierzbicka (1992) has labelled forms with -k- affixes as ‘children’s talk’; however, the collected data reveal that these forms may be used in more contexts than has been generally thought. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of frequent collocations and carried out here demonstrates a variety of meanings and pragmatic functions that they have in Polish. The results suggest that although the diminutive and non-diminutive interjections can appear in similar contexts, the diminutive forms display an additional emotional coloring not found in underived interjections, and also sometimes ‘softening’ of a negative emotion or situation. In addition, the results of the present study contribute to a better understanding of the use of less common forms of diminutives in contemporary Polish.
Tobias Scheer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 223 - 247
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.010.4719The current part of the article evaluates the idea that sonorants and vowels are phonologically unspecified for voicing in all languages. This is the central assumption made by Cyran (2014), which, however, remains unsubstantiated and does not follow from any property of Element Theory. Sonorants do not undergo final devoicing, and voicing is never used for distinctive purposes in vowels. Cases where it is reported to be used to contrast sonorants are rare and subject to caution since it may not always be clear that the contrastive property is really voicing.
The central testing ground is then intervocalic voicing. If sonorants and vowels are unable to spread voicing because they do not have any, the prediction is that intervocalic voicing is never assimilation. Instead it is argued to be a case of lenition in weak (intervocalic) position where obstruents are delaryngealized (i.e. lose their voicing prime) and therefore subject to phonetic (or interpretational) voicing. Lenition is positional and does not involve any transmission of primes. The common practice to analyse intervocalic voicing as both lenition and the spreading of some voice-related prime is inconsistent.
Publication date: 02.02.2016
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Axel Holvoet, Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 3, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 105 - 124
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.005.4313Polish verb forms occurring with (what was originally) the pronominal clitic się constitute a notoriously heterogeneous group of constructions ranging from reflexive proper (widzi się ‘sees herself/himself ’) to impersonal (mówi się ‘they say’). This article deals with middle-voice reflexives, which cover the semantic domain extending between reflexives proper and passives. The Polish types of middle-voice reflexives are first situated on a semantic map reflecting a cross-linguistic analysis based mainly on Slavonic, Baltic and Germanic data. Then an analysis of the different types is given in terms of argument structure. We argue that most of the Polish middle-voice reflexives do not differ from the non-reflexive forms in argument structure but only in the assignment of grammatical relations. They are also characterized by construction-specific semantic modifications (more marked than in the case of the passive). As they are arguably not in the lexicon, a good case can be made for their treatment in terms of grammatical voice. At the same time these constructions are distinct from the passive: both middle-voice and passive constructions are agent-back-grounding devices, but they represent different types of backgrounding.
Tobias Scheer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 3, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 125 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.006.4314The article discusses the theory of laryngeal phonology exposed in Cyran (2014), Laryngeal Relativism. The basic assumption of this approach is that sonorants and vowels never bear phonological specifications for voicing: their voicing is only ever phonetic in nature. Therefore phonetic interpretation, i.e. spell-out of the output of phonology into phonetic categories, is central: this is where phonetic voicing leaks into neighbouring segments. In the first part of the article, the generative power of Laryngeal Relativism is evaluated, and its workings are compared with previous analyses. The impact of substance-free primes is also discussed.
Jan Patrick Zeller
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 3, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 153 - 174
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.007.4315This study is dedicated to the relationship between lexical meaning and lexical borrowing. It presents an analysis of the semantic fields of all documented German loanwords in the history of Polish written/standard language, following a classification scheme which was originally used for typological comparison (Haspelmath and Tadmor 2009c). Firstly, the results are compared to a hierarchy of borrowing probability which was developed on the basis of typological studies (Tadmor 2009). The apparent differences to that hierarchy underline the need for both onomasiological and semasiological approaches in studying the connection between meaning and borrowing. Secondly, the results are compared to impressionistic judgments on the semantic fields of German loanwords in Polish. Although most of the traditionally mentioned semantic fields are well attested, there are other prominent fields as well, which shows that German loanwords are not limited to specialized terms of professional fields. The analysis is furthermore divided depending on: a) the time period and b) how well the loanwords are documented. It will be demonstrated that some semantic fields are typical for certain time periods while the contribution of other fields remains stable. Some semantic fields have a high quantity of poorly documented loanwords, suggesting that some fields are prone to extensive, but less intensive language contact.
Axel Holvoet, Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 3, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 105 - 124
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.005.4313Polish verb forms occurring with (what was originally) the pronominal clitic się constitute a notoriously heterogeneous group of constructions ranging from reflexive proper (widzi się ‘sees herself/himself ’) to impersonal (mówi się ‘they say’). This article deals with middle-voice reflexives, which cover the semantic domain extending between reflexives proper and passives. The Polish types of middle-voice reflexives are first situated on a semantic map reflecting a cross-linguistic analysis based mainly on Slavonic, Baltic and Germanic data. Then an analysis of the different types is given in terms of argument structure. We argue that most of the Polish middle-voice reflexives do not differ from the non-reflexive forms in argument structure but only in the assignment of grammatical relations. They are also characterized by construction-specific semantic modifications (more marked than in the case of the passive). As they are arguably not in the lexicon, a good case can be made for their treatment in terms of grammatical voice. At the same time these constructions are distinct from the passive: both middle-voice and passive constructions are agent-back-grounding devices, but they represent different types of backgrounding.
Tobias Scheer
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 3, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 125 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.006.4314The article discusses the theory of laryngeal phonology exposed in Cyran (2014), Laryngeal Relativism. The basic assumption of this approach is that sonorants and vowels never bear phonological specifications for voicing: their voicing is only ever phonetic in nature. Therefore phonetic interpretation, i.e. spell-out of the output of phonology into phonetic categories, is central: this is where phonetic voicing leaks into neighbouring segments. In the first part of the article, the generative power of Laryngeal Relativism is evaluated, and its workings are compared with previous analyses. The impact of substance-free primes is also discussed.
Jan Patrick Zeller
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 3, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 153 - 174
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.007.4315This study is dedicated to the relationship between lexical meaning and lexical borrowing. It presents an analysis of the semantic fields of all documented German loanwords in the history of Polish written/standard language, following a classification scheme which was originally used for typological comparison (Haspelmath and Tadmor 2009c). Firstly, the results are compared to a hierarchy of borrowing probability which was developed on the basis of typological studies (Tadmor 2009). The apparent differences to that hierarchy underline the need for both onomasiological and semasiological approaches in studying the connection between meaning and borrowing. Secondly, the results are compared to impressionistic judgments on the semantic fields of German loanwords in Polish. Although most of the traditionally mentioned semantic fields are well attested, there are other prominent fields as well, which shows that German loanwords are not limited to specialized terms of professional fields. The analysis is furthermore divided depending on: a) the time period and b) how well the loanwords are documented. It will be demonstrated that some semantic fields are typical for certain time periods while the contribution of other fields remains stable. Some semantic fields have a high quantity of poorly documented loanwords, suggesting that some fields are prone to extensive, but less intensive language contact.
Publication date: 21.09.2015
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Alexander Andrason
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 2, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 57 - 85
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.003.3560The present article analyzes the Vilamovicean language within the framework of language contact. The author studies various sociolinguistic, lexical and grammatical features and properties, which are typical of mixed languages, and which can be found in Vilamovicean. The evidence suggests that Vilamovicean can be defined as a mixed German(ic)-Polish language, relatively advanced on the cline(s) of mixing. Although Vilamovicean originated as an exemplary member of the German(ic) family – and although the bulk of its components are still German(ic) – due to prolonged and intense contact with Polish, the ethnolect became similar to this Slavic language.
Jan Rybicki
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 2, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 87 - 104
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.004.3561The success rate of authorship attribution by multivariate analysis of most-frequent-word frequencies is studied in a 1000-novel corpus of Polish literary works from the late 18th to the early 21st century. The results are examined for possible influences of the number of authors and/or the number of texts to be attributed. Also, the success rates achieved in this study are compared to those obtained in earlier studies for smaller corpora, too small perhaps to produce regular patterns. This study shows that text sets of this size confirm the intuitive predictions as to those influences: 1) the more authors, the less successful attribution; 2) for the same number of authors, the number of texts to be attributed does not influence success rate.
Alexander Andrason
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 2, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 57 - 85
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.003.3560The present article analyzes the Vilamovicean language within the framework of language contact. The author studies various sociolinguistic, lexical and grammatical features and properties, which are typical of mixed languages, and which can be found in Vilamovicean. The evidence suggests that Vilamovicean can be defined as a mixed German(ic)-Polish language, relatively advanced on the cline(s) of mixing. Although Vilamovicean originated as an exemplary member of the German(ic) family – and although the bulk of its components are still German(ic) – due to prolonged and intense contact with Polish, the ethnolect became similar to this Slavic language.
Jan Rybicki
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 2, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 87 - 104
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.004.3561The success rate of authorship attribution by multivariate analysis of most-frequent-word frequencies is studied in a 1000-novel corpus of Polish literary works from the late 18th to the early 21st century. The results are examined for possible influences of the number of authors and/or the number of texts to be attributed. Also, the success rates achieved in this study are compared to those obtained in earlier studies for smaller corpora, too small perhaps to produce regular patterns. This study shows that text sets of this size confirm the intuitive predictions as to those influences: 1) the more authors, the less successful attribution; 2) for the same number of authors, the number of texts to be attributed does not influence success rate.
Publication date: 22.04.2015
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Paweł Rutkowski, Anna Kuder, Małgorzata Czajkowska-Kisil, Joanna Łacheta
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 1, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.001.3228Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 1, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 17 - 55
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.002.3229Paweł Rutkowski, Anna Kuder, Małgorzata Czajkowska-Kisil, Joanna Łacheta
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 1, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.001.3228Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 10, Issue 1, Volume 10 (2015), pp. 17 - 55
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.002.3229Publication date: 01.01.1970
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Marta Ruda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 203 - 243
The paper offers a novel analysis of the impersonal construction marked with -no/to in Polish. Contra previous accounts, the -no/to verbal morphology is decomposed into two morphemes, -n/t, realizing an impersonal active Voice head and –o, the default spell-out of unvalued agreement features of finite T. The analysis is embedded within a wider set of assumptions about the composition of the extended verbal projection in Polish, including a second active Voice head in addition to Voice found in personal structures. This suggests that the inventory of Voice heads in natural languages includes not only two non-active heads (i.e. passive and middle), but also two active Voice heads (i.e. personal and impersonal). The distributional and interpretational properties of the construction, including Case-related behaviour in secondary-predication contexts, suggest that the impersonal subject is best analysed as a minimal pronoun, whose Case feature is unvalued/absent in the narrow syntax.
Magdalena Szczyrbak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 245 - 263
The action-oriented concept of Concession seems not to have received any attention by discourse analysts studying Polish conversational data. It is therefore the aim of this article to demonstrate the usefulness of this analytical model in discourse-pragmatic studies of spoken Polish and to open a forum for discussion on how the Concessive relation – one of the organising principles of spoken interaction and text-forming strategies in written communication – is realised by Polish speakers in various communicative settings. Towards this end, the study focuses on common ways of marking acknowledgments and rebuttals attested by real-life data (private conversations and radio talk) and it demonstrates patterns which are realised by speakers negotiating meaning in informal and semi-formal contexts. The analysis clearly shows that, trying to mitigate the possible negative effect of disagreement, Poles usually follow the tak, ale schema, even though disagreement-agreement patterns are attested as well. As regards the type of marking, it is found that while countermoves are associated predominantly with ale, acknowledgments are cued by modal adverbs, evaluative adjectives, deixis, prosody and repetition. Finally, it is concluded that application of the interactional model of Concession in contrastive analyses of Polish and English can not only further discourse analysts’ understanding of the organisation of spoken interaction, but it can also have a bearing on language instruction and acquisition.
Elżbieta Muskat-Tabakowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 265 - 267
Marta Ruda
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 203 - 243
The paper offers a novel analysis of the impersonal construction marked with -no/to in Polish. Contra previous accounts, the -no/to verbal morphology is decomposed into two morphemes, -n/t, realizing an impersonal active Voice head and –o, the default spell-out of unvalued agreement features of finite T. The analysis is embedded within a wider set of assumptions about the composition of the extended verbal projection in Polish, including a second active Voice head in addition to Voice found in personal structures. This suggests that the inventory of Voice heads in natural languages includes not only two non-active heads (i.e. passive and middle), but also two active Voice heads (i.e. personal and impersonal). The distributional and interpretational properties of the construction, including Case-related behaviour in secondary-predication contexts, suggest that the impersonal subject is best analysed as a minimal pronoun, whose Case feature is unvalued/absent in the narrow syntax.
Magdalena Szczyrbak
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 245 - 263
The action-oriented concept of Concession seems not to have received any attention by discourse analysts studying Polish conversational data. It is therefore the aim of this article to demonstrate the usefulness of this analytical model in discourse-pragmatic studies of spoken Polish and to open a forum for discussion on how the Concessive relation – one of the organising principles of spoken interaction and text-forming strategies in written communication – is realised by Polish speakers in various communicative settings. Towards this end, the study focuses on common ways of marking acknowledgments and rebuttals attested by real-life data (private conversations and radio talk) and it demonstrates patterns which are realised by speakers negotiating meaning in informal and semi-formal contexts. The analysis clearly shows that, trying to mitigate the possible negative effect of disagreement, Poles usually follow the tak, ale schema, even though disagreement-agreement patterns are attested as well. As regards the type of marking, it is found that while countermoves are associated predominantly with ale, acknowledgments are cued by modal adverbs, evaluative adjectives, deixis, prosody and repetition. Finally, it is concluded that application of the interactional model of Concession in contrastive analyses of Polish and English can not only further discourse analysts’ understanding of the organisation of spoken interaction, but it can also have a bearing on language instruction and acquisition.
Elżbieta Muskat-Tabakowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 265 - 267
Publication date: 01.01.1970
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Heidi Klockmann
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 3, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 111 - 136
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.006.2847Justyna Kosecka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 3, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 137 - 161
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.007.2848This article analyzes the processes affecting coronal consonants in Kashubian within the framework of Lexical Phonology. Kashubian has a process of Coronal Palatalization, affecting especially underlying //t d s z//. Soft /ts’ dz’ s’ z’/ are the outputs of the process. Since there are no soft, that is palatalized, [ts’ dz’ s’ z’] in the surface inventory of the analyzed language, the process is argued to be accompanied by context-free Hardening. Furthermore, the proposed analysis of //s z// shows that there is a Duke-of-York gambit in Kashubian, namely, a change of hard //s// to a soft /s’/, and then back to hard [s]. Moreover, the analysis of Kashubian adjectives and the lack of //t d// palatalization, despite the apparent presence of the context and the derived environment, show that there are at least two derivational levels in Kashubian. Coronal Palatalization is a Level 1 rule. Velar Softening applies at Level 2.
At Level 1, formation of nouns takes place. Derivational morphemes are added to adjectives at Level 1, whereas inflectional adjectival markers are restricted to Level 2. The proposed analysis also demonstrates that the adjectivizing marker //-i// added cyclically to nouns does not surface due to Vowel Deletion.
Ksenia Zanon
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 3, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 163 - 201
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.008.2849In this paper I provide evidence that the element traditionally analyzed as T0 in Turkish is, in fact, a realization of a Mood-head, which is the locus of epistemic modality/conditional. This treatment captures a set of facts surrounding the phenomenon of Suspended Affixation (SA) as well as possible combinations of affix stacking in Turkish, while maintaining the Tense-Mood-Aspect hierarchy. In addition, the analysis advanced in this paper derives the behavior of Q-particles, verbal interactions with the “sentential” negation head, restrictions on embedding, and the optionality of agreement Spellout. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the debate on the inventory of functional projections in languages: it contends that TP is not universally present and considers some broader typological implications of this claim.
Heidi Klockmann
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 3, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 111 - 136
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.006.2847Justyna Kosecka
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 3, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 137 - 161
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.007.2848This article analyzes the processes affecting coronal consonants in Kashubian within the framework of Lexical Phonology. Kashubian has a process of Coronal Palatalization, affecting especially underlying //t d s z//. Soft /ts’ dz’ s’ z’/ are the outputs of the process. Since there are no soft, that is palatalized, [ts’ dz’ s’ z’] in the surface inventory of the analyzed language, the process is argued to be accompanied by context-free Hardening. Furthermore, the proposed analysis of //s z// shows that there is a Duke-of-York gambit in Kashubian, namely, a change of hard //s// to a soft /s’/, and then back to hard [s]. Moreover, the analysis of Kashubian adjectives and the lack of //t d// palatalization, despite the apparent presence of the context and the derived environment, show that there are at least two derivational levels in Kashubian. Coronal Palatalization is a Level 1 rule. Velar Softening applies at Level 2.
At Level 1, formation of nouns takes place. Derivational morphemes are added to adjectives at Level 1, whereas inflectional adjectival markers are restricted to Level 2. The proposed analysis also demonstrates that the adjectivizing marker //-i// added cyclically to nouns does not surface due to Vowel Deletion.
Ksenia Zanon
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 3, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 163 - 201
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.008.2849In this paper I provide evidence that the element traditionally analyzed as T0 in Turkish is, in fact, a realization of a Mood-head, which is the locus of epistemic modality/conditional. This treatment captures a set of facts surrounding the phenomenon of Suspended Affixation (SA) as well as possible combinations of affix stacking in Turkish, while maintaining the Tense-Mood-Aspect hierarchy. In addition, the analysis advanced in this paper derives the behavior of Q-particles, verbal interactions with the “sentential” negation head, restrictions on embedding, and the optionality of agreement Spellout. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the debate on the inventory of functional projections in languages: it contends that TP is not universally present and considers some broader typological implications of this claim.
Publication date: 01.01.1970
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Marek Radomski, Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 2, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 67 - 87
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.004.2384Extensive research on native speakers’ attitudes towards foreign accents and their users carried out in immigrant-receiving countries such as, for example, Great Britain, the United States and Australia (e.g. Kalin and Rayko 1978; Lippi-Green 1997; Munro et al. 2006), has allowed specialists to formulate several cross-cultural generalizations concerning the perception and evaluation of accented speech. For instance, according to Lindemann (2002, 2010), the listeners’ attitude towards foreign speakers, shaped by cultural stereotypes and prejudices, plays a crucial role in comprehending accented speech. It is also often claimed (e.g. Said 2006; Lev-Ari and Keysar 2010) that a heavy foreign accent has a negative impact on the listeners’ assessment of speakers’ personality traits, such as credibility, intelligence and competence. Moreover, this negative accent-based social evaluation, as shown by Lippi-Green (1997), might even lead to various kinds of foreign speakers’ discrimination.
Contemporary Poland, where Polish-speaking foreigners are still a relative rarity, constitutes an interesting and yet unexplored ground for testing the universality of claims concerning the relationship between the listeners’ cultural prejudices and their evaluations of foreign speakers’ accents, as well as personality traits. In this paper we report on an empirical study in which 40 Polish university students assessed 11 samples of foreign-accented Polish, both in terms of accent features and personal characteristics ascribed to the speakers, in order to find out whether these judgements are affected by Polish listeners’ attitudes towards the speakers’ cultural background and knowledge of their nationality.
The results of the study indicate that, on the whole, the speakers’ nationality does not significantly affect the participants’ evaluation of foreign speakers’ accent features (i.e. comprehensibility, foreign-accentedness and acceptability). Such relationship can, however, be found in the attribution of personal characteristics to foreign speakers, which, to some extent, is influenced by the information concerning their nationality and listeners’ cultural prejudices.
Jan Wiślicki
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 2, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 89 - 110
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.005.2385Among a number of formal grammatical accounts especially two of them, the grammatical triple account and the partial algebra account, seem to attract the attention of linguists and philosophers of language. The main difference between the two lies in the fact that it is only the triple-account where the material form of an expression is directly taken into consideration. This turns out to be an all-important factor that opens up an interesting path for both theoretical and methodological analysis. The aim of this paper is to argue against the algebraic account and to give a stronger and more explicit version of grammatical triples. The offered approach is more general than the standard one in that it leaves room for non-oral forms of speech and allows defining the lack of material form as a grammatically informative argument.
Marek Radomski, Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłowska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 2, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 67 - 87
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.004.2384Extensive research on native speakers’ attitudes towards foreign accents and their users carried out in immigrant-receiving countries such as, for example, Great Britain, the United States and Australia (e.g. Kalin and Rayko 1978; Lippi-Green 1997; Munro et al. 2006), has allowed specialists to formulate several cross-cultural generalizations concerning the perception and evaluation of accented speech. For instance, according to Lindemann (2002, 2010), the listeners’ attitude towards foreign speakers, shaped by cultural stereotypes and prejudices, plays a crucial role in comprehending accented speech. It is also often claimed (e.g. Said 2006; Lev-Ari and Keysar 2010) that a heavy foreign accent has a negative impact on the listeners’ assessment of speakers’ personality traits, such as credibility, intelligence and competence. Moreover, this negative accent-based social evaluation, as shown by Lippi-Green (1997), might even lead to various kinds of foreign speakers’ discrimination.
Contemporary Poland, where Polish-speaking foreigners are still a relative rarity, constitutes an interesting and yet unexplored ground for testing the universality of claims concerning the relationship between the listeners’ cultural prejudices and their evaluations of foreign speakers’ accents, as well as personality traits. In this paper we report on an empirical study in which 40 Polish university students assessed 11 samples of foreign-accented Polish, both in terms of accent features and personal characteristics ascribed to the speakers, in order to find out whether these judgements are affected by Polish listeners’ attitudes towards the speakers’ cultural background and knowledge of their nationality.
The results of the study indicate that, on the whole, the speakers’ nationality does not significantly affect the participants’ evaluation of foreign speakers’ accent features (i.e. comprehensibility, foreign-accentedness and acceptability). Such relationship can, however, be found in the attribution of personal characteristics to foreign speakers, which, to some extent, is influenced by the information concerning their nationality and listeners’ cultural prejudices.
Jan Wiślicki
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 2, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 89 - 110
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.005.2385Among a number of formal grammatical accounts especially two of them, the grammatical triple account and the partial algebra account, seem to attract the attention of linguists and philosophers of language. The main difference between the two lies in the fact that it is only the triple-account where the material form of an expression is directly taken into consideration. This turns out to be an all-important factor that opens up an interesting path for both theoretical and methodological analysis. The aim of this paper is to argue against the algebraic account and to give a stronger and more explicit version of grammatical triples. The offered approach is more general than the standard one in that it leaves room for non-oral forms of speech and allows defining the lack of material form as a grammatically informative argument.
Publication date: 01.01.1970
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Alexander Andrason
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 1, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 1 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.001.2185Łukasz Grabowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 1, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 21 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.002.2186So far little attention has been paid to the corpus analysis of recurrent phraseologies found in Polish texts, in particular texts representing specialists registers of language use. Also, one may note the lack of corpus linguistic studies of lexical bundles (Biber et al. 1999) found in texts originally written in Polish. Conducted from a register perspective (Biber and Conrad 2009), this descriptive and exploratory study is intended as a first step towards a comprehensive corpus-driven description of the use and functions of the most frequent lexical bundles found in patient information leaflets (PILs), one of the most commonly used text types in the healthcare sector in Poland. The research material includes 100 PILs written originally in Polish, extracted from internet websites of ten pharmaceutical companies operating on the Polish market, compiled in a purpose-designed corpus of circa 197,000 words. Based largely on the methodology proposed by Biber, Conrad and Cortes (2003, 2004), Biber (2006), and Goźdź-Roszkowski (2011), which makes possible an analysis of the use and discourse functions of lexical bundles, the present study is primarily meant to provide methodological guidelines for future research on lexical bundles in Polish texts. This appears to be important since so far lexical bundles have been studied predominantly in texts originally written in English. The results of this preliminary research reveal salient links between the frequent occurrence of lexical bundles on the one hand, and situational and functional characteristics of the text variety under scrutiny on the other.
Jerzy Rubach
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 1, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 45 - 65
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.003.2187This article investigates the occurrence of tense vowels in Kurpian and reports on the results of my fieldwork conducted in the villages of central Kurpia. The article looks at declensional paradigms of nouns and concludes that lax vowels alternate with tense vowels when they are followed by a voiced consonant (an obstruent or a sonorant) at the end of the word. The descriptive generalizations are analysed formally in terms of Derivational Optimality Theory, a framework that is well equipped to handle the opacity unveiled by the Kurpian data.
Alexander Andrason
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 1, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 1 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.001.2185Łukasz Grabowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 1, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 21 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.002.2186So far little attention has been paid to the corpus analysis of recurrent phraseologies found in Polish texts, in particular texts representing specialists registers of language use. Also, one may note the lack of corpus linguistic studies of lexical bundles (Biber et al. 1999) found in texts originally written in Polish. Conducted from a register perspective (Biber and Conrad 2009), this descriptive and exploratory study is intended as a first step towards a comprehensive corpus-driven description of the use and functions of the most frequent lexical bundles found in patient information leaflets (PILs), one of the most commonly used text types in the healthcare sector in Poland. The research material includes 100 PILs written originally in Polish, extracted from internet websites of ten pharmaceutical companies operating on the Polish market, compiled in a purpose-designed corpus of circa 197,000 words. Based largely on the methodology proposed by Biber, Conrad and Cortes (2003, 2004), Biber (2006), and Goźdź-Roszkowski (2011), which makes possible an analysis of the use and discourse functions of lexical bundles, the present study is primarily meant to provide methodological guidelines for future research on lexical bundles in Polish texts. This appears to be important since so far lexical bundles have been studied predominantly in texts originally written in English. The results of this preliminary research reveal salient links between the frequent occurrence of lexical bundles on the one hand, and situational and functional characteristics of the text variety under scrutiny on the other.
Jerzy Rubach
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 9, Issue 1, Volume 9 (2014), pp. 45 - 65
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.14.003.2187This article investigates the occurrence of tense vowels in Kurpian and reports on the results of my fieldwork conducted in the villages of central Kurpia. The article looks at declensional paradigms of nouns and concludes that lax vowels alternate with tense vowels when they are followed by a voiced consonant (an obstruent or a sonorant) at the end of the word. The descriptive generalizations are analysed formally in terms of Derivational Optimality Theory, a framework that is well equipped to handle the opacity unveiled by the Kurpian data.
Publication date: 02.04.2014
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Adam Biały
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 4, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 151 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.008.1689The aim of the paper is to discuss the Manner/Result Complementarity (Levin and Rappaport Hovav 1991, 2006) as one of the restrictions on the construal of lexical meaning at the level of lexicon-syntax interface from the perspective of Polish. The investigation of the manner/result complementarity provides good ground for the analysis of the nature of the relationship between the lexical meaning of a verb and the associated syntactic projection of a verb phrase. The investigation of Polish examples in the paper is presented as a test for the cross-linguistic validity of the complementarity. In the course of the discussion, the role of morphological marking is integrated into the analysis as refl ecting the lexicalization pattern of Polish result verbs.
Željko Bošković, I-Ta Chris Hsieh
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 4, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 173 - 204
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.009.1690We provide a semantic account of the free ordering of NP-internal elements in Chinese and argue that this provides evidence for the lack of DP in Chinese. We also extend this account to the Mandarin plural marker -men, tying the defi niteness of -men phrases and its number/definiteness interaction to the classifier status of -men and the lack of DP in Chinese. We show that the binding properties of Chinese possessors also provide evidence for the no-DP analysis of Chinese. Finally, we propose a semantic account of certain differences in the order of NP-internal elements between Chinese and Serbo-Croatian, another language that lacks DP.
Włodzimierz Gruszczyński, Zygmunt Saloni
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 4, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 205 - 227
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.010.1691The article is devoted to the history of Polish lexicography from its origin in the late Middle Ages until now. Its first important period is the sixteenth century when both practical dictionaries for students and a large Latin-Polish dictionary were published. The greatest achievements of Polish monolingual lexicography were gained in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, when Poland did not exist as a state and its territory was divided between Russia, Austria and Prussia (Germany). These were 6-volume Samuel Linde’s Dictionary (1807–1814) and 8-volume Warsaw Dictionary (1900–1927) by Jan Karłowicz, Adam Antoni Kryński and Władysław Niedźwiedzki. After the Second World War the team led by Witold Doroszewski compiled the third large dictionary of Polish (1958–1969). It became the point of departure for other dictionaries prepared in Poland.
Adam Biały
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 4, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 151 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.008.1689The aim of the paper is to discuss the Manner/Result Complementarity (Levin and Rappaport Hovav 1991, 2006) as one of the restrictions on the construal of lexical meaning at the level of lexicon-syntax interface from the perspective of Polish. The investigation of the manner/result complementarity provides good ground for the analysis of the nature of the relationship between the lexical meaning of a verb and the associated syntactic projection of a verb phrase. The investigation of Polish examples in the paper is presented as a test for the cross-linguistic validity of the complementarity. In the course of the discussion, the role of morphological marking is integrated into the analysis as refl ecting the lexicalization pattern of Polish result verbs.
Željko Bošković, I-Ta Chris Hsieh
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 4, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 173 - 204
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.009.1690We provide a semantic account of the free ordering of NP-internal elements in Chinese and argue that this provides evidence for the lack of DP in Chinese. We also extend this account to the Mandarin plural marker -men, tying the defi niteness of -men phrases and its number/definiteness interaction to the classifier status of -men and the lack of DP in Chinese. We show that the binding properties of Chinese possessors also provide evidence for the no-DP analysis of Chinese. Finally, we propose a semantic account of certain differences in the order of NP-internal elements between Chinese and Serbo-Croatian, another language that lacks DP.
Włodzimierz Gruszczyński, Zygmunt Saloni
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 4, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 205 - 227
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.010.1691The article is devoted to the history of Polish lexicography from its origin in the late Middle Ages until now. Its first important period is the sixteenth century when both practical dictionaries for students and a large Latin-Polish dictionary were published. The greatest achievements of Polish monolingual lexicography were gained in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, when Poland did not exist as a state and its territory was divided between Russia, Austria and Prussia (Germany). These were 6-volume Samuel Linde’s Dictionary (1807–1814) and 8-volume Warsaw Dictionary (1900–1927) by Jan Karłowicz, Adam Antoni Kryński and Władysław Niedźwiedzki. After the Second World War the team led by Witold Doroszewski compiled the third large dictionary of Polish (1958–1969). It became the point of departure for other dictionaries prepared in Poland.
Publication date: 18.02.2014
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 3, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 103 - 126
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.006.1541The paper is constructed as a response to Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman’s (2011a) paper on classificatory adjectives in Polish. Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman (CPT) argue in it against Rutkowski and Progovac’s (2005) and Rutkowski’s (2007) account of classificatory adjectives in Polish and instead propose an alternative analysis, based on Bouchard’s (2002) representational model. In the present paper it is claimed that the controversy between those two approaches actually stems from differences in the understanding of the term ‘classificatory adjective’: Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman (2011b) seem to deem as ‘classificatory’ adjectives “restricting the denotation of the noun they modify,” while Rutkowski (2007) seems to consider ‘classificatory’ only those adjectives that establish at least two contrasting classes of possible referents. Crucially, for Rutkowski and Progovac only post-nominal adjectives are deemed classificatory, while Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman postulate a class of ‘migrating classificatory adjectives’ that can appear both pre- and postnominally. Th is paper presents some arguments that CPT’s view is better suited to Polish phenomena, but also suggests that neither the derivational model proposed by Rutkowski and Progovac nor the representational model is capable of fully accounting for syntacticsemantic phenomena involved in Polish nominal phrases with post-nominal adjectives.
Aida Talić
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 3, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 127 - 150
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.007.1542Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) appears to allow extraction of PP-complements out of NPs and APs. Th is extraction is problematic for Bošković’s (to appear a) approach to phases because BCS NPs and APs are phases in this system and complements of phase heads in principle do not move (Abels 2003a). I show that there is a mechanism that can be extended to account for this extraction (LBE), and provide a unified account for these movements, a certain type of left -branch extraction, and extraction of inherently case-marked nominal complements, where all of these involve P-incorporation into the element moved to SpecPP. Independent evidence for P-incorporation comes from accent shift from the host to the preposition that occurs in BCS.
Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 3, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 103 - 126
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.006.1541The paper is constructed as a response to Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman’s (2011a) paper on classificatory adjectives in Polish. Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman (CPT) argue in it against Rutkowski and Progovac’s (2005) and Rutkowski’s (2007) account of classificatory adjectives in Polish and instead propose an alternative analysis, based on Bouchard’s (2002) representational model. In the present paper it is claimed that the controversy between those two approaches actually stems from differences in the understanding of the term ‘classificatory adjective’: Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman (2011b) seem to deem as ‘classificatory’ adjectives “restricting the denotation of the noun they modify,” while Rutkowski (2007) seems to consider ‘classificatory’ only those adjectives that establish at least two contrasting classes of possible referents. Crucially, for Rutkowski and Progovac only post-nominal adjectives are deemed classificatory, while Cetnarowska, Pysz and Trugman postulate a class of ‘migrating classificatory adjectives’ that can appear both pre- and postnominally. Th is paper presents some arguments that CPT’s view is better suited to Polish phenomena, but also suggests that neither the derivational model proposed by Rutkowski and Progovac nor the representational model is capable of fully accounting for syntacticsemantic phenomena involved in Polish nominal phrases with post-nominal adjectives.
Aida Talić
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 3, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 127 - 150
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.007.1542Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) appears to allow extraction of PP-complements out of NPs and APs. Th is extraction is problematic for Bošković’s (to appear a) approach to phases because BCS NPs and APs are phases in this system and complements of phase heads in principle do not move (Abels 2003a). I show that there is a mechanism that can be extended to account for this extraction (LBE), and provide a unified account for these movements, a certain type of left -branch extraction, and extraction of inherently case-marked nominal complements, where all of these involve P-incorporation into the element moved to SpecPP. Independent evidence for P-incorporation comes from accent shift from the host to the preposition that occurs in BCS.
Publication date: 18.12.2013
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief: Mateusz Urban
Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL) focuses on linguistic theory as well as theory-informed descriptive work, especially empirically oriented studies of Polish and Slavic languages. Appearing since 2004, it is now published by the Faculty of arts of the Jagiellonian University and the Jagiellonian University Press.
The main aim of the journal is to provide a discussion forum for linguists from Poland and abroad whose research interests include multifarious phenomena of the Polish language. The journal also aims at making accessible to a wider linguistic research community the theoretical and empirical work conducted by Polish linguists. SPL is open for presentation of research results achieved within different theoretical frameworks, with no bias towards any particular linguistic paradigm
Ewa Jędrzejko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 2, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 57 - 74
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.004.1419The article is an attempt to analyse complex predicates (henceforth VNAs) from the point of view of the prototype theory and the concept of family resemblance (prototype, polycentric and gradable categories). The focus is on the lexical-grammatical status of constructions of the type robić pranie ‘to do the washing’, ulec zniszczeniu ‘to be destroyed’, ‘lit. to undergo destruction’, wpaść w przerażenie ‘to be filled with terror’, ‘lit. to fall into terror’, ponieść klęskę ‘to suffer defeat’ functioning as predicates. Units of this type are clearly structured as [VGENER//METAFOR + NA/NE/NABSTR], highly fossilized (phraseologised) and have considerable derivational potential. Moreover, they are characterized by semantic proximity to full verbs (robić pranie = prać ‘to wash’, wpaść w przerażenie = przerazić się ‘to be terrified’). Units of the VNA type are common cross-linguistically and as such may be seen as a product of a systemic sign-formation mechanism, which complements other (morphological) means of sign-formation. Furthermore, VNAs display strong (semantic, formal and functional) correlations with the V-class. They are produced via nominalization and secondary verbalization of the predicate as well as metaphorical conceptualization of events they denote. Based on the premise that language categories are prototypical in nature (i.e. they are gradable, radial, mono- and polycentric), it is further assumed that the units traditionally recognized as parts of speech (including V and N) also belong to categories with fuzzy boundaries grouped according to their functional (grammatical) identities and family resemblances, in which the center and the periphery can be distinguished. An attempt is made to show that VNAs are located at the periphery of the V-class, constituting a radial polycentric area. VNAs are capable of undertaking the sentence-forming function (like the verb) and enter various mutual semantic relationships (synonymy, antonymy, conversion, gradation, etc.). The linguistic-conceptual (cognitive) mechanism of periphrastic predication is connected with decomposition of the global conceptual content of the predicate and metaphorical conceptualization and image-based profiling of events predicated periphrastically. This brings about multidirectional expansion of the inventory of periphrastic signs (cf. e.g. emotions conceptualized as FIRE: VNA czuć nienawiść ‘to feel hate’ or, metaphorically, wzniecić nienawiść ‘to incite hate’, płonąć nienawiścią ‘to burn with hate’ > V nienawidzić ‘to hate’, or VNAs profiled by the verbalizer from the domain FOOD: żywić nienawiść ‘to nurture hate’, dławić się nienawiścią, ‘lit. to choke on hate’ = nienawidzić (+ intensity). The multiplicity of VNA models illustrates the polycentric character of the V-class and broadens the repertoire of means of predication.
Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 2, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 75 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.005.1420The paper deals with a wider problem of the representation of causative structures in the root-based generative model of morphosyntax illustrated here with the Polish causativizing morpheme roz-. Following Koontz-Garboden’s (2009) analysis of anticausative verbs, we propose that the phenomenon of causation should be separated from the introduction of the additional causer argument brought in by the voice projection. In our analysis roz- is seen as the head of the active voice projection, as opposed to roz- się, the non-active voice head. Such an analysis allows us to account for the distributional properties of roz- versus roz- się in Polish. In the analysis of the typology of roots which can serve as bases for the causative structures taking the roz- voice heads, the typology of roots developed by Embick (2009) to account for the properties of states and stative passives has been adopted, as it seems to work in the case of the roots deriving causatives. The roots appropriate for the predicates of states cannot derive the roz- causatives in Polish, while these appropriate for the predicates of events form such causatives. The analysis ties in with recent proposals in root-based research into verbal valency, and contributes to the overall model of valencyrelated derivations in root-based approaches
Ewa Jędrzejko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 2, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 57 - 74
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.004.1419The article is an attempt to analyse complex predicates (henceforth VNAs) from the point of view of the prototype theory and the concept of family resemblance (prototype, polycentric and gradable categories). The focus is on the lexical-grammatical status of constructions of the type robić pranie ‘to do the washing’, ulec zniszczeniu ‘to be destroyed’, ‘lit. to undergo destruction’, wpaść w przerażenie ‘to be filled with terror’, ‘lit. to fall into terror’, ponieść klęskę ‘to suffer defeat’ functioning as predicates. Units of this type are clearly structured as [VGENER//METAFOR + NA/NE/NABSTR], highly fossilized (phraseologised) and have considerable derivational potential. Moreover, they are characterized by semantic proximity to full verbs (robić pranie = prać ‘to wash’, wpaść w przerażenie = przerazić się ‘to be terrified’). Units of the VNA type are common cross-linguistically and as such may be seen as a product of a systemic sign-formation mechanism, which complements other (morphological) means of sign-formation. Furthermore, VNAs display strong (semantic, formal and functional) correlations with the V-class. They are produced via nominalization and secondary verbalization of the predicate as well as metaphorical conceptualization of events they denote. Based on the premise that language categories are prototypical in nature (i.e. they are gradable, radial, mono- and polycentric), it is further assumed that the units traditionally recognized as parts of speech (including V and N) also belong to categories with fuzzy boundaries grouped according to their functional (grammatical) identities and family resemblances, in which the center and the periphery can be distinguished. An attempt is made to show that VNAs are located at the periphery of the V-class, constituting a radial polycentric area. VNAs are capable of undertaking the sentence-forming function (like the verb) and enter various mutual semantic relationships (synonymy, antonymy, conversion, gradation, etc.). The linguistic-conceptual (cognitive) mechanism of periphrastic predication is connected with decomposition of the global conceptual content of the predicate and metaphorical conceptualization and image-based profiling of events predicated periphrastically. This brings about multidirectional expansion of the inventory of periphrastic signs (cf. e.g. emotions conceptualized as FIRE: VNA czuć nienawiść ‘to feel hate’ or, metaphorically, wzniecić nienawiść ‘to incite hate’, płonąć nienawiścią ‘to burn with hate’ > V nienawidzić ‘to hate’, or VNAs profiled by the verbalizer from the domain FOOD: żywić nienawiść ‘to nurture hate’, dławić się nienawiścią, ‘lit. to choke on hate’ = nienawidzić (+ intensity). The multiplicity of VNA models illustrates the polycentric character of the V-class and broadens the repertoire of means of predication.
Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 2, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 75 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.005.1420The paper deals with a wider problem of the representation of causative structures in the root-based generative model of morphosyntax illustrated here with the Polish causativizing morpheme roz-. Following Koontz-Garboden’s (2009) analysis of anticausative verbs, we propose that the phenomenon of causation should be separated from the introduction of the additional causer argument brought in by the voice projection. In our analysis roz- is seen as the head of the active voice projection, as opposed to roz- się, the non-active voice head. Such an analysis allows us to account for the distributional properties of roz- versus roz- się in Polish. In the analysis of the typology of roots which can serve as bases for the causative structures taking the roz- voice heads, the typology of roots developed by Embick (2009) to account for the properties of states and stative passives has been adopted, as it seems to work in the case of the roots deriving causatives. The roots appropriate for the predicates of states cannot derive the roz- causatives in Polish, while these appropriate for the predicates of events form such causatives. The analysis ties in with recent proposals in root-based research into verbal valency, and contributes to the overall model of valencyrelated derivations in root-based approaches
Publication date: 10.2013
Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Willim
Studies in Polish Linguistics (SPL) focuses on linguistic theory as well as theory-informed descriptive work, especially empirically oriented studies of Polish and Slavic languages. Appearing since 2004, it is now published by the Faculty of arts of the Jagiellonian University and the Jagiellonian University Press.
The main aim of the journal is to provide a discussion forum for linguists from Poland and abroad whose research interests include multifarious phenomena of the Polish language. The journal also aims at making accessible to a wider linguistic research community the theoretical and empirical work conducted by Polish linguists. SPL is open for presentation of research results achieved within different theoretical frameworks, with no bias towards any particular linguistic paradigm
Paulina Biały
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 1 - 13
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.001.1416This paper undertakes an analysis of the connotative meanings of Polish diminutives excerpted from different types of literary texts including children’s stories as well as dramas, stories and poems addressed at adult readers. The author attempts to demonstrate that in the above-mentioned texts connotative meanings are more frequent than denotative ones. At the outset, some theoretical aspects of diminutive meanings are discussed. Firstly, the prototypical meanings of the diminutive are presented. Further on, the notion of polysemy is clarified, and the classification of diminutive meanings on the basis of Taylor’s (1995) work is given. It is followed by Jurafsky’s (1996) proposal of a universal structure for the semantics of the diminutive and Heltberg’s (1964) classification of diminutives into three types. In the main part of the paper, the meanings of Polish diminutives found in the texts are analysed, focusing on connotative meanings.
Joanna Pakuła-Borowiec
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 15 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.002.1417This paper provides an analysis of four neoclassical morphemes super, ekstra, mega and hiper, both as prefixes and as free lexical items, in contemporary Polish as represented in the Polish National Corpus. The collected data containing instances of the morphemes have been analysed so as to define their syntactic functions and to obtain quantitative results, i.e., to determine the exact number of instances of the morphemes occurring as free lexical items and as bound morphemes followed by a hyphen as well as integral unhyphenated morphemes. Another aim of the study has been a quantitative analysis of the data, i.e., to record all the instances of the use of the morphemes, including rare uses. The semantic analysis has been aimed to assign the exact meaning to each occurrence of the morphemes and to make general conclusions concerning the frequencies. Still another purpose has been to measure the morphological productivity of the bound morphemes (prefixes) in question based on Baayen’s (1992: 109–149) measure of productivity and Bauer’s (2001) measure of the profitability of a morphological process. The results of the present study contribute to a better understanding of recent phenomena in contemporary Polish.
Marek Stachowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 45 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.003.1418Only Polish words from Marcin Paszkowski’s “Dictionary” have been published up to now while their Turkish equivalents have never been edited although two scholars (Ananiasz Zajączkowski 1938 and Stanisław Stachowski 1989) intended to do so. In this article the reasons for this situation are discussed and explained, as well as a solution is suggested as to how the source can be useful
Paulina Biały
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 1 - 13
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.001.1416This paper undertakes an analysis of the connotative meanings of Polish diminutives excerpted from different types of literary texts including children’s stories as well as dramas, stories and poems addressed at adult readers. The author attempts to demonstrate that in the above-mentioned texts connotative meanings are more frequent than denotative ones. At the outset, some theoretical aspects of diminutive meanings are discussed. Firstly, the prototypical meanings of the diminutive are presented. Further on, the notion of polysemy is clarified, and the classification of diminutive meanings on the basis of Taylor’s (1995) work is given. It is followed by Jurafsky’s (1996) proposal of a universal structure for the semantics of the diminutive and Heltberg’s (1964) classification of diminutives into three types. In the main part of the paper, the meanings of Polish diminutives found in the texts are analysed, focusing on connotative meanings.
Joanna Pakuła-Borowiec
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 15 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.002.1417This paper provides an analysis of four neoclassical morphemes super, ekstra, mega and hiper, both as prefixes and as free lexical items, in contemporary Polish as represented in the Polish National Corpus. The collected data containing instances of the morphemes have been analysed so as to define their syntactic functions and to obtain quantitative results, i.e., to determine the exact number of instances of the morphemes occurring as free lexical items and as bound morphemes followed by a hyphen as well as integral unhyphenated morphemes. Another aim of the study has been a quantitative analysis of the data, i.e., to record all the instances of the use of the morphemes, including rare uses. The semantic analysis has been aimed to assign the exact meaning to each occurrence of the morphemes and to make general conclusions concerning the frequencies. Still another purpose has been to measure the morphological productivity of the bound morphemes (prefixes) in question based on Baayen’s (1992: 109–149) measure of productivity and Bauer’s (2001) measure of the profitability of a morphological process. The results of the present study contribute to a better understanding of recent phenomena in contemporary Polish.
Marek Stachowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Volume 8 (2013), pp. 45 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.13.003.1418Only Polish words from Marcin Paszkowski’s “Dictionary” have been published up to now while their Turkish equivalents have never been edited although two scholars (Ananiasz Zajączkowski 1938 and Stanisław Stachowski 1989) intended to do so. In this article the reasons for this situation are discussed and explained, as well as a solution is suggested as to how the source can be useful
Publication date: 14.10.2012
This volume of Studies in Polish Linguistics was made possible by a grant from the National Programme for the Development of Humanities awarded by the polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Aleksandra Walkiewicz, Helene Włodarczyk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 5 - 36
The present paper is an attempt to apply the Distributed Grammar (DG) theory which includes both the semantic and the pragmatic (meta-informative) level, to a cross-linguistic, comparative analysis of the use of certain aspect forms in Polish and French. Although the opposition of simple and complex forms of the French verb is often interpreted as aspectual, the existence of aspect in French usually taken for granted, and the Imparfait tense (IMP) described as “imperfective”, we propose to revisit the correspondence of IMP and the past forms of Polish Imperfective (IPF) verbs. We shall look particularly closely at cases where the IMP is not a translation equivalent of the Polish IPF, trying to explain these differences referring to both systemic and contextual factors. By reference to the theory of Meta-informative Grounding (MIG), we explain the corresponding uses of the IMP and the IPF by the ontological grounding of situations considered as generic, general, potential or habitual. The other uses of the IPF which do not correspond to the IMP in French can be explained by what we call cognitive and communicative grounding, in other words by the fact that the situation is pictured as known to both the speaker and the hearer or as already mentioned (anaphoric usage). Some other non-corresponding uses of the IPF result from its unmarked character in the Slavic Aspect opposition. Such uses of the IPF (which we call neutral) are motivated by the speaker’s intention to (1) “avoid” a specific meaning carried out by the Perfective (PF), or (2) state nothing but the simple occurring of a situation, or (3) underline the fact that the speaker was certainly not involved in the situation described by the verb.
Przemysław Tajsner
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 37 - 61
The two main topics of the paper are VP focus projection and the integration of adjuncts in VPs. First, a few conceptual and empirical questions are raised to Hornstein’s (2009) account of VP focus projection which is based on the “pure Concatenate/dangling off” way of adding adjuncts to a VP. It is argued that an account along these lines may have to recourse to a derivational look-ahead, which is a disadvantage. It is also noted that the “dangling off “ solution proves problematic if adjuncts have to fulfill the function of modifying events. What is more, it is not clear why the integration in a structure, necessary for movement, should be treated as a sufficient condition for focus projection.
Next, the paper offers a short taxonomy of VP-pre-posing types in Polish. They appear to fall in two major categories: (i) VP- pre-posing for focus, and (ii) VP-pre-posing for topic. It is argued that in the former type, representing Focus Fronting (FF), a pre-posed VP is a separate Intonation Phrase, in which, as predicted by Truckenbrodt (2001) and others, the rightmost accented phrase must receive a prominent phrasal stress. Thus, the VP-final main stress on adjuncts is derived from the interplay of syntax and phonology, unlike in Hornstein’s (2009) account. Such a view is supported by the observed cases of VP pre-posing for topic in Polish in which the earlier distribution of stresses within a VP (derived by a Nuclear Stress Rule) is conserved after movement, and no extra phonological stress rule applies.
The second major topic of the paper is the mechanics of adjunct integration in VPs. It is argued that there are two ways in which adjuncts may be added to the structure of a VP; by Concatenate (a default option) or by Merge. The former is only possible if no further instance of Merge is to follow, which is at the completion of vP and CP phases. The less economical Merge option is used when the VP-plus-adjunct undergoes further pre-posing for focus or for topic. Finally, it is shown how the phase-wise derivation may map on the procedure of stress promotion in a structure of a VP. It is argued that adjuncts concatenated to the root, prior to Spell-out, cannot receive an appropriate number of stress grids, and hence cannot carry main VP-stress.
Katarzyna Miechowicz-Mathiasen
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 63 - 81
In this paper I discuss Polish data in view of Pesetsky and Torrego’s (2001, 2004, 2007) proposals. The data suggest that the issues are more complex than they appear in English, and that extending the analysis to Polish would require modifications shedding light on the entire proposal. The Polish to-omission asymmetry, the missing that-t effect, distribution of CP arguments, as well as complementation possibilities of nouns and adjectives will be discussed in detail. It will be argued that φ-features must play a role in Agree relations with the Tns probes, contrary to the recent proposals made by the authors.
Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 83 - 105
One of the key operations in valency rearrangement is the formation of mono-argumental predicates from phonologically corresponding/identical bi-argumental predicates. It has been most recently revisited by Junghanns, Fermann and Lenertová (2011), who analyze decausatives in Slavic languages as cases of reflexivization of verbs with non-agentive causers, in the spirit of Koontz-Garboden (2009).We review these formations in Polish and find out that an alysis which is set against more extensive data gives no grounds for a reflexive analysis. We find the data in favor of decausatives showing the presence of the external argument through the appearance of the subject ‘by itself ’ anaphor misjudged as to their grammaticality. This claim is supported with examples from the National Corpus of the Polish Language contending against Jabłońska’s (2007) analysis. The overall picture of the morphological system and language behavior speak against setting apart decausatives with reflexive marking from other unaccusatives in Polish. We disregard the reflexive analysis and adopt the anticausative solution, where the formation of decausatives is not seen as identification of arguments. We see it as a subtraction of VoiceP. This solution assumes one of the structures for decausatives from Alexiadou (2010). The operation is seen as lexical, not syntactic, and in defiance of Koontz-Garboden’s Monotonicity Hypothesis.
Barbara Bacz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 107 - 128
This paper discusses the means employed by the Polish verb in order to communicate the meaning of single occurrence (i.e. semelfactivity). An introspective examination of the semelfactive uses of Polish perfective verbs with the suffix –ną-, the inchoative and resultative (“purely aspectual”) prefixes za- and s-/z- as well as the prefixes expressing subjective evaluation of single acts is carried out from the perspective of the cluster model of aspect (proposed for Russian by Janda 2007). The possibility of applying to Polish Dickey and Janda’s (2009) allomorphy hypothesis, which states that in Russian semelfactivity is expressed by both the suffix –nu- and the prefix s-, is considered. It is shown that even though the cluster approach to aspect offers an attractive, user-friendly method of talking about semelfactivity, numerous problems posed by the Polish semelfactive data require adjustments of the model’s implicational hierarchy. The allomorphy hypothesis is less motivated in Polish than in Russian for a Polish category of s- prefixed semelfactives is harder to isolate.
Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 129 - 164
Gussmann (2007) put forward a morpho-phonological analysis of Polish palatalizations which is an alternative to traditional re-write rules promoting abstractness in phonology. The aim of this article is to turn Gussmann’s descriptive tool into a coherent theory. In order to do that I propose a set of premises that regulate the working of the component of morpho-phonology. Among these premises the Minimalist Hypothesis (Kaye 1992) and the Locality Principle occupy the most prominent position. The former says that all morpho-phonological replacements work whenever their conditions are met (no (counter)bleeding or counterfeeding is possible), whereas the latter limits the scope of morpho-phonological replacements to nodes entering the relation of concatenation (Embick 2010). The last part of the article is devoted to the cases that apparently violate the Minimalist Hypothesis. These are the replacements that Gussmann (2007) subsumes under the label P(alatalization) R(eplacement) 7. The article shows that the problematic replacements presented as PR7 may be convincingly analysed as root-specific and thus do not constitute counterexamples to the Minimalist Hypothesis.
Łukasz Grabowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 165 - 183
This pilot study attempts to examine the potential of selected corpus linguistics and computational stylistics methods in the investigation of translation universals in translational literary Polish.More specifically, the study deals with T-universals (after Chesterman 2004), which are also referred to as intralingual translation universals (Grabowski 2011), with emphasis on core patterns of lexical use, as proposed by Laviosa (1998, 2002), and the leveling-out hypothesis, as proposed by Baker (1996). To that end, the custom-designed corpora,with approximately 500,000 tokens each, of contemporary translational and non-translational literary Polish were compiled. The results of the study reveal that on the whole translated texts are more varied lexically and have more repetitions and lower lexical variety among top-frequency words than non-translated Polish texts. On the other hand, the study shows that non-translational texts have higher lexical variety among bottom-frequency words, where usually one can find author-specific and creative vocabulary. The results of multivariate methods (Principal Components Analysis and Cluster Analysis) confirm the leveling-out hypothesis that translations are more alike as compared with native texts.
Aleksandra Walkiewicz, Helene Włodarczyk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 5 - 36
The present paper is an attempt to apply the Distributed Grammar (DG) theory which includes both the semantic and the pragmatic (meta-informative) level, to a cross-linguistic, comparative analysis of the use of certain aspect forms in Polish and French. Although the opposition of simple and complex forms of the French verb is often interpreted as aspectual, the existence of aspect in French usually taken for granted, and the Imparfait tense (IMP) described as “imperfective”, we propose to revisit the correspondence of IMP and the past forms of Polish Imperfective (IPF) verbs. We shall look particularly closely at cases where the IMP is not a translation equivalent of the Polish IPF, trying to explain these differences referring to both systemic and contextual factors. By reference to the theory of Meta-informative Grounding (MIG), we explain the corresponding uses of the IMP and the IPF by the ontological grounding of situations considered as generic, general, potential or habitual. The other uses of the IPF which do not correspond to the IMP in French can be explained by what we call cognitive and communicative grounding, in other words by the fact that the situation is pictured as known to both the speaker and the hearer or as already mentioned (anaphoric usage). Some other non-corresponding uses of the IPF result from its unmarked character in the Slavic Aspect opposition. Such uses of the IPF (which we call neutral) are motivated by the speaker’s intention to (1) “avoid” a specific meaning carried out by the Perfective (PF), or (2) state nothing but the simple occurring of a situation, or (3) underline the fact that the speaker was certainly not involved in the situation described by the verb.
Przemysław Tajsner
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 37 - 61
The two main topics of the paper are VP focus projection and the integration of adjuncts in VPs. First, a few conceptual and empirical questions are raised to Hornstein’s (2009) account of VP focus projection which is based on the “pure Concatenate/dangling off” way of adding adjuncts to a VP. It is argued that an account along these lines may have to recourse to a derivational look-ahead, which is a disadvantage. It is also noted that the “dangling off “ solution proves problematic if adjuncts have to fulfill the function of modifying events. What is more, it is not clear why the integration in a structure, necessary for movement, should be treated as a sufficient condition for focus projection.
Next, the paper offers a short taxonomy of VP-pre-posing types in Polish. They appear to fall in two major categories: (i) VP- pre-posing for focus, and (ii) VP-pre-posing for topic. It is argued that in the former type, representing Focus Fronting (FF), a pre-posed VP is a separate Intonation Phrase, in which, as predicted by Truckenbrodt (2001) and others, the rightmost accented phrase must receive a prominent phrasal stress. Thus, the VP-final main stress on adjuncts is derived from the interplay of syntax and phonology, unlike in Hornstein’s (2009) account. Such a view is supported by the observed cases of VP pre-posing for topic in Polish in which the earlier distribution of stresses within a VP (derived by a Nuclear Stress Rule) is conserved after movement, and no extra phonological stress rule applies.
The second major topic of the paper is the mechanics of adjunct integration in VPs. It is argued that there are two ways in which adjuncts may be added to the structure of a VP; by Concatenate (a default option) or by Merge. The former is only possible if no further instance of Merge is to follow, which is at the completion of vP and CP phases. The less economical Merge option is used when the VP-plus-adjunct undergoes further pre-posing for focus or for topic. Finally, it is shown how the phase-wise derivation may map on the procedure of stress promotion in a structure of a VP. It is argued that adjuncts concatenated to the root, prior to Spell-out, cannot receive an appropriate number of stress grids, and hence cannot carry main VP-stress.
Katarzyna Miechowicz-Mathiasen
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 63 - 81
In this paper I discuss Polish data in view of Pesetsky and Torrego’s (2001, 2004, 2007) proposals. The data suggest that the issues are more complex than they appear in English, and that extending the analysis to Polish would require modifications shedding light on the entire proposal. The Polish to-omission asymmetry, the missing that-t effect, distribution of CP arguments, as well as complementation possibilities of nouns and adjectives will be discussed in detail. It will be argued that φ-features must play a role in Agree relations with the Tns probes, contrary to the recent proposals made by the authors.
Anna Malicka-Kleparska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 83 - 105
One of the key operations in valency rearrangement is the formation of mono-argumental predicates from phonologically corresponding/identical bi-argumental predicates. It has been most recently revisited by Junghanns, Fermann and Lenertová (2011), who analyze decausatives in Slavic languages as cases of reflexivization of verbs with non-agentive causers, in the spirit of Koontz-Garboden (2009).We review these formations in Polish and find out that an alysis which is set against more extensive data gives no grounds for a reflexive analysis. We find the data in favor of decausatives showing the presence of the external argument through the appearance of the subject ‘by itself ’ anaphor misjudged as to their grammaticality. This claim is supported with examples from the National Corpus of the Polish Language contending against Jabłońska’s (2007) analysis. The overall picture of the morphological system and language behavior speak against setting apart decausatives with reflexive marking from other unaccusatives in Polish. We disregard the reflexive analysis and adopt the anticausative solution, where the formation of decausatives is not seen as identification of arguments. We see it as a subtraction of VoiceP. This solution assumes one of the structures for decausatives from Alexiadou (2010). The operation is seen as lexical, not syntactic, and in defiance of Koontz-Garboden’s Monotonicity Hypothesis.
Barbara Bacz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 107 - 128
This paper discusses the means employed by the Polish verb in order to communicate the meaning of single occurrence (i.e. semelfactivity). An introspective examination of the semelfactive uses of Polish perfective verbs with the suffix –ną-, the inchoative and resultative (“purely aspectual”) prefixes za- and s-/z- as well as the prefixes expressing subjective evaluation of single acts is carried out from the perspective of the cluster model of aspect (proposed for Russian by Janda 2007). The possibility of applying to Polish Dickey and Janda’s (2009) allomorphy hypothesis, which states that in Russian semelfactivity is expressed by both the suffix –nu- and the prefix s-, is considered. It is shown that even though the cluster approach to aspect offers an attractive, user-friendly method of talking about semelfactivity, numerous problems posed by the Polish semelfactive data require adjustments of the model’s implicational hierarchy. The allomorphy hypothesis is less motivated in Polish than in Russian for a Polish category of s- prefixed semelfactives is harder to isolate.
Sławomir Zdziebko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 129 - 164
Gussmann (2007) put forward a morpho-phonological analysis of Polish palatalizations which is an alternative to traditional re-write rules promoting abstractness in phonology. The aim of this article is to turn Gussmann’s descriptive tool into a coherent theory. In order to do that I propose a set of premises that regulate the working of the component of morpho-phonology. Among these premises the Minimalist Hypothesis (Kaye 1992) and the Locality Principle occupy the most prominent position. The former says that all morpho-phonological replacements work whenever their conditions are met (no (counter)bleeding or counterfeeding is possible), whereas the latter limits the scope of morpho-phonological replacements to nodes entering the relation of concatenation (Embick 2010). The last part of the article is devoted to the cases that apparently violate the Minimalist Hypothesis. These are the replacements that Gussmann (2007) subsumes under the label P(alatalization) R(eplacement) 7. The article shows that the problematic replacements presented as PR7 may be convincingly analysed as root-specific and thus do not constitute counterexamples to the Minimalist Hypothesis.
Łukasz Grabowski
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Volume 7 (2012), pp. 165 - 183
This pilot study attempts to examine the potential of selected corpus linguistics and computational stylistics methods in the investigation of translation universals in translational literary Polish.More specifically, the study deals with T-universals (after Chesterman 2004), which are also referred to as intralingual translation universals (Grabowski 2011), with emphasis on core patterns of lexical use, as proposed by Laviosa (1998, 2002), and the leveling-out hypothesis, as proposed by Baker (1996). To that end, the custom-designed corpora,with approximately 500,000 tokens each, of contemporary translational and non-translational literary Polish were compiled. The results of the study reveal that on the whole translated texts are more varied lexically and have more repetitions and lower lexical variety among top-frequency words than non-translated Polish texts. On the other hand, the study shows that non-translational texts have higher lexical variety among bottom-frequency words, where usually one can find author-specific and creative vocabulary. The results of multivariate methods (Principal Components Analysis and Cluster Analysis) confirm the leveling-out hypothesis that translations are more alike as compared with native texts.
Publication date: 31.12.1969
This volume of Studies in Polish Linguistics was made possible by a grant from the National Programme for the Development of Humanities awarded by the polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Séamus Mac Mathúna, Piotr Stalmaszczyk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 5 - 6
Professor Edmund Gussmann, an eminent Polish linguist, associated with the universities of Lublin, Gdańsk and Poznań, died in Gdynia on 2nd September 2010.
Piotr Żmigrodzki
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 7 - 26
Ewa Jędrzejko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 27 - 44
The article discusses selected problems connected with description of complex predicates (CPred), i.a., the still controversial issue of criteria applied to diff erentiate and classify elements of this category, their status in lexical-grammatical system and their relationship with synthetic entities belonging to the class of VERBUM. What makes CPreds interesting is the fact that they have been encountered in various languages (e.g. ispytywat’’voschiščenije (Russian) = mieć // odczuć podziw // zachwyt (Polish) = to feel admiration (for) (English); polučat’ pomošč (Russian) = otrzymać // dostać pomoc (Polish) = to receive help (from sb) (English); zaviazywat’ družbu (Russian) = nawiązać przyjaźń // zaprzyjaźnić się (Polish) = to strike up a friendship // to become friends (English), etc.). This situation calls for a search for complex solutions, also with the aid of new linguistic theories. Especially the cognitivist thesis about the prototypical character of lexical-grammatical categories allows to classify Cpreds as a typologically diversifi ed group of complex entities (characterised by varied degrees of fixedness) functioning within the class of VERBUM understood as a gradated and polycentric category. Such an approach allows for diff erentiation of several types (structural models) of Cpreds, i.e. entities representing a peripheral group of verbs and diff ering with respect to structure, lexical composition and degree of ‘fi xedness’ of their meanings, and, as a result, with respect to their global content: 1) [VCOP + NKONKR // Nabstr // Adj // Adv] (standard nominal predicates); 2) [VMOD+ VINF] + ... (modal predicates); 3) [VFAZ +V // NA] + ... (phase-aspectual predicates); 4) [VGENER + NA // NE // Nabstr] + ... (verbo-nominal analytisms); 5) [VMETAF // METAPRED + Nabstr // NA // NE ] + ... (periphrastic predicates as part of verbal phraseology).
Eugeniusz Cyran
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 45 - 80
This paper argues against the ‘what you see is what you get’ bias in laryngeal phonology. It contains a new analysis of voicing in modern Polish, which incorporates phonetic interpretation into representation based phonology, and which assumes that the relation between the two aspects of sound systems is largely arbitrary. It is demonstrated that Polish in fact possesses two opposite laryngeal systems, corresponding to its two major dialects and yielding virtually identical phonetic facts, except for the phenomenon of Cracow sandhi voicing.
Jerzy Rubach
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 81 - 98
This article presents the vowel system of Kurpian, a dialect of Polish spoken in northern Poland. The data come from the fi eldwork that I conducted in Kurpia over a period of many years. Kurpian has a much richer system of vowel contrasts than Standard Polish, with three high vowels, five mid vowels and two low vowels. While in most contexts these vowels are contrastive, there are also contexts in which they can be derived by general processes of Kurpian. Two such processes are discussed here: Nasal Tensing and Nasal Backing. They are analysed in terms of Optimality Theory.
Maciej Eder
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 99 - 114
The present study addresses one of the theoretical problems of computer-assisted authorship attribution, namely the question which traceable features of language can betray authorial uniqueness (a stylistic fingerprint) of literary texts. A number of recent approaches show that apart from lexical measures — especially those relying on the frequencies of the most frequent words — also some other features of written language are considerably effective as discriminators of authorial style. However, there have been no attempts to compare the attribution potential of these features. The aim of the present study, then, was to examine the effectiveness of several style-markers in authorship attribution. The style-markers chosen for the empirical investigation are those that can be retrieved from a non-lemmatized corpus of plain text files, such as the most frequent words, word bi-grams, different letter sequences, and markers of different nature, combined in one sample. Equally important, however, was to compare usefulness of the chosen style-markers across a few languages: English, Polish, German, and Latin. The results confirmed a high attribution effectiveness of word-based style-markers in the English corpus, but the alternative markers are shown to be usually more effective in the other languages.
Stela Manova, Kimberley Winternitz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 115 - 138
In this article we investigate suffix combinations in second- and third-grade diminutive nouns in Polish and Bulgarian. We show that the formation of double and multiple diminutives in both languages is subject to phonological, morphological, semantic and psycholinguistic constraints. Although diminutive suffixes constitute a semantically homogeneous set, they do not combine freely with each other and of all possible combinations of diminutive suffixes in a language only very few exist. Both languages under scrutiny in this paper ‘filter’ their relatively large sets of DIM1 suffixes and use very few of them for the formation of DIM2 nouns, and Bulgarian also for DIM3 nouns. Moreover, only suffixes that occur in DIM2 nouns can derive DIM3 nouns in Bulgarian. The combinations of diminutive suffixes in double and multiple diminutives are fixed and resemble to some extent a template order. The paper also contributes to morphological theory: to the proper understanding of diminutivization, to the definition of closing suffixation, and to revealing the way affix order is constrained in human languages.
Zuzanna Topolińska, Eleni Bužarovska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 139 - 151
The authors are interested in the semantic (= not formal) evolution of the dative case relationship. They carry their analysis in the framework of the anthropocentric case theory and argue that the referent of the dative NP (NPD) is the second (in the communicative hierarchy) human protagonist of the event (beneficiens and/or experiencer). Also the D ~ G opposition is analyzed on the semantic plane, with the referent of the NPG interpreted as the possessor in contexts when the possessor – possessum relation is realized at the level of a NP, and not at the sentential level. The syntactic, adverbal vs. adnominal position is understood as the basic, definitional difference between NPD and NPG at the formal plane.
Gennadij Zeldowicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 153 - 171
It is argued that the meaning of Russian dative reflexive constructions, i.e. constructions of the type Ivanu ne rabotaetsja ‘Ivan does not feel like working’, is compositional. It is shown that the reflexive marker -sja in general signals reduced agentivity and/or increased patientivity of the subject. One of the possible particular construals of -sja is ‘the subject’s volitionality is decreased’. For reasons explained in the paper, purely “quantitative” reduction (‘the subject is less willing to carry out the action, and/or has less inner resources necessary for the action’) is improbable, which forces the speakers to look for other circumstances reducing the subject’s responsibility for the action. This is an easy task, since, on the one hand, one may always believe that the subject’s desires and/or inner resources are due to an external irrational force acting upon the subject, and, on the other hand, we tend to speak of such a force only where the action is indeed carried out, which attenuates the responsibility of the subject. As far as the subject in dative reflexive constructions stops to be the initial point in the relevant causal chain and becomes in some sense a beneficiary, the nominative-dative shift in its morphology is only the side effect of non-reflexive-to-reflexive transformation. Thus, both the meaning of dative reflexive constructions and their form turn out to be predictable from the general meaning of the reflexive marker -sja.
Igor M. Boguslavsky
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 173 - 179
We address two methodological issues: 1) What is compositionality? We maintain the idea that if a linguistic unit is fully compositional, then in no place of the linguistic description do we need to refer to its existence. 2) How should the compositionality be demonstrated? We suggest that this demonstration should meet higher standards of logical rigor.
Séamus Mac Mathúna, Piotr Stalmaszczyk
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 5 - 6
Professor Edmund Gussmann, an eminent Polish linguist, associated with the universities of Lublin, Gdańsk and Poznań, died in Gdynia on 2nd September 2010.
Piotr Żmigrodzki
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 7 - 26
Ewa Jędrzejko
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 27 - 44
The article discusses selected problems connected with description of complex predicates (CPred), i.a., the still controversial issue of criteria applied to diff erentiate and classify elements of this category, their status in lexical-grammatical system and their relationship with synthetic entities belonging to the class of VERBUM. What makes CPreds interesting is the fact that they have been encountered in various languages (e.g. ispytywat’’voschiščenije (Russian) = mieć // odczuć podziw // zachwyt (Polish) = to feel admiration (for) (English); polučat’ pomošč (Russian) = otrzymać // dostać pomoc (Polish) = to receive help (from sb) (English); zaviazywat’ družbu (Russian) = nawiązać przyjaźń // zaprzyjaźnić się (Polish) = to strike up a friendship // to become friends (English), etc.). This situation calls for a search for complex solutions, also with the aid of new linguistic theories. Especially the cognitivist thesis about the prototypical character of lexical-grammatical categories allows to classify Cpreds as a typologically diversifi ed group of complex entities (characterised by varied degrees of fixedness) functioning within the class of VERBUM understood as a gradated and polycentric category. Such an approach allows for diff erentiation of several types (structural models) of Cpreds, i.e. entities representing a peripheral group of verbs and diff ering with respect to structure, lexical composition and degree of ‘fi xedness’ of their meanings, and, as a result, with respect to their global content: 1) [VCOP + NKONKR // Nabstr // Adj // Adv] (standard nominal predicates); 2) [VMOD+ VINF] + ... (modal predicates); 3) [VFAZ +V // NA] + ... (phase-aspectual predicates); 4) [VGENER + NA // NE // Nabstr] + ... (verbo-nominal analytisms); 5) [VMETAF // METAPRED + Nabstr // NA // NE ] + ... (periphrastic predicates as part of verbal phraseology).
Eugeniusz Cyran
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 45 - 80
This paper argues against the ‘what you see is what you get’ bias in laryngeal phonology. It contains a new analysis of voicing in modern Polish, which incorporates phonetic interpretation into representation based phonology, and which assumes that the relation between the two aspects of sound systems is largely arbitrary. It is demonstrated that Polish in fact possesses two opposite laryngeal systems, corresponding to its two major dialects and yielding virtually identical phonetic facts, except for the phenomenon of Cracow sandhi voicing.
Jerzy Rubach
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 81 - 98
This article presents the vowel system of Kurpian, a dialect of Polish spoken in northern Poland. The data come from the fi eldwork that I conducted in Kurpia over a period of many years. Kurpian has a much richer system of vowel contrasts than Standard Polish, with three high vowels, five mid vowels and two low vowels. While in most contexts these vowels are contrastive, there are also contexts in which they can be derived by general processes of Kurpian. Two such processes are discussed here: Nasal Tensing and Nasal Backing. They are analysed in terms of Optimality Theory.
Maciej Eder
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 99 - 114
The present study addresses one of the theoretical problems of computer-assisted authorship attribution, namely the question which traceable features of language can betray authorial uniqueness (a stylistic fingerprint) of literary texts. A number of recent approaches show that apart from lexical measures — especially those relying on the frequencies of the most frequent words — also some other features of written language are considerably effective as discriminators of authorial style. However, there have been no attempts to compare the attribution potential of these features. The aim of the present study, then, was to examine the effectiveness of several style-markers in authorship attribution. The style-markers chosen for the empirical investigation are those that can be retrieved from a non-lemmatized corpus of plain text files, such as the most frequent words, word bi-grams, different letter sequences, and markers of different nature, combined in one sample. Equally important, however, was to compare usefulness of the chosen style-markers across a few languages: English, Polish, German, and Latin. The results confirmed a high attribution effectiveness of word-based style-markers in the English corpus, but the alternative markers are shown to be usually more effective in the other languages.
Stela Manova, Kimberley Winternitz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 115 - 138
In this article we investigate suffix combinations in second- and third-grade diminutive nouns in Polish and Bulgarian. We show that the formation of double and multiple diminutives in both languages is subject to phonological, morphological, semantic and psycholinguistic constraints. Although diminutive suffixes constitute a semantically homogeneous set, they do not combine freely with each other and of all possible combinations of diminutive suffixes in a language only very few exist. Both languages under scrutiny in this paper ‘filter’ their relatively large sets of DIM1 suffixes and use very few of them for the formation of DIM2 nouns, and Bulgarian also for DIM3 nouns. Moreover, only suffixes that occur in DIM2 nouns can derive DIM3 nouns in Bulgarian. The combinations of diminutive suffixes in double and multiple diminutives are fixed and resemble to some extent a template order. The paper also contributes to morphological theory: to the proper understanding of diminutivization, to the definition of closing suffixation, and to revealing the way affix order is constrained in human languages.
Zuzanna Topolińska, Eleni Bužarovska
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 139 - 151
The authors are interested in the semantic (= not formal) evolution of the dative case relationship. They carry their analysis in the framework of the anthropocentric case theory and argue that the referent of the dative NP (NPD) is the second (in the communicative hierarchy) human protagonist of the event (beneficiens and/or experiencer). Also the D ~ G opposition is analyzed on the semantic plane, with the referent of the NPG interpreted as the possessor in contexts when the possessor – possessum relation is realized at the level of a NP, and not at the sentential level. The syntactic, adverbal vs. adnominal position is understood as the basic, definitional difference between NPD and NPG at the formal plane.
Gennadij Zeldowicz
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 153 - 171
It is argued that the meaning of Russian dative reflexive constructions, i.e. constructions of the type Ivanu ne rabotaetsja ‘Ivan does not feel like working’, is compositional. It is shown that the reflexive marker -sja in general signals reduced agentivity and/or increased patientivity of the subject. One of the possible particular construals of -sja is ‘the subject’s volitionality is decreased’. For reasons explained in the paper, purely “quantitative” reduction (‘the subject is less willing to carry out the action, and/or has less inner resources necessary for the action’) is improbable, which forces the speakers to look for other circumstances reducing the subject’s responsibility for the action. This is an easy task, since, on the one hand, one may always believe that the subject’s desires and/or inner resources are due to an external irrational force acting upon the subject, and, on the other hand, we tend to speak of such a force only where the action is indeed carried out, which attenuates the responsibility of the subject. As far as the subject in dative reflexive constructions stops to be the initial point in the relevant causal chain and becomes in some sense a beneficiary, the nominative-dative shift in its morphology is only the side effect of non-reflexive-to-reflexive transformation. Thus, both the meaning of dative reflexive constructions and their form turn out to be predictable from the general meaning of the reflexive marker -sja.
Igor M. Boguslavsky
Studies in Polish Linguistics, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Volume 6 (2011), pp. 173 - 179
We address two methodological issues: 1) What is compositionality? We maintain the idea that if a linguistic unit is fully compositional, then in no place of the linguistic description do we need to refer to its existence. 2) How should the compositionality be demonstrated? We suggest that this demonstration should meet higher standards of logical rigor.
