Plurale tantum vs. rzeczownik dwuliczbowy – o płynności statusu jednostki językowej
Pluralia tantum vs. dual-number nouns. The fluid status of language units

Summary/Abstract: The study is concerned with language units such as the Polish akta ‘files’, baty ‘licking’ or ‘whips’, cynaderki ‘kidneys’, which emerged through lexicalization of specific meanings connected with the plural form of respective dual-number nouns (sing. akt, bat, cynaderka). The example of bat and baty shows the dynamics of their status in the space of language: the referential diversity of their forms in texts and the diversity of approaches to this fact in dictionaries, revealing the fluidity of the boundaries between two-number nouns and pluralia tantum in the Polish language. Based on the analysis of over 230 units of this type, mechanisms of linking meanings with the plural form were also revealed, such as narrowing, expanding, metonymy and metaphor, leading to the blurring of the boundaries between these subcategories of nouns.

• Details
• Contents