O (tajemniczej) roli intencjonalnego działania w zdaniach z przysłówkiem przypadkiem

• Authors: Duraj-Nowosielska Izabela

Title variants

EN

On the (mysterious) role of intentional actions in sentences with the adverb przypadkiem 'accidentally'

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article considers the relation of the Polish expressions connected with the notion of "accidentality" to the notion of action and agentivity in general. The expressions analyzed in the paper include przypadkiem, przypadkowo 'accidentally' or to przypadek, że_ 'it is an accident that_' (with special emphasis on the first one). Explications of the adverb przypadkiem in the two semantic papers referred to in the article - M. Grochowski (2009) and A. Bogusławski (2009) - emphasize such elements as "inexplicability", "unexpectedness" and, most importantly, "independence" of the events indicated by that predicate. Not denying such claims, I try to show that it is difficult to account for the semantics of przypadkiem without taking into consideration agentivity-related notions. First, this expression - as it is used in sentences - most often takes the role analogical to the one of "intentionality modifiers" (like niechcący 'unwillingly', nieświadomie 'unconsciously'); second - in some contexts przypadkiem operates on a metatextual level, indicating the very action of the speaker; and finally - there is reason to assume that it is exactly actions that enable "accidentality" ("independence") of events in the world in general. It means that actions would be at the center of all the accidentality-related predications, though they may not be explicitly mentioned in the sentence. The article is divided into three parts. The first provides characteristic features of the adverb przypadkiem as compared with other similar expressions (e.g. przez przypadek 'by accident'); with special emphasis put on where to find in the sentence content the "independent" events evoked by the notion of "accidentality". In the second part I demonstrate that "accidentality" predicated in the sentence points to some (hypothetical) actions undertaken by agents (not necessarily present in the sentence content). Since przypadkiem in the rhematic position and in the thematic position show different characteristics in certain interesting points, they are considered separately. And finally - in the third part I go beyons strictly linguistic considerations and try to answer the question why the adverb przypadkiem so evidently and so regularly evokes agentivity-related notions.

Keywords

EN

accidentality; actions; adverb; agentivity; intentionality; intentionality modifiers; przez przypadek; przypadkiem; semantics of adverbs

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu. Wydawnictwo UMK
• Journal: Linguistica Copernicana
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 2(8)
• Pages: 127-171

Contributors

author

Duraj-Nowosielska Izabela

• Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego, Katedra Współczesnego Języka Polskiego