264 Artur Bartnik
ten as an article is found precisely in the same contexts as in possessive-determiner
sequences in spoken Polish.
We can certainly speculate about the future of the demonstrative/ determiner sys-
tem in Polish but we cannot predict whether Polish is going to follow English and
develop a discrete form of a definite article; some Slavic languages like Bulgarian did.
As is suggested by (Millar 2000), the definite article arose in English as a result of lin-
guistic contacts with Old Norse which already had the definite article and influenced
Old English at the grammatical level as well. Nowadays the nature of linguistic con-
tacts has changed because the geographical proximity is not the most important fac-
tor. Rather, contacts take place via the Internet, radio, television, press and increased
mobility of people. This means that even languages relatively distant geographically
can influence each other. This is what happens in the Polish-English contacts. Signifi-
cantly, the English influence is not limited to lexical borrowings. There are a number
of studies in Polish showing that English infiltrates the grammatical level as well. For
example, in syntax English influences the position of adjectives in the noun phrase
(cf. Mańczak-Wohlfeld 1993; Otwinowska-Kasztelanic 2000; Arabski 2006: 16–17); in
morphology, English promotes the suffixe -gate and the prefix e- (cf. Zabawa 2004);
there are also traces of the English influence in pragmatics, punctuation and spelling
(cf. Arabski 2006). If this trend continues other grammatical areas might be affected
including the determiner system of Polish, a parallel situation found in Old English
when Old Norse influenced its grammar.- Conclusions
To conclude, the most important point we have argued for is that possessive-deter-
miner and determiner-possessive patterns in both languages are not variants but con-
structions with different properties. The determiner-possessive combination, more
common cross-linguistically, is well-documented in both corpora and does not seem
to be restricted in any way. In Polish and Old English, this construction seems to be
optional, that is similar to what we find in German, rather than obligatory, that is
close to what we can find in Italian. The other order, with the determiner following
the possessive, less known typologically, is marked and restricted in both languages:
in Old English it is used only with adjectives, which seem to function as comple-
ments, and only with the se, seo, þat paradigm. In Polish, on the other hand, the
construction is quite rare and found mostly in the spoken register. It is also used
only with one type of determiners, ten, ta, to. In both languages this order seems to
be marked and emphasizes different elements in the noun phrase. The discrepancy
between the two orders is further supported by discontinuous sequences involving
determiners and possessives.