248 Artur Bartnik
(2) a. his þone readan gim
his the.sg.acc red.sg.acc gem.sg.acc
‘his red gem’
(coblick,HomU_18_[BlHom_1]:9.125.121)
b. mój ten projekt
my.sg.nom this.sg.nom project.sg.nom
‘this project of mine’
(PELCRA_7123000000081, commission of inquiry on Orlen
2005, 17th May: 11, the Chancellery of the Sejm)
In (1) the possessives immediately follow the determiners, an order found in many
languages (see Section 2), while in (2) we observe the reverse order. We will argue that
the two orders are not variants of the same construction in these two languages; they
show considerable differences. For instance, in Old English possessive-determiner
combinations must be followed by adjectives, while the reverse word order does not
exhibit such a restriction (cf. Allen 2006; and Bartnik 2007, 2011 ). In Polish, on the
other hand, the two word orders differ quantitatively and are not used in the same reg-
isters. Another claim that we are going to substantiate is that in both languages se, seo,
þæt and ten, ta, to exhibit some properties of a definite article. Consequently, at least in
some contexts they do not seem to function as demonstratives.
The comparative approach to Old English and Polish, two genealogically unrelated
languages, is justified by the striking similarities of their nominal systems. Neither lan-
guages have dedicated definite articles but two paradigms of demonstratives marking
the proximal-distal distinction. In Old English þis, þeos, þes can only be proximal but
se, seo, þæt sometimes are just markers of definiteness, without showing the opposition
in question. Similarly, in Polish one paradigm, tamten, tamta, tamto, can only function
as the distal demonstrative, but ten, ta, to forms are neutral as to the proximity distance,
as the contrast between proximal and distal forms has practically disappeared now in
Polish. The two paradigms exhibiting the neutralization of the proximal-distal contrast
sometimes function as definite articles, as will be shown below.
Old English and Polish both have possessive pronouns which inflect only in the
first and second person forms. In both languages they inflect like adjectives and agree
with the noun in the first and second person singular and plural. Therefore they are
often called pronominal adjectives (cf. Swan 2002, for example). Syntactically, how-
ever, possessives occupy different slots within the noun phrase, so we treat them as
a separate group. The third person forms remain uninflected. Polish additionally has
shorter possessive forms (me, twe, swe), stylistically marked, typical of written forms
and the declined form swój ‘one’s own’, which can be used in the first, second, and third
person.
Another aspect which makes the study of Polish and Old English interesting
is the typological one. Although determiner-possessive sequences are well-known