FORMY WARIANTYWNE POLSKICH PRZYMIOTNIKÓW
VARIANT FORMS OF POLISH ADJECTIVES

Summary/Abstract: The term language variants is defined similarly in different lexicons of linguistics. This paper deals with variants of adjectives. Variant forms of adjectives were excerpted from the Nowy sùownik poprawnej polszczyzny PWN which is the largest, most up-todate and most prestigious orthoepic dictionary of the Polish language. The adjective is understood in morphological terms, i.e. as a part of speech that is declined, has numbers and gender. Just positive forms of adjectives were analyzed. This paper does not deal with comparative or superlative forms. Neither does this paper account for alternative forms of adjectives coined from the names of locations. The collected data was classified into a number of groups in respect to the relations between variants determined by means of qualifiers and abbreviations. The most numerous group comprises forms labelled with the qualifier rzad. (‘rzadki’ – ‘infrequent’) and the abbreviation p. (‘patrz’ – ‘see’), e.g. agenturowy rzad., p. agenturalny, etc. A large group is made up of forms considered absolutely equivalent that are separated by the abbreviation a. (‘albo’ – ‘or’): apsydowy a. apsydalny, etc. The third most numerous class comprises variants separated only by the letter p., e.g. antykwarski p. antykwaryczny, etc. Variants representing other groups are encountered very seldom. In formal terms, variance of adjectives occurs, most of the time, due to the parallel existence of two suffixes. Some linguists assume that the elimination of variance and standardization take place through the selection of a variant that is in some respect better than other variants.

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