Variant forms of a predicative adjective

Ruszkowski, Marek

doi:10.17651/POLON.35.12

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Tytuł: Variant forms of a predicative adjective

Abstrakt:

The aim of this article is to make an attempt at answering the question whether nominative and instrumental forms can be considered variants. In the contemporary Polish language, a predicative adjective can be used in three normative situations, an namely 1. as the only correct one, that is non-variant, i.e. Kiedy się jest inteligentnym, można się mniej uczyć; 2. as correct but stylistically marked and allowing variants with a more natural nominative, i.e. Po forsownym treningu rehabilitacyjnym stałaś się odporniejszą // odporniejsza; 3. as incorrect (at least dated or archaic), i.e. Wojna jest długotrwałą. In the last two cases, one can see a comeback of the instrumental form in the contemporary Polish language. It seems that such type of predicatives are more and more often regarded as stylistically better, more careful and elegant. Nominative and instrumental variant forms of a predicative adjective are definitely more popular in usage than in normative recommendations, which should be considered a natural phenomenon. One may expect that it will be spreading to include more and more structures which are now considered dated, archaic or substandard.