On pre-nominal classifying adjectives in Polish 237
of elliptical constructions) and the choice of lexical items marked as colloquial (such
as the noun auto ‘car’, used instead of the register-neutral lexeme samochód ‘car’).^16
(31) a. Przed szkołą policyjny samochód.
before school.inst police.adj car.nom
Wewnątrz prawie pusto.
inside nearly empty.adv
‘There’s a police car in front of the school building.
It’s nearly empty inside.’
b. Po chwili zobaczyłam w pokoju
after while saw.1sgf in room.inst
ciężarowe auto i mnóstwo gruzu
cargo.adj car.acc and plenty.acc rubble.gen
‘After a while, I saw a truck and lots of rubble in the room.’
c. cukrowa wata to coś, czego
sugar.adj wool cop something what.gen
dorośli nie jedzą
adults.nom not eat.3pl
‘Cotton floss candy is something that adults don’t eat.’
d. Żaroodporną brytfankę posmaruj oliwą.
heat_resistant.acc baking_tin.dim.acc sme ar.imp 2 sg olive_oil.inst
‘Grease the heat-resistant baking tin with some olive oil.’
The sentences in (32), on the other hand, can be classified as illustrating a more formal
register of Polish. Notice, among others, the inverted verb-pronoun order in (32a), the
use of the passive voice in (32a) or the impersonal verb form należy ‘one should’. As
expected, the formal variety of Polish contains frequent instances of N+CA expressions.
(32) a. Wracał on rowerem z zakupami
returned.3sg.m he bicycle.inst with shopping.inst
z Ciemiernik i został
from Ciemierniki.gen and became.3sg.m
zatrzymany przez samochód policyjny.
stopped.3sg.m by car police.adj
‘He was coming home on his bicycle with (his) shopping from
Ciemierniki and was stopped by a police car.’
- Reviewer 2 remarks that phrases with a pre-head CA, such as nocny dyżur (CA-N) ‘night
duty’ can be found in books and newspapers, thus it is not clear that they represent informal
Polish. It should be noted here that the sentences in (31) also come from newspapers or fiction
excerpts. However, they represent direct speech and can be regarded as “written spoken Polish”
(the term due to Rutkowski p.c.).