Is the case of adjective comparison an inflexional category in the Polish language? Cover Image

Czy stopień przymiotnika jest w języku polskim kategorią fleksyjną?
Is the case of adjective comparison an inflexional category in the Polish language?

Author(s): Maria Szupryczyńska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Western Slavic Languages
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the controversial problem of the position of adjective comparison in the morphological description of Polish. The morphological structure of these adjective forms ia more complicated than the structure of noun decclension forms. Despite this, morphemes of comparison case may be treated as inflexional, since the function of a particular grammatical category is the criterium of the inflexional character of morphemes. The author speaks in favour of the inflexional character of adjective comparison forms on the basis of the following theoretical findings: 1) the three case forms are produced from a large number of adjectives» 2) the comparison case differentiates the paradigms of corresponding lexemes in a complete and identical ways 3) the categories - positive, comparative, superlative - determine oppositional sub-sets within the whole set of adjective forms understood as one lexeme. Some irregular cases, morphologically similar to comparison cases should be treated by dictionaries as inflexional. Inflexional forms can be found only in one-word synthetic forms, analytic forms should be treated as sentence constructions consisting of two different word forms (adjective + adverb).

  • Issue Year: 1981
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 265-272
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Polish