Umarło mu się. O pewnym typie polskiej operacji z udziałem się
Umarło mu się. On a Certain Type of Polish Operation Involving się

Summary/Abstract: In this paper the Polish constructions of the type: umarło mu się, zasnęło jej się, zabłądziło im się are analyzed. The author describes the linguistic status as well as the grammatical and semantic properties of się in such expressions. It is not an ordinary reflexive pronoun, but an exponent of an operational linguistic unit that belongs rather to the grammar than to the vocabulary of the Polish language. The semantic restrictions imposed on the perfective verbs which form the domain of this operation are as follows: a) these verbs refer to the subject of a given state of affair and not to an external object; b) they indicate changes and processes which are independent of the subject’s will, that is to say he or she cannot stop or control them; c) the changes are presented as undesirable from the viewpoint of the subject.

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