72 Anna Bondaruk
(15) (Jeśli idzie o dobrego studenta), to to
as goes for good student it cop
jest Marek.
is Mark.nom
‘As for a good student, it/this is Mark.’
The contrast noted between Polish predicational and specificational clauses suggests,
just like in the case of English, the presence of a referential subject in the former and
its absence in the latter. Equatives pattern with predicational sentences in this respect,
as is shown in (16), in which the resumptive pronoun ja ‘I’ is used to refer to the dis-
located phrase:
(16) (Jeśli idzie o mnie), ja to (jestem) ty.
as goes for me I.nom cop (am) you.nom
‘As for me, I am you.’
The data presented above indicate that the test based on Left Dislocation does not
establish equatives as a separate class of copular clauses, as they pattern together with
predicational clauses with respect to this test.^13
The test which clearly points towards the existence of a class of equatives,
distinct from both predicational and specificational copular clauses, relates to- There is no contrast between Polish true equatives and predicational or specificational
clauses with respect to the placement of negation, which in all the three types of copular
clauses is realised in the same position, i.e. on the verb być ‘be’, following the pronominal
copula to (cf. (i), (ii) and (iii) below). In this respect Polish differs from Hebrew, which as
noted by Shlonsky (2000), does show the difference between equatives and predicational
clauses in the position of negation. Likewise, the contrast in the placement of adverbs such
as certainly/apparently reported for Hebrew by Shlonsky (2000: 344–345) is absent in Polish.
Actually, in Polish the adverbs can be put immediately after to in all types of copular clauses,
as can be seen in (i)–(iii) below:
Predicational
(i) Marek to na pewno nie jest dobry student.
Mark.nom cop certainly not is good.nom student.nom
‘Mark certainly is not a good student.’
Specificational
(ii) Dobry student to na pewno nie jest Marek.
good.nom student.nom cop certainly not is Mark.nom
‘A good student certainly is not Mark.’
Equative
(iii) Ja to na pewno nie jestem ty.
I.nom cop certainly not am you.nom
‘I certainly am not you.’