Can Polish -no/-to Demote Discourse-Prominent Referents? Corpus Data vs. Acceptability
Most human impersonal constructions can either refer to demoted referents or demote a previously discourse-prominent referent. According to Bunčić (2019), however, the Polish ‑no/‑to construction cannot be used to demote a topical referent. This paper reports the results of a corpus study and two ac...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses universitaires de Caen
2023-12-01
|
| Series: | Discours |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/12850 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Most human impersonal constructions can either refer to demoted referents or demote a previously discourse-prominent referent. According to Bunčić (2019), however, the Polish ‑no/‑to construction cannot be used to demote a topical referent. This paper reports the results of a corpus study and two acceptability judgement tests. While the corpus data indicate that the construction is indeed avoided in this context, the acceptability judgement tests show that the construction is not rated worse in this context than in others. Clearly, ‑no/‑to after a coreferential noun phrase is a case of a completely acceptable expression that nonetheless is avoided in favour of other expressions in language practice. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1963-1723 |