O pewnych użyciach form czasu przeszłego w "Panu Tadeuszu" Adama Mickiewicza
About some uses of the past tense forms in Adam Mickiewicz's “Pan Tadeusz”

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to describe the phenomenon of mixing genders in the past tense which can be observed in the autograph of “Pan Tadeusz”. It is about using in the singular, as feminine, forms with endings -em, -eś (Byłem jej piastunką) and connecting in the plural masculine forms of the verbs with the masculine non-personal nouns (ogary doszli zwierza). The first of these phenomenons, which is a hypercorrect reaction to pronunciation of unaccented e like a caused by Belarussian influence, cannot be found in the manuscript and sometimes even not in the draft. However, the second, which is an old regional — dialect feature, used by Mickiewicz for styling purposes, appears in all versions of the masterpiece. In this way, mixing genders in the singular of the past tense in the language of the “Pan Tadeusz” is a system feature, whereas in the plural — a stylistic one.

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