Prof. dr hab.

Michał Post

English–Polish Contrastive Grammar

Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Przydatne informacje:

wykładowca: Prof. dr hab. Michał Post

w: WSB we Wrocławiu
rok akad.: 2020/2021
kurs: English–Polish Contrastive Grammar & History of the English Language
rok studiów, grupy: L_III_Ak_Ap_Am
ćwiczenia: środa 13.15–14.15
e-mail: michal.post@wsb.wroclaw.pl
pokój 104C, wtorek: 09.30- 15.00
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

A Combined Course: English-Polish Contrastive Grammar & History of the English Language

Lecture 1/2 – 9 Lecture 10 – 14 Lecture 15

English-Polish Contrastive Grammar & History of the English Language Test

(synchronic view) (diachronic view)

Old English Period: 5th – 11th c. = fully inflecting, synthetic language

Middle English Period: 11th – 15th c. = changed from synthetic to analytic language
Modern English Period: 15th c. – till today = an analytic language
Early Modern English (1500 – 1650)
Late Modern English (1650 -1800)
Present-day English (1800 - )
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Grammatical functions and syntatic structure in English

 Grammatical functions in English are the roles that elements of constituents play with
respect to each other S

NP VP

V NP
 S -> NP VP is the very first rule of the English syntax,
 VP -> V NP
 Subject is the NP immediately dominated by S,
 Predicate is the VP immediately dominated by S,
 Object is the NP immediately dominated by VP, etc.
Subject – Predicate A hurricane is heading towards Spain
Governor – Complement (Object) A hurricane battered Ireland’s west coast
Modifier - Head Hurricanes bring the economic fallout
 Syn
English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Functional analysis in constituent structure grammar

 Syntactic analysis in constituent structure grammar consists of 2 parts:

1.) functional part of syntactic analysis ( Modifier-Head, etc.)
2.) structural part of syntactic analysis (parts of speech and phrase)

PP

G–C Governor – Complement

M–H Modifier - Head
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Grammatical functions and syntactic structure in Polish

S
NP VP
This woman V NP
Ta kobieta (Nominative – S)
this woman
tej kobiety (Genitive - DO)
tej kobiecie (Dative - IO)
tę kobietę (Accusative - DO)
tą kobietą (Instrumental - DO)

 Polish verbs: nie lubi, przygląda się, popchnęła, rozmawia (z)

 in Polish grammatical functions are indicated inflectionaly - morphological means override syntactic
means
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Objects in English and Polish explained

 Direct Object in English is the NP of monotransitive verb (a), or the second NP of ditransitive
verb
(a) I like him
(b) I gave Bill a message
 Indirect Object in English is the NP which separates Direct Object from the verb. It may be
Object-Shifted (to, for).
(c) I gave a message to Bill

 In Polish, Direct Object is a noun in one of the three cases, i.e. Genitive (Dopełniacz), Accusative
(Biernik) or Instrumental (Narzędnik)
On nie potrzebuje tej książki (Gen.)  He does not need this book
Zobaczyłem kobietę (Acc.)  I saw a woman
On kieruje tą kobietą (Inst.)  He controls this woman
 Polish Indirect Object NP is in Dative case (Celownik)
I sent Mary a letter  Wysłałem Marii (Dat.) list
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

English and Polish NPs - functional contrasts

a.) English Direct Object - Polish Subject (Nominative)

John (S) lost the keys (DO)  Janek (S-Nom) zgubił klucze (DO -Acc)
*Jankowi (IO-Dat) zginęły klucze (S-Nom)
*Klucze (S-Nom) zginęły Jankowi (IO-Dat)

I (S-Nom) need help (DO)  (Ja) (S-Nom) potrzebuję pomocy (DO-Gen)

*Jest mi (IO-Dat) potrzebna pomoc (S-Nom)
*Pomoc (S-Nom) jest mi (IO-Dat) potrzebna
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

English and Polish NPs - functional contrasts, cd.

b.) English Direct Object - Polish Indirect Object (Dative)

 In English it is the number of complements and distance from the verb that show the Indirect
Object.
I gave Bill a message
 In Polish Dative shows the Indirect Object.

(On) przedstawił narodowi (IO) swój program  He presented the nation (IO) his program
(On) przedstawił swój program narodowi (IO)  He presented his program to the nation (IO)
 but
*Ona pogratulowala mu (IO)  She congratulated him (DO)
*Wierzy/ufa nam (IO)  She trusts us (DO)
*On schlebia jej (IO)  He flatters her (DO)
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

English and Polish NPs - functional contrasts, cd.

c.) Possessive Nominal as Modifier in English - Direct Object (Genetive)

My friend’s (PN) brother (S) died  Mojego przyjaciela (Gen) brat (S-Nom) zmarł
Brat mojego przyjaciela (Gen.) zmarł
Zmarł brat mojego przyjaciela (Gen.)
?? Brat zmarł mojego przyjaciela (Gen.)
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

English and Polish NPs - functional contrasts, cd.

d.) Possessive Nominal in English - Indirect Object (Dative) in Polish

My friend’s (PN) brother (S) died  *Mojemu przyjacielowi (IO) zmarł brat

e.) Indirect Object in English – 2 Direct Objects (Accusative, Genetive)

I taught kids (IO) English (DO)  (Ja) uczyłem dzieci (DO-Acc) angielskiego (DO-Gen)
I taught English (DO) to kids (IO)
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3- Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

English and Polish NPs - functional contrasts, cd.

f.) Direct Object in English - Adverbial nominals in Polish (Instr)

They lived an easy life  Żyli życiem (Instr) beztroskim
He died an easy death  Umarł lekką śmiercią (Instr)
 In these English examples (f.) we have so called cognate objects

Functional or categorial contrasts?

 Adverbial (Adjunct) in English uses PP, while Polish uses NPs in Instrumental case
He sliced the bread with a knife  Pokroił chleb nożem (Instr.)
I will visit you in the evening  (Ja) odwiedzę was wieczorem (Instr.)
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

General patterns of functional contrasts between Polish and English NPs

P. E.
Subject Subject
Direct Object Direct Object
Indirect Object Indirect Object
Possessive Nominal
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Functional-structural contrasts related to Subject NPs in English and Polish

1. We (S) are cold (O) Jest nam (IO) zimno

2. It (S) has been recorded in the report To (S) zostało zapisane w raporcie
*Zapisano to (DO) w sprawozdaniu

3. She has gone Ona wyjechała vs. O Wyjechała

4. Tom said that he agrees Tomek powiedział, że on się zgadza

Tomek powiedział, że O się zgadza

5. Mary wants to sing a song Marysia chce zaśpiewać piosenkę

6. Mary wants her sisters to sing a song Marysia chce, aby jej siostry zaśpiewały
piosenkę
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 – Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Subjectless sentences in Polish as a class of syntactic structures

 Subjectless sentences in Polish, i.e. sentences without Subject NP in Nominative case with
which the verb could agree in person, number and gender
 Subjectless sentences imply that Polish syntax may have a slightly different rule(s) for
sentences:
E: S -> NP VP

P: S -> (NP) VP
S -> VP NP , and even
S -> VP
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Subjectless sentences in Polish

 Depending on the type of the main verb form, several types of subjectless constructions have been
distinguished in Polish grammars
 A. Subjectless sentences in Polish, i.e. sentences without Subject NP in Nominative case with which
the verb could agree in person, number and gender
 Depending on the type of the main verb form, several types of subjectless constructions have been
distinguished in Polish Grammars
a.) 3rd person singular neuter verbs
Wczoraj padało  It rained yesterday
Było już ciemno  It was dark
Jest nam zimno  We are cold
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Subjectless sentences in Polish, cont.

b.) 3rd person singular neuter reflexive verbs

Mówi się o tym niekiedy  They talk about it sometimes
Podaje się tu zupę cebulową  Onion soup is served here by them

c.) -no and –to impersonal verb forms

Zapisano to w sprawozdaniu  It has been recorded in the report
Pobito znowu record oglądalności 
The record for television viewing has been broken again

d.) 3rd person plural

We Wrocławiu naprawili już wiele ulic 
Many street have been already repaired in Wroclaw
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

Recommended manual:

Fisiak, J., Lipinska-Grzegorek, M. Zabrocki, T. 1978. An Introductory English-Polish

Contrastive Grammar. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo PWN. Introduction. Chapter
one: Basic Syntactic Structures
 English – Polish Contrastive Grammar
Lecture 3 - Functional Contrasts at Basic Sentence Level

• The best equivalent – problem of contrastive analysis

John lost the keys Janek (Nom) zgubił klucze (Acc)
S V DO S V DO
Jankowi (Dat) zginęły klucze (Nom)
IO/S V S/DO
Klucze zginęły Jankowi
S/DO V IO/S

• Arrange the given Polish sentences according to their decreasing degree of equivalence to the English
original:
E. P.
Can you pass the salt please ? a) Możesz mi podać sól?
b) Podaj mi sól, proszę
c) Czy możesz mi podać sól?
d) Mógłbyś mi podać sól?
e) Proszę podaj mi sól.