chapter 9
On pre-nominal classifying adjectives
in Polish*
Bożena Cetnarowska
University of Silesia, KatowiceThe article discusses adjectival modification in Polish, focusing on pre-head
attributive adjectives. Pre-nominal position is often associated with qualifying
(i.e. descriptive) modifiers while classifying modifiers (which express inherent
properties of nouns) are typically assigned to the post-head position in Polish.
Thus, the contrast arises between QualAdj+Noun and Noun+ClassAdj sequences,
as illustrated by the expressions młoda foka ‘young seal’ (QualAdj+N) vs. foka
szara ‘grey seal (Halichoerus grypus)’ (N+ClassAdj). However, it is argued here
that pre-nominal adjectives can be ambiguous between classifying and qualifying
reading. The article considers also the question whether pre-nominal classifying
adjectives can be regarded as informationally marked.- Introduction
This paper discusses Polish noun phrases which consist of a head noun (N) preceded
by a classifying attributive adjective (CA), such as ciężarowy samochód (lit. cargo.adj
car) ‘a truck’ or pośpieszny pociąg ‘a fast train’. Such phrases are worth investigating
since some researchers (among others, Rutkowski & Progovac 2005) assert that only
qualifying adjectives, such as piękny ‘beautiful’ and niski ‘low’, are appropriate in the
pre-nominal position in Polish. In contrast to such a view, I argue below that Polish
classifying adjectives can be used as premodifiers, and this does not result in their
obligatory reinterpretation as qualifying attributes (which would make them denote
non-inherent and typically gradable properties). Furthermore, I mention reasons
- I am grateful to the reviewers and the editors of the volume for their helpful criticism.