Competing grammars or diachrony at work: a case of Polish ...

Competing grammars or diachrony at work: a case of Polish anticausatives

Anna Malicka-Kleparska

1. Introduction

Chomskian view on how language works is based on the assumption that a large portion of our

linguistic competence is inborn (e.g. Chomsky 1969, 1980, 2000). Then, under the influence of the

data we are exposed to we form our unique, yet partly universal grammars. The situations where

competing grammars coexist in the minds of individual speakers do not fit well this theoretical model.

Yet languages occasionally breed phenomena which constitute offensive areas to the conception of

grammar advocated by Chomsky.

Polish is a language which seem to contain a case of competing grammars used by individual speakers

in the sphere of morpho-syntax. In this paper we will look for an explanation in the history of the

Polish language and consider available theories concerning parallel grammars which could clarify the

status of Polish anticausative verbs in competition.

2. History of anticausative types

Haspelmath (1993) argues extensively that languages of the world choose whether to mark

unaccusatives or causatives based on the same roots with some additional morphological material. In

other words, there is nothing intrinsically more basic either about unaccusative or causative meanings.

Slavic languages predominantly mark unaccusatives corresponding to causatives in a more complex

way, so we may assume that in the grammar of Slavic languages there is a rule deriving unaccusatives,

also called anticausatives since they contain characteristic formatives and (frequently) correspond to

causative verbs based on the same roots. Polish, following Slavic developments, has at present two

patterns producing anticausatives: one more analytic, the other - more synthetic.

The more analytic pattern involves clear anticausative alternation material, also present in other Slavic

and other Indo-European languages ( see Cennamo et al. to appear) in the form of a reflexive-like

morpheme. It evolved from Indo-European mediopassive form and went through intermediate stages,

while the role of the external agentive participant grew less and less prominent up to the point when

the anticausative with a reflexive morpheme marking was formed (Cennamo et al. to appear).

Originally, in Indo-European, the characteristic morpheme was a reflexive pronoun, which developed

into Proto-Slavic Cѧ, corresponding to similar elements in other Indo-European languages, e.g. Latin

se , Gothic sik, (Steiner 1889), Vedic sva (Kulikov 2007). In Old Polish ( Psałterz floriański) the

accusative case of the pronoun used in the anticausative verbs took the forms of sϙ, se, sze, sye, sie

(Steiner 1889). This seems to be the way in which the analytic anticausatives in Polish developed.

Present day forms of reflexive marked anticausatives are illustrated e.g. by Laskowski (1984: 139) :

(1) starzeć się ‘grow old’, wydłużać się ‘grow longer’, bielić się ‘grow white’

The reflexive particle is a verbal clitic, which may occupy a relatively free position in a sentence (see

Ozga 1976).

The history of the other pattern – more synthetic – which plays a significant role among Polish

anticausatives nowadays is much more obscure. Polish synthetic anticausatives might have followed a

similar path as Vedic suffixed –‘ya – non-passive verbs denoting change of state, although these were

an Indo-Iranian innovation, which was not based on Proto-Indo-European middle constructions (see

Kulikov 2011 186-187). The oldest recorded synthetic predecessors of Polish anticausatives were Old

Church Slavonic denominal and deverbal ē-verbs, mostly inchoative, e.g. starӗti ‘grow old’ (see

Jasanoff 2002-2003), which were formed with a suffixed vocalic element. Present-Day Polish –e – /–

ej–1 anticausatives (see Wróbel’s state and processual verbs 1984:495, 498, 503) may follow this

pattern, e.g.:

(2) bieleć ‘grow white’ , dziczeć ‘grow wild’, chłopieć ‘grow more like a peasant’

Wróbel (1984) assumes that this suffix has an allomorphic variant –nie-/-niej-, although in many

cases possible substantival and adjectival bases of anticausative derivatives could have contributed

the nasal sounds:

(3) młodnieć ‘grow younger’, twardnieć ‘grow tough’, upiornieć ‘grow vampire like’, drewnieć ‘grow

wooden’, kamienieć ’get stony’, zielenieć ‘grow green’ 2

Another class of anticausatives possesses the nasal affix -nąć, which might come from the pattern of

post Proto-Indo-European intransitive inchoatives (see Gorbachov 2007) with a nasal element, e.g.:

(4) głuchnąć ‘grow deaf, mięknąć ‘grow soft’, rzednąć ‘grow more diluted’

As can be seen from the above exemplification, anticausative verbs in Polish constitute a varied and

diachronically non-uniform class. The interesting phenomenon, however, is that in a number of cases in Present-

Day Polish doublets or even triplets of anticausatives function side by side. The data relevant to this issue will be

presented in the next section.

3. Polish competing anticausatives – the data and structures

In the examples below we will present a body of data where two types of anticausatives based on the same roots

are coined. The common roots will be marked with bold characters and the verbs will represent an analytic

pattern and one or more synthetic ones. The meanings of the verbs coincide:

(5) Pękać – rozpękać się ‘bust’, promienieć – rozpromienić się ‘radiate light’, kwaśnieć – skwasić się

‘go sour’, potnieć – pocić się3 ‘sweat’, rdzewieć – rdzawić się ‘rust’, schnąć – rozsychać się ‘dry up’,

zaśmierdnąć – zaśmierdzieć się ‘stink’, postarzeć – postarzeć się ‘grow old’, rzednąć – rzednieć –

rozrzedzić się ‘grow diluted’, chłodnąć – chłodnieć – chłodzić się ‘grow cold’, śmierdnąć –

zaśmierdzieć się ‘grow stinky’, wilgnąć – nawilżyć się ‘grow moist’, stygnąć – studzić się ‘grow

cold’, cichnąć – uciszyć się ‘grow quiet’, mieknąć – rozmiekczać się ‘grow soft’, żółknąć – żółcieć –

żółcić się ‘grow yellow’, moknąć – moczyć się ‘grow wet’, płonąć – palić się ‘burn’, tonąć - topić się

‘sink’, gasnąć – gasić się ‘grow low (about fire)’, kwitnąć – rozkwiecić się ‘bloom’, marznąć –

mrozić się ‘freeze’

The initial reaction to such a body of data might be that the doublets are not perfect synonyms and

they are used in different contexts. Indeed in a number of cases it is what happens. First of all there is

a tendency for się derivatives to be perfective since they are frequently prefixed: 4

1 The latter allomorph represents the present tense stem form.

2 The bases would be: drewno ‘wood’, kamień ‘stone’, zielony ‘green’ for the three last forms in (3).

3 The differences which are observable in root representations constitute phonological and morpho-phonological

alternations, whose details are immaterial for our purposes. For an extensive account see Gussmann (2007). 4 The prefixes are given in bold characters in (6).

(6) rozpęknąć się ‘bust’, rozpromienić się ‘radiate light’, rozeschnąć się ‘dry up’, zaśmierdzieć się ‘grow

stinky’, rozrzedzić się ‘grow diluted’, nawilżyć się ‘grow moist’, uciszyć się ‘grow quiet’,

rozmiękczyć się ‘grow soft’, rozkwiecić się ‘bloom’

while the suffixed anticausatives do not have to be accompanied by a prefix (see 5 above) and thus

they can be imperfective.5

However, this difference is leveled out by the grammatical system since the suffixed anticausatives

can be perfectivized either by adding a prefix or another suffix:6

(7) kwaśnieć (IMP) - skwaśnieć (PRF) ‘go sour’, rdzewieć (IMP) - zardzewieć (PRF) ‘rust), pękać (IMP) –

pęknąć (PRF) ‘bust’

while the się derivatives can form secondary imperfectives:

(8) rozpęknąć się (PRF) – rozpękać się (IMP) ‘bust’, rozpromienić się (PRF) – rozpromieniać się (IMP)

‘radiate light’, rozeschnąć się (PRF) – rozsychać się (IMP) ‘dry up’

The reason why się anticausatives are formed with the prefixed stems is connected with the fact that

they are based on accomplishment verbs, 7 which have to be telic and by force - perfective in the

system of Polish (see Łazorczyk 2010). Consequently, they are usually prefixed.

Below (in 9) we supply the hypothetical structure for synthetic anticausatives (adapted from Embick

2009 and Alexiadou and Doron 2012) with the suffixal middle voice head, followed by the

consecutive steps in the hypothetical derivation of się anticausatives :

(9)

5 On the perfectivizing force of Slavic prefixes see e.g.: Slabakova (2003), Romanova (2007), Filip (2013),

Malicka-Kleparska (to appear). 6 For details of the Polish aspectual system see Łazorczyk (2010).

7 There are some cases in which no prefix is visible and the causitivizing suffix i/y forms the accomplishment.,

e.g.: chłodnieć – chłodzić ‘make cold’ – chłodzić się ‘grow cold’, potnieć – ? pocić ‘make sweaty’ – pocić się

‘sweat’, rdzewieć – rdzawić ‘make rusty’ – rdzawić się ‘rust’, stygnąć – studzić ‘make cold’ – studzić się ‘grow

cold’, żółknąć – żółcić ‘make yellow’ – żółcić się ‘grow yellow’, moknąć – moczyć ‘make wet’ – moczyć się

‘grow wet’, płonąć – palić ‘make burn’ – palić się ‘burn’, tonąć – topić ‘make drown’ – topić się ‘sink’,

gasnąć – gasić ‘extinguish’ – gasić się ‘grow low (about fire)’, marznąć – mrozić ‘make frozen’ – mrozić się

‘freeze’. The suffix present in się anticausatives was originally a causative formative going back to Proto-Indo-

European European –eye–/ –o– (see Kulikov 2008:102). It continued in Old Church Slavonic as –i– e.g:: moriti

‘make die’, lożiti ‘make lie’ . Kulikov attributes the contrast in such Russian verbs as: utopit’’make sink’ –

utonut’’sink’, zamrozit’ ‘make freeze’ – zamierznut’ ‘freeze’ to the presence of this morpheme in the

accomplishment (causative) form. The same alternation can be traced in the Polish material presented in this

text.

Other methods of forming accomplishments are available in Polish as well. For instance internal modification of

the root may mark the contrast between an accomplishment and an unaccusative: topić ‘make sink’- tonąć ‘sink’.

For a more in depth presentation of the Polish accomplishment verbs see Wróbel (1984:495, 498, 503).

μ

μ v

-ną- v ST

√wilg- v ST DP

E.g.: Ziemia lubi wilgnąć od deszczu ‘Soil likes to get moist from rain’8

Transitive accomplishments corresponding to the anticausatives discussed in this text are formed by

means of various prefixations (and –i-/-y- suffix) realizing the active voice heads which replace the

middle voice heads of anticausative structures and introduce in their specifiers external agentive

arguments (see Marantz 1984, Alexiadou and Doron 2012):

(10)

ν9

Spec

(deszcz)

ν

ν

v

na- -y

v

ST

√wilg v ST DP

(ziemię)

E.g.: Deszcz nawilżył ziemię ‘Rain soaked the soil’

Then, if the DP in the specifier and the internal argument of the verb are co-indexed then the structure

may be re-analyzed into an anticausative verb10

with a complex middle voice head: prefix+suffix+się:

8 -ną- is a suffixal middle voice head which gets lenearized after the root later on in the derivation by spell out

rules. 9 The symbol for the category of active voice - ν (the Greek small letter ‘nu’) has been taken from Alexiadou

and Doron (2012). 10

We assume that some lexical re-arrangement process has to operate here as the structure in (10) can function

as a reflexive structure when the arguments are co-indexed: Podczas wyścigu rowerzysta nawilżał się gąbką

‘During the race the cyclist moistened himself with a sponge’. The meaning of such a sentence is different from

the meaning of a sentence with the anticausative verb since the argument in the anticausative structure is not

interpreted as an agent, but as the patient of the event.

(11)

μ

μ

v

na- -

y się

v

ST

√wilg v ST DP

E.g.: Ziemia nawilżyła się ‘Soil got soaked’

This development mirrors the historical development of such constructions from Indo-European as

described ealier – from reflexive through medio-passive to anticausative structures. Consequently, an

interesting analogy with the diachronic perspective can be observed here in the derivational history of

the analytic anticausatives.

Analytic and synthetic doublets sometimes develop idiosyncratic differences in their meanings, e.g.:

rozsychać się ‘dry up’ is used about cracking wood, moczyć się ‘grow wet’ also means ‘wet one’s

bed’, while the corresponding suffixed anticausatives do not have such specific meanings. The

synthetic form tonąć means only ‘to sink’ but its analytic counterpart (topić się) may also signify

‘melting’.

No systematic differences appear in the use of suffixed and cliticized analytic anticausatives in Polish

(see Malicka-Kleparska 2013, cf. Jabłońska 2007). Both types of anticausatives take the Polish

equivalents of by itself modifying phrase, which tests for anticausatives:11

(12) drzwi zamykają się same podczas jazdy ‘the door closes by itself while in motion’

door-NOM-PL close-PRS-3rd-PL PRT-REF self-NOM-PL while drive-SUBS

lakiery muszą schnąć same ‘lacquers must dry by themselves’

lacquers-NOM-PL must-PRT-PL dry-INF self-NOM-PL

Both types appear with other identical prepositional phrases (here the od ‘from’ phrase) introducing

causers of the processes described by the anticausatives:

(13) potnieli od upału ‘they sweated from heat’

sweat-PST-M-PL from heat-GEN-SG

pociły się od upału ‘they sweated from heat’

sweat-PST-F-PL from heat -GEN-SG

mokną od deszczów ‘they get wet from rain’

wet-PRS-PL from rain-GEN-PL

moczyły się od potu ‘they got wet from sweat’

wet-PST-F-PL from sweat-GEN-PL

Other aspects of morpho-syntax in which differences among various processual structures are

encountered in various languages also fail to distinguish suffixed and cliticized anticausatives:

11

Examples in (12, 13, 14) are taken from the National Corpus of the Polish Language (Przepiórkowski et al. 2012).

according to Doron and Labelle (2010) French and Hebrew distinguish between processual and

resultative anticausative structures. Processual constructions can have subjects with internally driven

changes, while the resultatives cannot. In Polish this distinction does not seem to hold for suffixed and

cliticized anticausatives: both types of verbs freely admit of patients undergoing the changes by

themselves as well as due to the influence of the second party:

(14) Maria czerwienieje ‘Mary reddens’

Mary-NOM-SG redden-PRS-SG

Józio czerwienił się co chwila ‘Józio reddened every moment’

Józio-NOM-M-SG redden-PST-M-SG PRT-REF every moment

czerwieniała wokół domu gleba na skutek reakcji chemicznych

redden-PST-F-SG around house-GEN soil-NOM-F-SG because reaction-GEN-PL chemical

woda czerwieniła się od krwi ‘water reddened from blood’

water-NOM-F-SG redden-PST-F-SG from blood-GEN-SG

We are not going to enumerate here all the tests which may distinguish different kinds of change of

state verbs. An extensive array is offered by Jabłońska (2007) and Malicka-Kleparska (2013). Suffice

it to say that the data do not offer sound support for the position that suffixed and cliticized

anticausatives in Polish differ in any way in their morpho-syntactic behavior. Consequently, with the

exception of those cases where particular forms have acquired specialized meanings, Polish sythetic

and cliticized anticausatives constitute ideal morphological doublets (triplets).

Before drawing any conclusions concerning the synchronic anticausatives re generative theory, let us

consider the relationships of synthetic and analytic anticausatives in the history of Polish.

4. From Old Polish to Present-Day Polish anticausatives

We will begin with the Old Polish data which have been made available thanks to PolDi (a Polish

Diachronic Online Corpus) and fully tagged for: Modlitewnik Nawojki [Naw], 1

st h. 15

th c., Kazania

gnieźnieńskie [Gn], 1st h. 15

th c., Ewangeliarz Zamojskich [EwZam], 2

nd h. 15

th c., Modlitwy

Wacława [MW], 1482, Żywot świętego Błażeja [ZywBlaz], 1st h. 16

th c., Rozmyślania przemyskie

[RozPrz],1st h. 16

th c., Biblia ks. Wujka [BW], 2

nd h. 16

th c.

12

The interesting fact is that the sources from the 15th and the beginning of the 16

th century use great

numbers of analytic się formations (even in those cases where nowadays we do not have the cliticized

particle) while synthetic forms are very few and far between. The forms are frequently even more

analytic than the nowadays cliticized anticausatives, as the structures are formed with the particle się

and the processual copula followed by an adjective used predicatively, instead of a lexical verb with

the clitic się. Below we exemplify such uses:

(15) [Gn] ten ci się jest {on} dzisia uczynił {barzo} niski i teże i stary

This-NOM-SG you-DAT-SG REF is-PRS-3rd-SG he today made-COP-PSR-3rd-SG much low-

NOM-M-3rd-SG and also old-NOM-M-3rd-SG

‘He has become today very short and old’

Się jest on dzisiaj uczynił małym

REF is-PRS-3rd-SG he today made-COP-PSR-3rd-SG small-INS--M-3rd-SG

‘He became small’

The most frequent ways of rendering the anticausative meanings are się analytic structures which

constitute the prevailing pattern:

(16) [Gn] iżci się jest [był] krplewic narodził

12

The last source comes from a slightly later period but includes an interesting example which we have decided

to include in (18) below .

So-you-DAT-2nd-SG REF is-PRS-3rd-SG is-PST-3rd-SG prince-NOM-SG bear-PST--3rd-SG

‘So the prince was born to you’

Iże gdyż się on chce odmłodzić

That that REF he-NOM-SG want-PRS--3rd-SG become young-INF

‘Because he wants to get younger’

Iżbyć się on na skończeniu świata ukazał

As to REF he-NOM at end-DAT-SG world-GEN-SG show-PST-3rd-SG

‘So that he would show up at the end of the world{

[EwZam] pirwej niżli w żywocie się poczęło

Earlier than in belly-INS-SG REF begin-PST-N-3rd-SG

‘Earlier than it began in the belly’

In many cases the structures with the reflexive particle present in the Old Polish sources do not

correspond to any Present-Day Polish structures. Consequently, we think that the analytic structure

was even more frequent then than it is now:13

(17) [EwZam] badał się od nich […] by się nie wracali do Heroda

investigate PST-3rd-SG RFL from them if REF not come back- PST-3rd-PL to Herod

‘He asked them whether they were not coming back to Herod’

A domnimującemu się ludu

And think up-ADJ PRT-DAT-M-SG REF people-DAT

‘And the thinking up people’

[MW] przykazaniu twojem doświadczać będę się

Commandment-DAT-SG your obey-INF be-FUT-1st-SG REF

‘I will obey your commandment’

[RozPrz] podobnie ziemi i niebu przeminąć sie niżli twemu słowu

More probable earth-DAT and heaven-DAT vanish-INF REF than your word-DAT

‘The earth and heaven will vanish more probably than your word will’

Neither badać się ‘get to know, examine’ nor wracać się ‘come back’, domnimywać się ‘ask’,

przeminąć się ‘pass’ or doświadczać się ‘experience’ are nowadays standard verbal structures in

Polish. Wracać się survived as a dialectal form, as did some other verbs used with the reflexive

particle in the analyzed texts, but the realm of the appearance of the reflexive particle was obviously

much more extensive than it is in Present-Day Polish.

Synthetic anticausatives in Old Polish, at least judging by the available data, were few and far between

and they were limited to few repeated expressions. The verbs in the examples below are the only ones

that we have been able to find in our sources. Notice also that most of them come from a single source

([RozPrz]):

(18) [RozPrz] byli poczęli schnąć

Be-PST-3rd

- PL begin-PST-3rd

- PL dry-INF

‘They began to dry up’

A przeto musiło uschnąć

And so must-PST-N-3rd

–SG dry-INF

‘And so it had to dry up’

A jako począł tonąć

And because begin-PST-3rd

-SG sink-PST-3rd

-SG

‘And because it began to sink’

Ktorzy pobici, a też iżbt takież mieli poginąć

Who-NOM-PL bitten up and in case that also be about-PST-3rd

–PL slaughter-INF

‘Who was bitten up, and in case they were to be slaughtered’

[BW] goracy jemu w oczy upadnie, tak iże rącze oślną

Hot-NOM-SG him in eye-INS-PL fall-FUT-3rd

-SG so that quickly get blind-FUT-3rd

-PL

13

Actually many other structures of Old Polish were much more analytic than they are today, e.g. the

tense/aspect system see Migdalski (2006:40-43).

So it seems that in Old Polish anticausative verbs formed with the suffixes were very infrequent. The

situation changed significantly by the middle of the 20th century. An extensive analysis of

anticausatives from that period of time is presented by Damborsky (1961). He notices that de-nominal

formations were especially productive and quotes whole semantic chains of similar forms that were

created with a single suffix.14

E.g.:

(19) psuć ‘spoil’: pleśnieć ‘get moldy’, kwaśnieć ‘go sour’, jełczeć ‘get rotten’, gorzknieć ‘go bitter’,

butwieć ‘rot’

By that time both -e- and -ną- suffixes were wide spread in Polish and, strangely enough, they

competed for the same basic roots. According to Damborsky (1961) many doublets appeared, e.g.:

(20) blednieć – bladnąć blednąć ‘whiten’; chłodnieć – chłodnąć ‘grow cold’; chudnieć – chudnąć ‘grow

slim’; kisieć – kisnąć ‘grow sour’, kwitnieć – kwitnąć ‘flower’; rzednieć – rzednąć ‘grow thin’,

słabnieć – słabnąć ‘grow weak’; ślepieć – ślepnąć ‘grow blind’; tęchnieć – tęchnąć ‘become less

swollen’; więdnieć – więdnąć ‘grow limp’; gęstnieć – gęstnąć ‘grow thick’; gorzknieć – gorzknąć

‘grow bitter’

Nowadays these suffixed doublets no longer coexist. Even in the middle of the 20th century

Damborsky (1961) noticed the tendency of –ną– forms to oust the –e– forms. However, contrary to his

predictions, a random choice of forms suffixed either with –e– or –ną– survived to our times. In his

very list gęstnieć and gorzknieć ousted the –ną– rivals.

The body of data analyzed by Damborsky allows us to draw an interesting conclusion: Suffixed forms

drive out other suffixed forms, while no interrelations can be noticed between the suffixed

anticausatives and się forms. Damborsky does not mention these anticausatives as he is interested in

what he perceives as morphological phenomena, while the element się may be seen as a semi-detached

morpho-syntactic formant, since it is a clitic. Nevertheless, we may safely assume that between the

times of Old Polish and the Early 20th century Polish the cliticized formations did not disappear as

they are present in historical sources and attested now in great numbers.15

Possibly the mechanism

which secures the preservation of single forms based on a common root and meaning the same thing,

which may be called blocking (see Aronoff 1976) operates more easily between structures using the

same morphological devices, or possibly having a similar derivational history (or the same

grammatical structure – see Embick 2008). Notice that the forms in –e– and in –ną– are very similar

in structure. In both kinds of formations the suffix would constitute the middle voice head introduced

in the derivation (see 9 above). On the other hand, the forms with się have undergone a lexicalization

process from reflexive-like formations to true anticausatives.16

A tendency to eliminate some –e– derivatives is observed till today: interestingly it does not

necessarily affect doublets. On the contrary, in Present-Day Polish many –e– derivatives are felt to be

obsolescent or obsolete, in spite of the fact that they do not have competing –ną– derivatives (or even

any other competing forms). In (21) below some such forms have been enumerated. The list is

selective and many more formations have been affected:

(21)

niemczeć ‘become German-like’, wycienczeć ‘grow weak’, mroczeć ‘grow dark’, polszczeć ‘grow

Polish’, zruszczeć ‘grow Russian’, pryszczeć ‘break out in spots’, durzeć ‘get dizzy’, trupieszeć

‘become dead’, zmniszeć ‘get damaged’, zuchwaleć ‘get bold’, rozgorzeć ‘burst in flames’, poblednieć

14

Damborsky (1961) based his analysis on the forms supplied in Tokarski’s (1951). 15

This statement can be supported e.g. by the text of Konsytucja 3 maja (1791), which contains analytic

anticausatives : odmieniać sie też prawa ludzkie mają ‘Human laws may also change’, rozpoczynać się ma co

dwa lata ‘It must begin every two years’, bez dzielnej władzy wykonawczej ostać się nie może ‘Without a good

executive power it cannot survive’. 16

Some sources treat Slavic anticausatives with ‘reflexive’ formatives as basically reflexive in character (see

e.g. Junghanns et al. 2011) but formed from the verbs with unspecified causers.

‘get white’, rozdnieć ‘become daytime’, zlenieć ‘grow lazy’, zbezsilnieć ‘get weak’, szpetnieć ‘grow

ugly’, osmutnieć ‘get sad’, zmożnieć ‘become richer’, skąpieć ‘get miserly’, zrusieć ‘become

Russian’, skulawieć ‘become lame’, znicestwieć ‘disppear’, orzeźwieć ‘get sober’, etc.

Some of the gaps introduced by diachronic changes in (21) can be explained away because the

concepts the anticausatives referred to went out of use. For instance derivatives like: niemczeć

‘become German-like’, zruszczeć ‘grow Russian’, zrusieć ‘become Russian’ may have been less

necessary in the times when Poland re-gained its political freedom, still derivatives like zlenieć ‘grow

lazy’ seem of timeless and universal significance. Such a gap looks even stranger in the light of the

fact that the existing analytic form lenić się has the stative meaning: ‘behave like a sluggard’. The

meaning of becoming lazy, expected of anticausatives, has to be expressed with a prefixed się form -

rozleniwić się ‘get to be lazy’. In some cases competing się forms seem to have won over the obsolete

by now synthetic forms:

(22) (obs.) niszczeć – niszczyć się ‘get destroyed’, (obs.) poniszczeć – poniszczyć się ‘get damaged’, (obs.)

starzeć – postarzeć się ‘grow old’, (obs.) srożeć – rozsrożyć się,‘get severe’, (obs.) mgleć- zamglić się

‘become foggy’, (obs.) wyludnieć – wyludnić się ‘get devoid of people’, (obs.) wyjaśnieć – rozjaśnić

się ‘get lighter’,

The analysis above presents a very odd picture. By and large throughout the recorded history of Indo-

European languages one could observe a persistent distinction between the more synthetic and more

analytic way of forming anticausatives, while both the techniques have been used. Although we have

too scarce evidence to speculate about the lexical nature of some data from Proto-Indo-European, the

more recent data from Old, Modern and Present-Day Polish allow us to see that the stable pattern of

two juxtaposed techniques to form anticausatives (in varying numbers) has been observed for

hundreds of years now.

5. Conclusion - modelling synchronic systematic doublets

Haspelmath (1993) puts forward a universal hypothesis that seems promising for our system.

According to him causative formations are rare in externally caused situations, while anticausatives

are infrequent with natural states. If we follow his line of reasoning, we should expect strongly iconic

anticausatives with externally caused states, while less iconic ones – with natural states or internally

caused states. By now we have shown that the synthetic pattern is morphologically simpler – it is

marked by a single suffix. The analytic pattern not only contains a reflexive particle, the causativizing

suffix, but also (frequently) a prefix characteristic for Slavic accomplishments. Consequently, the

presence of both patterns at a given period of the language development could be explained, again

following Haspelmath’s (1993) reasoning, if a distinction in the use of these patterns could be proved,

i.e. the respective anticausative patterns would correspond to verbal stems based of distinct classes of

roots (internally and externally caused). This hypothesis does not seem to work. If any interrelations

between the two patterns can be observed, these are blocking phenomena concerning derivatives based

on individual roots, so with the same causation patterns (see 5, 20, 22 above).17

Likewise, many

‘internally caused’ synthetic forms went out of use – which would not be a result predicted within

Haspelmath’s (1993) system:

(23) Obsolete ‘internally caused’synthetic anticausatives:

wycienczeć ‘grow weak’, trupieszeć ‘become dead’ , zlenieć ‘grow lazy’, zbezsilnieć ‘get weak’

szpetnieć ‘grow ugly’, osmutnieć ‘get sad’, skąpieć ‘get miserly’, znicestwieć ‘disppear’, niszczeć

‘worsen’, srożeć ‘get more severe’, starzeć ‘grow old’

17

According to Haspelmath’s (1993) vein of thought the type of causation for a given change of state would

have to be connected with the lexical representation of the verbal root.

Consequently, Haspelmath (1993) analysis does not seem to be explanatory for the Polish material.

Another possible explanation for the pattern of two anticausative mechanisms persisting in Polish would be a

conception involving two distinct competing grammars (see Kroch 1994). Such grammars could coexist

through a certain period of time. Taking into consideration the relative uniformity of the Polish language and the

length of time during which the grammars would have to compete, this explanation does not strike us as very

convincing either.

Embick (2008) voices a different theory – according to him the competing forms of the kind illustrated

by Polish anticausatives would constitute a case where different portions of language material fill up

the same grammatical structure – presumably in grammars of individual speakers.

This conception, however, does not hold for the Polish data either: in the case of a single speaker two

types of expressions seem to function side by side. For instance, in one work by a single writer both

synthetic and analytic anticausatives co-occur freely, even when they are based on the same root. The

examples in (24) below come from Noce i dnie by Maria Dąbrowska:

(24)

a. Niechta - szepnęła Rozalia czerwieniejąc ‘So be it –whispered Rozalia growing red’

b. Barbara czerwieniła się i pomijała to milczeniem. ‘Barbara grew red and kept silent about it’

a. oczy […] łatwo czerwieniejące ‘eyes reddening easily’

b. rzekł czerwieniąc się Niechcic ‘said reddening Niechcic’

a. Przemókł i dygotał tak strasznie ‘He was soaked through and trembled something awful’

b . Róże całą noc moczyły się w umywalni i są świeżutkie. ‘The roses soaked the whole night in the

sink and are fresh’

a. płonęło mnóstwo świec ‘A lot of candles were lit’

b. paliła się zdjęta ze ściany gromnica ‘A candle taken from the wall was lit’

Dąbrowska uses both structures interchangeably in the contexts where they do not characterize utterances of

particular protagonists, but in her own narration. Neither can we find a reason why she should have chosen one

form over the other in particular contexts in (24) above.

No explanation of the existing situation presents itself which would be in tune with the economy requirement of

Chomskian inborn, universal grammar. We do not try to imply that this model of grammar is not realistic. This

body of data either awaits a future explanation, or as we believe, like the exceptions to the operation of

particular rules are found in natural languages, so in the overall system of grammar there may be some

idiosyncratic realms, and anticausatives in Polish constitute such a rare case.

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Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of co-existing sub-systems of grammar in a language turning out

parallel competing forms with distinct morpho-syntactic structures, but identical meanings. The

existence of such systems is perceived as a problem for Chomskian linguistic theory. The case

investigated in this paper concerns analytic and synthetic anticausatives in Polish based of the same

roots. The history of such formations has been followed, briefly from Proto-Indo-European, in detail

from Old Polish to Present-Day Polish. The appearance of synthetic and analytic anticausatives has

been analyzed for a number of Old Polish sources and compared with Early 20th century Polish and

Present-Day Polish. Both patterns of anticausativization have persisted throughout the history of

Polish. This persistence cannot be easily explained within the existing models of grammar change

consistent with generative thought. The conclusion forces itself that not only particular rules may have

exceptions but also subsystems of grammar may have their idiosyncratic areas.