Archaizm czy lituanizm? O prepozycji przydawki dopełniaczowej i przyimkowej w polszczyźnie kowieńskiej
Archaism or Lithuanian influences? On pre-positioning of Genitive and prepositional attributes in Kaunas-Polish variety

Summary/Abstract: The article contains a linguistic analysis of cases present in Polish texts coming from north¬ west borderlands, where a genitive and prepositional attribute is placed before an attributed noun. The discussion was stimulated by the fact that many Polish interwar publications printed in Kaunas included several dozen attributes employed in a peculiar inversion e.g.: zaocznego sposobu nauczania instytucja “Samokształcenie” była założona w roku 1931; Nauczyciel siedział na katedrze i słuchał uczniów lekcji; na głowę zakładali skórzaną z rogami czapkę. The analysis showed that in the 20th century northern¬ borderland Polish language variety, pre¬ positioning of genitive attribute appear in the vast majority of cases in texts originating from the so¬ called indigenous Lithuania and reflect syntactic structures characteristic of the Lithuanian language (compare Lithuanian constructions and their Polish equivalents: Onos namas – Anny dom or Jules Leles – Juli lalki). Pre positioning of this type of attributes was, as late as in the 19th century, a standard procedure and was retained longer in the borderlands known for their conservatism. Beside this, inversion was, and in fact still is, used as a stylistic measure. Peculiar attributes placed before nouns, appearing numerously in texts of north¬ borderland origin written in areas where there was no influence on the part of the Lithuanian language, e.g. in Wspomnienia dzieciństwa (Childhood Memories) by Franciszek Mickiewicz, brother of the poet (e.g. pawłogrodzkiego huzarów pułku; Wileńskiego Uniwersytetu Profesorowie) are not, as it seems, an individual feature of this memoirist’s style, but rather more general property of “borderland writing”, festive, solemn and exceptionally strongly rooted in tradition.

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