competing grammars or diachrony at work: a case of polish
TRANSCRIPT
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Competing grammars or diachrony at work: a case of Polish anticausatives
Anna Malicka-Kleparska
1. Introduction
Chomskian view on how language works is based on the assumption that a large portion of our
linguistic competence is inborn (e.g. Chomsky 1969, 1980, 2000). Then, under the influence of the
data we are exposed to we form our unique, yet partly universal grammars. The situations where
competing grammars coexist in the minds of individual speakers do not fit well this theoretical model.
Yet languages occasionally breed phenomena which constitute offensive areas to the conception of
grammar advocated by Chomsky.
Polish is a language which seem to contain a case of competing grammars used by individual speakers
in the sphere of morpho-syntax. In this paper we will look for an explanation in the history of the
Polish language and consider available theories concerning parallel grammars which could clarify the
status of Polish anticausative verbs in competition.
2. History of anticausative types
Haspelmath (1993) argues extensively that languages of the world choose whether to mark
unaccusatives or causatives based on the same roots with some additional morphological material. In
other words, there is nothing intrinsically more basic either about unaccusative or causative meanings.
Slavic languages predominantly mark unaccusatives corresponding to causatives in a more complex
way, so we may assume that in the grammar of Slavic languages there is a rule deriving unaccusatives,
also called anticausatives since they contain characteristic formatives and (frequently) correspond to
causative verbs based on the same roots. Polish, following Slavic developments, has at present two
patterns producing anticausatives: one more analytic, the other - more synthetic.
The more analytic pattern involves clear anticausative alternation material, also present in other Slavic
and other Indo-European languages ( see Cennamo et al. to appear) in the form of a reflexive-like
morpheme. It evolved from Indo-European mediopassive form and went through intermediate stages,
while the role of the external agentive participant grew less and less prominent up to the point when
the anticausative with a reflexive morpheme marking was formed (Cennamo et al. to appear).
Originally, in Indo-European, the characteristic morpheme was a reflexive pronoun, which developed
into Proto-Slavic Cѧ, corresponding to similar elements in other Indo-European languages, e.g. Latin
se , Gothic sik, (Steiner 1889), Vedic sva (Kulikov 2007). In Old Polish ( Psałterz floriański) the
accusative case of the pronoun used in the anticausative verbs took the forms of sϙ, se, sze, sye, sie
(Steiner 1889). This seems to be the way in which the analytic anticausatives in Polish developed.
Present day forms of reflexive marked anticausatives are illustrated e.g. by Laskowski (1984: 139) :
(1) starzeć się ‘grow old’, wydłużać się ‘grow longer’, bielić się ‘grow white’
The reflexive particle is a verbal clitic, which may occupy a relatively free position in a sentence (see
Ozga 1976).
The history of the other pattern – more synthetic – which plays a significant role among Polish
anticausatives nowadays is much more obscure. Polish synthetic anticausatives might have followed a
similar path as Vedic suffixed –‘ya – non-passive verbs denoting change of state, although these were
an Indo-Iranian innovation, which was not based on Proto-Indo-European middle constructions (see
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Kulikov 2011 186-187). The oldest recorded synthetic predecessors of Polish anticausatives were Old
Church Slavonic denominal and deverbal ē-verbs, mostly inchoative, e.g. starӗti ‘grow old’ (see
Jasanoff 2002-2003), which were formed with a suffixed vocalic element. Present-Day Polish –e – /–
ej–1 anticausatives (see Wróbel’s state and processual verbs 1984:495, 498, 503) may follow this
pattern, e.g.:
(2) bieleć ‘grow white’ , dziczeć ‘grow wild’, chłopieć ‘grow more like a peasant’
Wróbel (1984) assumes that this suffix has an allomorphic variant –nie-/-niej-, although in many
cases possible substantival and adjectival bases of anticausative derivatives could have contributed
the nasal sounds:
(3) młodnieć ‘grow younger’, twardnieć ‘grow tough’, upiornieć ‘grow vampire like’, drewnieć ‘grow
wooden’, kamienieć ’get stony’, zielenieć ‘grow green’ 2
Another class of anticausatives possesses the nasal affix -nąć, which might come from the pattern of
post Proto-Indo-European intransitive inchoatives (see Gorbachov 2007) with a nasal element, e.g.:
(4) głuchnąć ‘grow deaf, mięknąć ‘grow soft’, rzednąć ‘grow more diluted’
As can be seen from the above exemplification, anticausative verbs in Polish constitute a varied and
diachronically non-uniform class. The interesting phenomenon, however, is that in a number of cases in Present-
Day Polish doublets or even triplets of anticausatives function side by side. The data relevant to this issue will be
presented in the next section.
3. Polish competing anticausatives – the data and structures
In the examples below we will present a body of data where two types of anticausatives based on the same roots
are coined. The common roots will be marked with bold characters and the verbs will represent an analytic
pattern and one or more synthetic ones. The meanings of the verbs coincide:
(5) Pękać – rozpękać się ‘bust’, promienieć – rozpromienić się ‘radiate light’, kwaśnieć – skwasić się
‘go sour’, potnieć – pocić się3 ‘sweat’, rdzewieć – rdzawić się ‘rust’, schnąć – rozsychać się ‘dry up’,
zaśmierdnąć – zaśmierdzieć się ‘stink’, postarzeć – postarzeć się ‘grow old’, rzednąć – rzednieć –
rozrzedzić się ‘grow diluted’, chłodnąć – chłodnieć – chłodzić się ‘grow cold’, śmierdnąć –
zaśmierdzieć się ‘grow stinky’, wilgnąć – nawilżyć się ‘grow moist’, stygnąć – studzić się ‘grow
cold’, cichnąć – uciszyć się ‘grow quiet’, mieknąć – rozmiekczać się ‘grow soft’, żółknąć – żółcieć –
żółcić się ‘grow yellow’, moknąć – moczyć się ‘grow wet’, płonąć – palić się ‘burn’, tonąć - topić się
‘sink’, gasnąć – gasić się ‘grow low (about fire)’, kwitnąć – rozkwiecić się ‘bloom’, marznąć –
mrozić się ‘freeze’
The initial reaction to such a body of data might be that the doublets are not perfect synonyms and
they are used in different contexts. Indeed in a number of cases it is what happens. First of all there is
a tendency for się derivatives to be perfective since they are frequently prefixed: 4
1 The latter allomorph represents the present tense stem form.
2 The bases would be: drewno ‘wood’, kamień ‘stone’, zielony ‘green’ for the three last forms in (3).
3 The differences which are observable in root representations constitute phonological and morpho-phonological
alternations, whose details are immaterial for our purposes. For an extensive account see Gussmann (2007). 4 The prefixes are given in bold characters in (6).
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(6) rozpęknąć się ‘bust’, rozpromienić się ‘radiate light’, rozeschnąć się ‘dry up’, zaśmierdzieć się ‘grow
stinky’, rozrzedzić się ‘grow diluted’, nawilżyć się ‘grow moist’, uciszyć się ‘grow quiet’,
rozmiękczyć się ‘grow soft’, rozkwiecić się ‘bloom’
while the suffixed anticausatives do not have to be accompanied by a prefix (see 5 above) and thus
they can be imperfective.5
However, this difference is leveled out by the grammatical system since the suffixed anticausatives
can be perfectivized either by adding a prefix or another suffix:6
(7) kwaśnieć (IMP) - skwaśnieć (PRF) ‘go sour’, rdzewieć (IMP) - zardzewieć (PRF) ‘rust), pękać (IMP) –
pęknąć (PRF) ‘bust’
while the się derivatives can form secondary imperfectives:
(8) rozpęknąć się (PRF) – rozpękać się (IMP) ‘bust’, rozpromienić się (PRF) – rozpromieniać się (IMP)
‘radiate light’, rozeschnąć się (PRF) – rozsychać się (IMP) ‘dry up’
The reason why się anticausatives are formed with the prefixed stems is connected with the fact that
they are based on accomplishment verbs, 7 which have to be telic and by force - perfective in the
system of Polish (see Łazorczyk 2010). Consequently, they are usually prefixed.
Below (in 9) we supply the hypothetical structure for synthetic anticausatives (adapted from Embick
2009 and Alexiadou and Doron 2012) with the suffixal middle voice head, followed by the
consecutive steps in the hypothetical derivation of się anticausatives :
(9)
5 On the perfectivizing force of Slavic prefixes see e.g.: Slabakova (2003), Romanova (2007), Filip (2013),
Malicka-Kleparska (to appear). 6 For details of the Polish aspectual system see Łazorczyk (2010).
7 There are some cases in which no prefix is visible and the causitivizing suffix i/y forms the accomplishment.,
e.g.: chłodnieć – chłodzić ‘make cold’ – chłodzić się ‘grow cold’, potnieć – ? pocić ‘make sweaty’ – pocić się
‘sweat’, rdzewieć – rdzawić ‘make rusty’ – rdzawić się ‘rust’, stygnąć – studzić ‘make cold’ – studzić się ‘grow
cold’, żółknąć – żółcić ‘make yellow’ – żółcić się ‘grow yellow’, moknąć – moczyć ‘make wet’ – moczyć się
‘grow wet’, płonąć – palić ‘make burn’ – palić się ‘burn’, tonąć – topić ‘make drown’ – topić się ‘sink’,
gasnąć – gasić ‘extinguish’ – gasić się ‘grow low (about fire)’, marznąć – mrozić ‘make frozen’ – mrozić się
‘freeze’. The suffix present in się anticausatives was originally a causative formative going back to Proto-Indo-
European European –eye–/ –o– (see Kulikov 2008:102). It continued in Old Church Slavonic as –i– e.g:: moriti
‘make die’, lożiti ‘make lie’ . Kulikov attributes the contrast in such Russian verbs as: utopit’’make sink’ –
utonut’’sink’, zamrozit’ ‘make freeze’ – zamierznut’ ‘freeze’ to the presence of this morpheme in the
accomplishment (causative) form. The same alternation can be traced in the Polish material presented in this
text.
Other methods of forming accomplishments are available in Polish as well. For instance internal modification of
the root may mark the contrast between an accomplishment and an unaccusative: topić ‘make sink’- tonąć ‘sink’.
For a more in depth presentation of the Polish accomplishment verbs see Wróbel (1984:495, 498, 503).
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μ
μ v
-ną- v ST
√wilg- v ST DP
E.g.: Ziemia lubi wilgnąć od deszczu ‘Soil likes to get moist from rain’8
Transitive accomplishments corresponding to the anticausatives discussed in this text are formed by
means of various prefixations (and –i-/-y- suffix) realizing the active voice heads which replace the
middle voice heads of anticausative structures and introduce in their specifiers external agentive
arguments (see Marantz 1984, Alexiadou and Doron 2012):
(10)
ν9
Spec
(deszcz)
ν
ν
v
na- -y
v
ST
√wilg v ST DP
(ziemię)
E.g.: Deszcz nawilżył ziemię ‘Rain soaked the soil’
Then, if the DP in the specifier and the internal argument of the verb are co-indexed then the structure
may be re-analyzed into an anticausative verb10
with a complex middle voice head: prefix+suffix+się:
8 -ną- is a suffixal middle voice head which gets lenearized after the root later on in the derivation by spell out
rules. 9 The symbol for the category of active voice - ν (the Greek small letter ‘nu’) has been taken from Alexiadou
and Doron (2012). 10
We assume that some lexical re-arrangement process has to operate here as the structure in (10) can function
as a reflexive structure when the arguments are co-indexed: Podczas wyścigu rowerzysta nawilżał się gąbką
‘During the race the cyclist moistened himself with a sponge’. The meaning of such a sentence is different from
the meaning of a sentence with the anticausative verb since the argument in the anticausative structure is not
interpreted as an agent, but as the patient of the event.
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(11)
μ
μ
v
na- -
y się
v
ST
√wilg v ST DP
E.g.: Ziemia nawilżyła się ‘Soil got soaked’
This development mirrors the historical development of such constructions from Indo-European as
described ealier – from reflexive through medio-passive to anticausative structures. Consequently, an
interesting analogy with the diachronic perspective can be observed here in the derivational history of
the analytic anticausatives.
Analytic and synthetic doublets sometimes develop idiosyncratic differences in their meanings, e.g.:
rozsychać się ‘dry up’ is used about cracking wood, moczyć się ‘grow wet’ also means ‘wet one’s
bed’, while the corresponding suffixed anticausatives do not have such specific meanings. The
synthetic form tonąć means only ‘to sink’ but its analytic counterpart (topić się) may also signify
‘melting’.
No systematic differences appear in the use of suffixed and cliticized analytic anticausatives in Polish
(see Malicka-Kleparska 2013, cf. Jabłońska 2007). Both types of anticausatives take the Polish
equivalents of by itself modifying phrase, which tests for anticausatives:11
(12) drzwi zamykają się same podczas jazdy ‘the door closes by itself while in motion’
door-NOM-PL close-PRS-3rd-PL PRT-REF self-NOM-PL while drive-SUBS
lakiery muszą schnąć same ‘lacquers must dry by themselves’
lacquers-NOM-PL must-PRT-PL dry-INF self-NOM-PL
Both types appear with other identical prepositional phrases (here the od ‘from’ phrase) introducing
causers of the processes described by the anticausatives:
(13) potnieli od upału ‘they sweated from heat’
sweat-PST-M-PL from heat-GEN-SG
pociły się od upału ‘they sweated from heat’
sweat-PST-F-PL from heat -GEN-SG
mokną od deszczów ‘they get wet from rain’
wet-PRS-PL from rain-GEN-PL
moczyły się od potu ‘they got wet from sweat’
wet-PST-F-PL from sweat-GEN-PL
Other aspects of morpho-syntax in which differences among various processual structures are
encountered in various languages also fail to distinguish suffixed and cliticized anticausatives:
11
Examples in (12, 13, 14) are taken from the National Corpus of the Polish Language (Przepiórkowski et al. 2012).
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according to Doron and Labelle (2010) French and Hebrew distinguish between processual and
resultative anticausative structures. Processual constructions can have subjects with internally driven
changes, while the resultatives cannot. In Polish this distinction does not seem to hold for suffixed and
cliticized anticausatives: both types of verbs freely admit of patients undergoing the changes by
themselves as well as due to the influence of the second party:
(14) Maria czerwienieje ‘Mary reddens’
Mary-NOM-SG redden-PRS-SG
Józio czerwienił się co chwila ‘Józio reddened every moment’
Józio-NOM-M-SG redden-PST-M-SG PRT-REF every moment
czerwieniała wokół domu gleba na skutek reakcji chemicznych
redden-PST-F-SG around house-GEN soil-NOM-F-SG because reaction-GEN-PL chemical
woda czerwieniła się od krwi ‘water reddened from blood’
water-NOM-F-SG redden-PST-F-SG from blood-GEN-SG
We are not going to enumerate here all the tests which may distinguish different kinds of change of
state verbs. An extensive array is offered by Jabłońska (2007) and Malicka-Kleparska (2013). Suffice
it to say that the data do not offer sound support for the position that suffixed and cliticized
anticausatives in Polish differ in any way in their morpho-syntactic behavior. Consequently, with the
exception of those cases where particular forms have acquired specialized meanings, Polish sythetic
and cliticized anticausatives constitute ideal morphological doublets (triplets).
Before drawing any conclusions concerning the synchronic anticausatives re generative theory, let us
consider the relationships of synthetic and analytic anticausatives in the history of Polish.
4. From Old Polish to Present-Day Polish anticausatives
We will begin with the Old Polish data which have been made available thanks to PolDi (a Polish
Diachronic Online Corpus) and fully tagged for: Modlitewnik Nawojki [Naw], 1
st h. 15
th c., Kazania
gnieźnieńskie [Gn], 1st h. 15
th c., Ewangeliarz Zamojskich [EwZam], 2
nd h. 15
th c., Modlitwy
Wacława [MW], 1482, Żywot świętego Błażeja [ZywBlaz], 1st h. 16
th c., Rozmyślania przemyskie
[RozPrz],1st h. 16
th c., Biblia ks. Wujka [BW], 2
nd h. 16
th c.
12
The interesting fact is that the sources from the 15th and the beginning of the 16
th century use great
numbers of analytic się formations (even in those cases where nowadays we do not have the cliticized
particle) while synthetic forms are very few and far between. The forms are frequently even more
analytic than the nowadays cliticized anticausatives, as the structures are formed with the particle się
and the processual copula followed by an adjective used predicatively, instead of a lexical verb with
the clitic się. Below we exemplify such uses:
(15) [Gn] ten ci się jest {on} dzisia uczynił {barzo} niski i teże i stary
This-NOM-SG you-DAT-SG REF is-PRS-3rd-SG he today made-COP-PSR-3rd-SG much low-
NOM-M-3rd-SG and also old-NOM-M-3rd-SG
‘He has become today very short and old’
Się jest on dzisiaj uczynił małym
REF is-PRS-3rd-SG he today made-COP-PSR-3rd-SG small-INS--M-3rd-SG
‘He became small’
The most frequent ways of rendering the anticausative meanings are się analytic structures which
constitute the prevailing pattern:
(16) [Gn] iżci się jest [był] krplewic narodził
12
The last source comes from a slightly later period but includes an interesting example which we have decided
to include in (18) below .
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So-you-DAT-2nd-SG REF is-PRS-3rd-SG is-PST-3rd-SG prince-NOM-SG bear-PST--3rd-SG
‘So the prince was born to you’
Iże gdyż się on chce odmłodzić
That that REF he-NOM-SG want-PRS--3rd-SG become young-INF
‘Because he wants to get younger’
Iżbyć się on na skończeniu świata ukazał
As to REF he-NOM at end-DAT-SG world-GEN-SG show-PST-3rd-SG
‘So that he would show up at the end of the world{
[EwZam] pirwej niżli w żywocie się poczęło
Earlier than in belly-INS-SG REF begin-PST-N-3rd-SG
‘Earlier than it began in the belly’
In many cases the structures with the reflexive particle present in the Old Polish sources do not
correspond to any Present-Day Polish structures. Consequently, we think that the analytic structure
was even more frequent then than it is now:13
(17) [EwZam] badał się od nich […] by się nie wracali do Heroda
investigate PST-3rd-SG RFL from them if REF not come back- PST-3rd-PL to Herod
‘He asked them whether they were not coming back to Herod’
A domnimującemu się ludu
And think up-ADJ PRT-DAT-M-SG REF people-DAT
‘And the thinking up people’
[MW] przykazaniu twojem doświadczać będę się
Commandment-DAT-SG your obey-INF be-FUT-1st-SG REF
‘I will obey your commandment’
[RozPrz] podobnie ziemi i niebu przeminąć sie niżli twemu słowu
More probable earth-DAT and heaven-DAT vanish-INF REF than your word-DAT
‘The earth and heaven will vanish more probably than your word will’
Neither badać się ‘get to know, examine’ nor wracać się ‘come back’, domnimywać się ‘ask’,
przeminąć się ‘pass’ or doświadczać się ‘experience’ are nowadays standard verbal structures in
Polish. Wracać się survived as a dialectal form, as did some other verbs used with the reflexive
particle in the analyzed texts, but the realm of the appearance of the reflexive particle was obviously
much more extensive than it is in Present-Day Polish.
Synthetic anticausatives in Old Polish, at least judging by the available data, were few and far between
and they were limited to few repeated expressions. The verbs in the examples below are the only ones
that we have been able to find in our sources. Notice also that most of them come from a single source
([RozPrz]):
(18) [RozPrz] byli poczęli schnąć
Be-PST-3rd
- PL begin-PST-3rd
- PL dry-INF
‘They began to dry up’
A przeto musiło uschnąć
And so must-PST-N-3rd
–SG dry-INF
‘And so it had to dry up’
A jako począł tonąć
And because begin-PST-3rd
-SG sink-PST-3rd
-SG
‘And because it began to sink’
Ktorzy pobici, a też iżbt takież mieli poginąć
Who-NOM-PL bitten up and in case that also be about-PST-3rd
–PL slaughter-INF
‘Who was bitten up, and in case they were to be slaughtered’
[BW] goracy jemu w oczy upadnie, tak iże rącze oślną
Hot-NOM-SG him in eye-INS-PL fall-FUT-3rd
-SG so that quickly get blind-FUT-3rd
-PL
13
Actually many other structures of Old Polish were much more analytic than they are today, e.g. the
tense/aspect system see Migdalski (2006:40-43).
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So it seems that in Old Polish anticausative verbs formed with the suffixes were very infrequent. The
situation changed significantly by the middle of the 20th century. An extensive analysis of
anticausatives from that period of time is presented by Damborsky (1961). He notices that de-nominal
formations were especially productive and quotes whole semantic chains of similar forms that were
created with a single suffix.14
E.g.:
(19) psuć ‘spoil’: pleśnieć ‘get moldy’, kwaśnieć ‘go sour’, jełczeć ‘get rotten’, gorzknieć ‘go bitter’,
butwieć ‘rot’
By that time both -e- and -ną- suffixes were wide spread in Polish and, strangely enough, they
competed for the same basic roots. According to Damborsky (1961) many doublets appeared, e.g.:
(20) blednieć – bladnąć blednąć ‘whiten’; chłodnieć – chłodnąć ‘grow cold’; chudnieć – chudnąć ‘grow
slim’; kisieć – kisnąć ‘grow sour’, kwitnieć – kwitnąć ‘flower’; rzednieć – rzednąć ‘grow thin’,
słabnieć – słabnąć ‘grow weak’; ślepieć – ślepnąć ‘grow blind’; tęchnieć – tęchnąć ‘become less
swollen’; więdnieć – więdnąć ‘grow limp’; gęstnieć – gęstnąć ‘grow thick’; gorzknieć – gorzknąć
‘grow bitter’
Nowadays these suffixed doublets no longer coexist. Even in the middle of the 20th century
Damborsky (1961) noticed the tendency of –ną– forms to oust the –e– forms. However, contrary to his
predictions, a random choice of forms suffixed either with –e– or –ną– survived to our times. In his
very list gęstnieć and gorzknieć ousted the –ną– rivals.
The body of data analyzed by Damborsky allows us to draw an interesting conclusion: Suffixed forms
drive out other suffixed forms, while no interrelations can be noticed between the suffixed
anticausatives and się forms. Damborsky does not mention these anticausatives as he is interested in
what he perceives as morphological phenomena, while the element się may be seen as a semi-detached
morpho-syntactic formant, since it is a clitic. Nevertheless, we may safely assume that between the
times of Old Polish and the Early 20th century Polish the cliticized formations did not disappear as
they are present in historical sources and attested now in great numbers.15
Possibly the mechanism
which secures the preservation of single forms based on a common root and meaning the same thing,
which may be called blocking (see Aronoff 1976) operates more easily between structures using the
same morphological devices, or possibly having a similar derivational history (or the same
grammatical structure – see Embick 2008). Notice that the forms in –e– and in –ną– are very similar
in structure. In both kinds of formations the suffix would constitute the middle voice head introduced
in the derivation (see 9 above). On the other hand, the forms with się have undergone a lexicalization
process from reflexive-like formations to true anticausatives.16
A tendency to eliminate some –e– derivatives is observed till today: interestingly it does not
necessarily affect doublets. On the contrary, in Present-Day Polish many –e– derivatives are felt to be
obsolescent or obsolete, in spite of the fact that they do not have competing –ną– derivatives (or even
any other competing forms). In (21) below some such forms have been enumerated. The list is
selective and many more formations have been affected:
(21)
niemczeć ‘become German-like’, wycienczeć ‘grow weak’, mroczeć ‘grow dark’, polszczeć ‘grow
Polish’, zruszczeć ‘grow Russian’, pryszczeć ‘break out in spots’, durzeć ‘get dizzy’, trupieszeć
‘become dead’, zmniszeć ‘get damaged’, zuchwaleć ‘get bold’, rozgorzeć ‘burst in flames’, poblednieć
14
Damborsky (1961) based his analysis on the forms supplied in Tokarski’s (1951). 15
This statement can be supported e.g. by the text of Konsytucja 3 maja (1791), which contains analytic
anticausatives : odmieniać sie też prawa ludzkie mają ‘Human laws may also change’, rozpoczynać się ma co
dwa lata ‘It must begin every two years’, bez dzielnej władzy wykonawczej ostać się nie może ‘Without a good
executive power it cannot survive’. 16
Some sources treat Slavic anticausatives with ‘reflexive’ formatives as basically reflexive in character (see
e.g. Junghanns et al. 2011) but formed from the verbs with unspecified causers.
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‘get white’, rozdnieć ‘become daytime’, zlenieć ‘grow lazy’, zbezsilnieć ‘get weak’, szpetnieć ‘grow
ugly’, osmutnieć ‘get sad’, zmożnieć ‘become richer’, skąpieć ‘get miserly’, zrusieć ‘become
Russian’, skulawieć ‘become lame’, znicestwieć ‘disppear’, orzeźwieć ‘get sober’, etc.
Some of the gaps introduced by diachronic changes in (21) can be explained away because the
concepts the anticausatives referred to went out of use. For instance derivatives like: niemczeć
‘become German-like’, zruszczeć ‘grow Russian’, zrusieć ‘become Russian’ may have been less
necessary in the times when Poland re-gained its political freedom, still derivatives like zlenieć ‘grow
lazy’ seem of timeless and universal significance. Such a gap looks even stranger in the light of the
fact that the existing analytic form lenić się has the stative meaning: ‘behave like a sluggard’. The
meaning of becoming lazy, expected of anticausatives, has to be expressed with a prefixed się form -
rozleniwić się ‘get to be lazy’. In some cases competing się forms seem to have won over the obsolete
by now synthetic forms:
(22) (obs.) niszczeć – niszczyć się ‘get destroyed’, (obs.) poniszczeć – poniszczyć się ‘get damaged’, (obs.)
starzeć – postarzeć się ‘grow old’, (obs.) srożeć – rozsrożyć się,‘get severe’, (obs.) mgleć- zamglić się
‘become foggy’, (obs.) wyludnieć – wyludnić się ‘get devoid of people’, (obs.) wyjaśnieć – rozjaśnić
się ‘get lighter’,
The analysis above presents a very odd picture. By and large throughout the recorded history of Indo-
European languages one could observe a persistent distinction between the more synthetic and more
analytic way of forming anticausatives, while both the techniques have been used. Although we have
too scarce evidence to speculate about the lexical nature of some data from Proto-Indo-European, the
more recent data from Old, Modern and Present-Day Polish allow us to see that the stable pattern of
two juxtaposed techniques to form anticausatives (in varying numbers) has been observed for
hundreds of years now.
5. Conclusion - modelling synchronic systematic doublets
Haspelmath (1993) puts forward a universal hypothesis that seems promising for our system.
According to him causative formations are rare in externally caused situations, while anticausatives
are infrequent with natural states. If we follow his line of reasoning, we should expect strongly iconic
anticausatives with externally caused states, while less iconic ones – with natural states or internally
caused states. By now we have shown that the synthetic pattern is morphologically simpler – it is
marked by a single suffix. The analytic pattern not only contains a reflexive particle, the causativizing
suffix, but also (frequently) a prefix characteristic for Slavic accomplishments. Consequently, the
presence of both patterns at a given period of the language development could be explained, again
following Haspelmath’s (1993) reasoning, if a distinction in the use of these patterns could be proved,
i.e. the respective anticausative patterns would correspond to verbal stems based of distinct classes of
roots (internally and externally caused). This hypothesis does not seem to work. If any interrelations
between the two patterns can be observed, these are blocking phenomena concerning derivatives based
on individual roots, so with the same causation patterns (see 5, 20, 22 above).17
Likewise, many
‘internally caused’ synthetic forms went out of use – which would not be a result predicted within
Haspelmath’s (1993) system:
(23) Obsolete ‘internally caused’synthetic anticausatives:
wycienczeć ‘grow weak’, trupieszeć ‘become dead’ , zlenieć ‘grow lazy’, zbezsilnieć ‘get weak’
szpetnieć ‘grow ugly’, osmutnieć ‘get sad’, skąpieć ‘get miserly’, znicestwieć ‘disppear’, niszczeć
‘worsen’, srożeć ‘get more severe’, starzeć ‘grow old’
17
According to Haspelmath’s (1993) vein of thought the type of causation for a given change of state would
have to be connected with the lexical representation of the verbal root.
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Consequently, Haspelmath (1993) analysis does not seem to be explanatory for the Polish material.
Another possible explanation for the pattern of two anticausative mechanisms persisting in Polish would be a
conception involving two distinct competing grammars (see Kroch 1994). Such grammars could coexist
through a certain period of time. Taking into consideration the relative uniformity of the Polish language and the
length of time during which the grammars would have to compete, this explanation does not strike us as very
convincing either.
Embick (2008) voices a different theory – according to him the competing forms of the kind illustrated
by Polish anticausatives would constitute a case where different portions of language material fill up
the same grammatical structure – presumably in grammars of individual speakers.
This conception, however, does not hold for the Polish data either: in the case of a single speaker two
types of expressions seem to function side by side. For instance, in one work by a single writer both
synthetic and analytic anticausatives co-occur freely, even when they are based on the same root. The
examples in (24) below come from Noce i dnie by Maria Dąbrowska:
(24)
a. Niechta - szepnęła Rozalia czerwieniejąc ‘So be it –whispered Rozalia growing red’
b. Barbara czerwieniła się i pomijała to milczeniem. ‘Barbara grew red and kept silent about it’
a. oczy […] łatwo czerwieniejące ‘eyes reddening easily’
b. rzekł czerwieniąc się Niechcic ‘said reddening Niechcic’
a. Przemókł i dygotał tak strasznie ‘He was soaked through and trembled something awful’
b . Róże całą noc moczyły się w umywalni i są świeżutkie. ‘The roses soaked the whole night in the
sink and are fresh’
a. płonęło mnóstwo świec ‘A lot of candles were lit’
b. paliła się zdjęta ze ściany gromnica ‘A candle taken from the wall was lit’
Dąbrowska uses both structures interchangeably in the contexts where they do not characterize utterances of
particular protagonists, but in her own narration. Neither can we find a reason why she should have chosen one
form over the other in particular contexts in (24) above.
No explanation of the existing situation presents itself which would be in tune with the economy requirement of
Chomskian inborn, universal grammar. We do not try to imply that this model of grammar is not realistic. This
body of data either awaits a future explanation, or as we believe, like the exceptions to the operation of
particular rules are found in natural languages, so in the overall system of grammar there may be some
idiosyncratic realms, and anticausatives in Polish constitute such a rare case.
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Abstract
The paper deals with the problem of co-existing sub-systems of grammar in a language turning out
parallel competing forms with distinct morpho-syntactic structures, but identical meanings. The
existence of such systems is perceived as a problem for Chomskian linguistic theory. The case
investigated in this paper concerns analytic and synthetic anticausatives in Polish based of the same
roots. The history of such formations has been followed, briefly from Proto-Indo-European, in detail
from Old Polish to Present-Day Polish. The appearance of synthetic and analytic anticausatives has
been analyzed for a number of Old Polish sources and compared with Early 20th century Polish and
Present-Day Polish. Both patterns of anticausativization have persisted throughout the history of
Polish. This persistence cannot be easily explained within the existing models of grammar change
consistent with generative thought. The conclusion forces itself that not only particular rules may have
exceptions but also subsystems of grammar may have their idiosyncratic areas.