Co potrafił XVI-wieczny Polak, czego nie potrafi ten współczesny? Cechy semantyczno-gramatyczne w gnieździe potrafić (wiek XVI a współczesność)
What is it that the 16th-century Pole could and the contemporary one cannot do? Semantic and grammatical characteristics in the nest potrafić (can)

Summary/Abstract: The author, departing from the contemporary meaning of the verb potrafić (can), presents how this word functioned in the same meaning in the 16th century. She also points to a range of differences in the linguistic characteristics of the lexeme in both epochs: the issues of the aspect, syntactic considerations, relations with the formal root word, and normative generalisations. Through the application of the nested analysis, it was possible to reproduce and systematise formal and semantic correlations between prefixal verbs potrafić, potrafiać and non-prefixal verbs trafić, trafiać, which are historically alive. Owing to genetic relations between them, prefixal verbs could be presented as regular adverbial forms situated on the first tact of several word formation nests TRAFIAĆ, TRAFIĆ, while the contemporary verb potrafić is an independent centre of two empty nests, exclusively in the form POTRAFIĆ, which is interpreted as bi-aspectual. Apart from that, other numerous forms with the prefix po-, which are situated on both the first and successive tacts of the nests TRAFIAĆ, TRAFIĆ of those times, occur in 16th-century texts.

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