English-Polish Contrastive Grammar 6

Nominal categories in English and Polish

1. DEFINITENESS
a. This category is marked in English by elements called determiners. The prototypical determiners are
articles: the indefinite article a/an and the definite article the. Other determiners include (cf. SIEG:
92):
indefinite: a/an, each, every; some, any; either, neither; no; another; a few, a little, several;
many, much, more, most, few, ...
definite: the, this, that (and their plurals: these, those); genitive NPs...
b. Focusing on the articles, definite NPs always have a definite article, e.g. the, this. Indefinite singular
count NPs are marked by the indefinite article a/an, whereas indefinite plural count NPs and
indefinite non-count NPs are not marked.
c. Basically, definiteness is about identifiability. If the speaker marks a noun phrase as definite he/she
expects the addressee to be able to identify the referent of this noun phrase. With singular count
nouns identifiability is usually a result of the recognition that there is only one referent satisfying the
description expressed by the NP:
I’ve mowed the lawn. = our lawn
Identifiability due to uniqueness is also valid for plural and non-count definite NPs. However, this
time uniqueness applies to a set or quantity rather than to an individual. Reference is made here to
this set or quantity as one unit.
Where did you put the keys / the milk?
The set of keys as a whole is being referred to. Conversely, the total amount of milk is being
referred to in the second variant.
The parents of one of my students came round to see me last night.
Both parents are being referred to in the above.
d. Restrictions on the use of determiners
Determiners in English cannot combine with each other within one NP:
Have you seen any books on the table?
Have you seen my books on the table?
*Have you seen any my books on the table?
Proper names are prototypically definite and the majority of them do not take articles, though some
classes of proper names are marked with the definite article:
Have you heard the latest record by David Bowie?
*Have you seen the latest record by the David Bowie?
But: You must have heard some songs by the Beatles, though.
e. Polish does not have any coherent system of definiteness of the type found in English. There is no
obligation of marking Polish NPs either as definite or indefinite.
I’m a teacher. Jestem nauczycielem.
I saw a 1970 Camarro yesterday. Wczoraj widziałem Chevroleta Camarro z 1970 roku.
Hale you mowed the lawn? Skosiłeś trawnik?
Nevertheless, there are some lexical means of expressing similar meanings, though they are only
optional:
Widziałem jak oskarżony rozmawiał z jakimś/tym mężczyzną.
Moreover, such lexical markers of (in)definiteness in Polish may be combined with each other and
with proper names.
Widziałeś gdzieś te moje książki?
Ten David Bowie miał niezłe piosenki.
f. Another way of making the distinction between definite and indefinite NPs is by modifying word
order. Co-referential (therefore, definite) NPs tend to be placed at the beginning of the sentence,
whereas non-co-referential NPs are postponed towards the end of the sentence.
1. W pokoju siedział chłopiec. a. Chłopiec wyszedł.
b. *Wyszedł chłopiec.
2. W pokoju siedziała dziewczyna. a. Wszedł chłopiec.
b. *Chłopiec wszedł.
2. NUMBER:
a. The countable/uncountable distinction rests on the ability of the noun to have number contrast, i.e.
both SG and PL forms. Countable nouns (E: dog, car, stone, driver, thought; P: pies, samochód,
kamień, kierowca, owca, myśl) typically denote entities that can be logically counted, but the
distinction is formal rather than logical or conceptual. Thus, what we can count logically can be
counted under a nominal predicate in one language but not necessarily in another/the other. For

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 example, the abstract entity referred to with the noun advice cannot be counted directly with a
numeral (as the noun has no PL form) and we need a classifier like piece to support the numeral
(*two advice(es) vs. two pieces of advice) while the Polish cognate of advice, rada, is a countable
noun (e.g. dwie rady ‘two pieces of advice). Countability is thus manifested both morphologically
(e.g. inflectional endings) and syntactically (the use of articles, co-occurrence with numerals and
subject-verb agreement). In both languages the plural is marked morphologically by means of
inflectional endings. However, English has a small number of nouns that mark the plural in a
different way (man : men, mouse : mice) or do not mark it at all (sheep), in which case whether the
nouns is singular or plural can be deduced solely from the syntactic context.
b. Uncountable nouns (E: sand, water, scissors, knowledge; P: piasek, woda, nożyczki, wiedza) do not
show the distinction into the singular and the plural. We may distinguish several groups of
uncountable nouns with respect to their form and syntactic behaviour:
• syntactically singular nouns (singularia tantum)
o formally singular: E: sugar, cotton, knowledge, violence; P: cukier, bawełna, wiedza,
przemoc
o formally plural (this class is not represented in Polish)
a. subjects: economics, linguistics, politics, physics, etc.
b. physical activities: athletics, aerobics, gymnastics, etc.
c. diseases: mumps, measles, shingles, etc.
d. games: billiards, darts, dominoes, skittles, etc.
e. news
• syntactically plural noun (pluralia tantum)
o formally plural (including bipartite nouns): E: alms, belongings, congratulations, thanks,
savings, remains, stairs, outskirts, surroundings, trousers, jeans, shorts; glasses, headphones; scissors; P:
ciarki, perfumy, warcaby, pomyje, wertepy, sanie, spodnie, nożyczki, binokle, okulary, drzwi, usta.
Note that some Polish nouns of this group are unlike other uncountable nouns in that
they can take cardinal numbers as their dependents (dwoje sań, czworo drzwi), because
they denote entities that can be counted. However, apart from this particular feature
they are like any other uncountable noun (they do not show the singular-plural
distinction and they always require plural verb forms).
o formally singular (this class is not represented in Polish): police, cattle, vermin
c. CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS WRT NUMBER: SUMMINGUP, ENGLISH HAS C(OUNTABLE) NOUNS, AND U(NCOUNTABLE) NOUNS,
THE LATTER FALLING INTO SINGULARIA TANTUM, PLURALIA TANTUM AND UNMARKED PLURALS. POLISH HAS C NOUNS AND U
NOUNS, WHICH FAL INTO SG TANTUM AND PL TANTUM. SOME MISMATCHES INCLUDE:
English Polish
SG T furniture C mebel/meble
information C informacja/informacje
gossip C plotka/plotki
advice C rady/rady
PL T clothes SG T odzież
oats SG T owies
groats/grits SG T kasza
pyjamas C piżama
C violin PL T skrzypce
mouth PL T usta
door PL T drzwi
Unmarked plural cattle SG T bydło
police SG T policja
d. Conversion between countable and uncountable (mass) nouns is a live grammatical option in
language (cf. SIEG, p. 86):
count => mass
1. There’s not enough table for everyone to sit at.
2. Emmy finds squashed spider more nauseous than the thing alive.
3. The scrapyard is full of smashed car awaiting recycling.
4. After several lorries had run over the body, there was rabbit splattered all over the
highway.

mass => count

1. How many loyalties does Dan have?
2. They ordered two beers.

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 3. This is a very special honey.
4. He came to find in her a love/beauty/daring he had never suspected.
e. Collective nouns – a subclass of countable nouns that denote collections of animate entities
(staff/personel, flock/stado). In British English, unlike in Polish, their special feature is that
depending on the interpretation they may take a singular verb form (the group as a whole) or a
plural verb form (the group as a collection of entities).
The jury is still deliberating ?The jury are still deliberating.
The committee are all over forty. ?The committee is all over forty.
The Cabinet are going on their holiday in a week.
The audience have been clapping their hands for ten minutes already.
The committee consists/*consist of two academic staff and three students.
The other crew were not even born at the time I won my first championship.
The class have/?has now all received certificates of merit.
In Polish all these nouns exhibit regular intrasentential concord.
Za tydzień rząd udaje się na urlop. *Za tydzień rząd udają się na urlop.
3. GENDER:
a. Gender in English
• masculine vs. feminine vs. neuter
In English gender is manifested predominantly in the substitution of third person pronouns for
NPs and corresponds to natural gender, i.e. the sex of the referent.
The masculine he is used to substitute for NPs which denote male humans and males of
“animals that have salient enough sexual characteristics for us to think of them as differentiated
(certainly for gorillas, usually for ducks, probably not for rats, certainly not for cockroaches)”
(SIEG: 103).
The feminine she is used, by analogy, to substitute for NPs which denote females. Some
inanimate nouns may also be referred to as she by convention, e.g. countries and vehicles (esp.
ships).
The neuter it is used to substitute for NPs denoting inanimates as well as for “male or female
animals (especially lower animals and non-cuddly creatures), and sometimes for human infants
if the sex is unknown or considered irrelevant” (SIEG: 103). As nouns like baby can be referred
to with she, he or it, they are sometimes classified as nouns with common gender.
• Examples of animate nouns unmarked for gender (they are often called dual gender nouns, as
they may have both male and female referents): driver, singer, teacher, guide, judge, artist,
foreigner, librarian, professor, student, cook, friend, novelist, servant, doctor, guest, parent,
singer, typist, enemy, inhabitant, person, speaker, writer, etc.
These nouns may be substituted by both he and she, depending on the sex of the referent.
• Examples of animate nouns lexically marked for gender: man : woman, brother : sister, uncle :
aunt, husband : wife, king : queen, lord : lady, dog : bitch, gander : goose, ram : ewe, buck :
doe, bull : cow, fox : vixen, etc.
• Examples of nouns derivationally marked for gender:
1. [-ess]: prince : princess, duke : duchess, lion : lioness, tiger : tigress; actor : actress,
steward : stewardess, host : hostess, etc.
2. [-man]: [-woman]: chairman : chairwoman, salesman : saleswoman, sportsman :
sportswoman, spokesman : spokeswoman; [-person] as a sexless solution.
3. he/she + N: he-bear : she-bear; N + hen/cock: turkey-cock : turkey-hen, male/woman +
N: nurse : male nurse, engineer : woman engineer
4. isolated:
[-ine] hero : heroine
[-trix] dominator : dominatrix, administrator : administratrix, etc.
• Human reference without sex specification
The option recommended for these uses by prescriptive grammarians used to be the third
person singular masculine gender pronoun he, but nowadays there is a growing tendency to
use the plural they. Moreover, in some contexts they seems to be the only option accepted by
native speakers (cf. SIEG for details).
We need a manager who is reasonably flexible in his/their approach.
I wish every politician was both ethical and effective in his/their actions.
Everyone’s here, aren’t they/*isn’t he?
b. Gender in Polish

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Polish nouns do not inflect for gender in the same way as they inflect for case. Instead they are
inherently classified for this category.
• Syntactic criterion for distinguishing gender
In Polish gender is predominantly a grammatical (syntactic) category. It determines the syntactic
context in which it may appear, i.e. the form of dependents, like adjectives or demonstratives, in
the NP, cf. pracowity chłopiec : pracowita dziewczynka or ten chłopiec : ta dziewczynka),
affects subject-verb agreement in the past tense (chłopiec pracował : dziewczynka pracowała)
as well as determines the choice of third person pronouns (chłopiec/on : dziewczynka/ona).
On this basis we distinguish three genders in the singular (masculine: ten chłopiec; feminine: ta
dziewczynka; and neuter: to dziecko), and two in the plural (masculine personal: ci chłopcy and
others: te dziewczynki/dzieci).
• Exceptions to the correlation between gender and syntactic behaviour
o Nouns like fajtłapa, gapa, gaduła may have both male and female referents and may occur
with masculine and feminine determiners, which is why they are classified as dual gender
nouns in Polish; in contrast to English Polish does not have common gender nouns:
Ten fajtłapa znów zapomniał zeszytu. / Ta fajtłapa znów zapomniała zeszytu.
Ten gaduła / Ta gaduła ciągle przeszkadza.
o Many nouns have two plural forms, one of which is neutral, the other deprecatory. The first
one is used with ci the second one with te. Compare:
Ci dwaj łotrzy przeklęci uciekli. vs. Te dwa łotry przeklęte uciekły.
Ci urzędnicy to straszni amatorzy. vs. Te urzędniki to straszne amatory.
NOTE 1: Certain nouns have only the deprecatory form: darmozjady, konowały, półgłówki,
grubasy (no forms like: *darmozjadowie/-adzi, *konowałowie, *półgłówkowie, *grubasowie)
NOTE 2: A form of a noun which is morphologically deprecatory does not always have negative
connotations: zuchy, przedszkolaki, wnuki, prawnuki.
• Correlation with the ending of the noun
There is also correlation between the ending of a noun and its gender: masculine nouns tend to
have zero endings in nominative SG (stół, kot, gość, but, cf. kość, muzeum), feminine nouns tend
to end in –a (gitara, puma, kobieta, but cf. poeta) and neuter nouns tend to end in other vowels,
e.g.: –e/ę or –o (prosię, krzesło). Although as seen in these examples this correlation is not full
and there exist exceptions, some linguists claim that the ending determines the gender of the
noun.
• Correlation with natural gender
With animate nouns, especially those denoting humans and higher animals grammatical gender
usually corresponds to natural gender.
Exceptions include: nouns denoting the young of the species (szczenię, dziewczę) and
augmented forms (babsko, chłopisko)
• Correlation with declensional classes
The classification into declensional types is based on case syncretism, i.e. similarities between
different case forms. With the majority of nouns gender corresponds to a particular pattern in
case syncretism, and masculine nouns are further divided into masculine personal nouns,
masculine non-personal animate nouns and masculine inanimate nouns.
masculine personal nouns: rybak
in SG and PL, A(ccusative) = G(enitive)
widzę rybaka = nie ma rybaka
widzę rybaków = nie ma rybaków
masculine non-personal animate nouns: robak
in SG, A = G: widzę robaka = nie ma robaka
in PL, A = N(ominative): widzę robaki = to są robaki
masculine inanimate nouns: hak
in SG and PL, A = N:
widzę hak = to jest hak
widzę haki = to są haki
feminine nouns: ryba
in SG, L(ocative) + D(ative): w rybie = ku rybie
in PL, A = N: widzę ryby = to są ryby
neuter nouns: morze
in SG and PL, A = N:
widzę morze = to jest morze

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 In the plural the distinction between the RYBAK class (A = G) and all other nouns (A = N)
corresponds to the distinction into masculine personal nouns vs. others based on the syntactic
criterion.
One notable group of exceptions to this correlation includes nouns like poeta, satelita, idiota,
which decline like feminine nouns but syntactically they are masculine (ten/*ta poeta)
• Polish has several suffixes that derive feminine nouns: aktorka, dozorczyni, siostrzenica, and a
suffix that derives masculine nouns: gąsior.
4. CASE:
a. Case in Polish
• In Polish case is marked on nouns, pronouns, numerals and adjectives.
• Function of case – predominantly syntactic: marks the syntactic function of the NP.
o subject – typically marked by the nominative
Audytorzy zakwestionowali w sumie 113 tys. zł honorariów.
Compare, however, sentences like: Smutno mi. Państwu jest niewygodnie. According to
Nagórko (2006: 113) the dative NPs have the function of semantic subjects here marked as
‘non-agent’.
o object – marked by the accusative or the genitive (the latter expecially with negated VPs or
other verbs like brakować (miejsca), odmówić (pomocy), zabronić, zakazać, zaprzestać
(działania), zapomnieć (zeszytu), zaniechać, zaniedbać obowiązków, dochodzić (prawdy),
dotykać (sedna)):
Some verbs allow both accusative-marked objects and genitive-marked ones but this is
usually accompanied by a semantic difference – the latter expresses the so-called partitive
meaning (i.e. the meaning of indefinite quantity):
ukroić wędliny pokroić wędlinę
zjeść ryżu zjeść ryż
kupić jabłek kupić jabłka (do szarlotki)
zrobić herbaty zrobić herbatę
Less frequently the object may be in the instrumental case:
zachwycać się muzyką
gardzić tym mężczyzną
o predicative complement – typically in the instrumental case
Jestem lekarzem.
Wybrano go prezydentem.
o complement in a PP
bez sensu genitive
w domu locative
przed domem instrumental
• Semantic function of case – less frequent; e.g. the instrumental may mark instruments in
achieving some goals; dative can mark bene/malefactive:
Uderzył się młotkiem w kolano.
Tylko mi tu nie mdlej.
b. Case in English
• In English case is a marginal category. The majority of nouns distinguish between plain and
genitive forms, but unlike in Polish, the genitive in English is marked with a clitic rather than an
inflectional ending. These special properties of the English possessive constructions allow for
more syntactic patterns and more contrasts than in Polish:
English Polish
Jack’s money pieniądze Jacka
Jack and Mary’s money vs. Jack’s and Mary’s money pieniądze Jacka i Marii
Moreover, to express similar meanings English makes use of a periphrastic construction which is
a prepositional phrase headed by of. This construction is used instead of the clitic-marked
genitive with inanimate nouns or nouns denoting lower animals.
?the house’s roof the roof of the house
?the cockroach’s size the size of the cockroach
If we combine the clitic-marked genitive and the of-phrase, the resulting construction is called the
double genitive and has no counterpart in Polish:
a friend of Jack’s
• Only personal pronouns (apart from you) have more elaborate case contrasts: nominative
(subjective) : genitive : accusative (objective).

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 • The nominative-accusative distinction present in English personal pronouns is used to mark
syntactic functions. The subject is usually marked by the nominative, whereas the object and
complements of pronouns are marked by the accusative. There is however some variation,
especially as to how predicative complements are marked (cf. CGE).
• predicative complement incl. cleft constructions (the nominative sounds rather formal):
A: Who’s calling? B: It is me/I.
It is him/he who is causing all the trouble.
• coordinated subject:
I and my wife wish you well for the future. (formal)
My wife and I wish you well for the future. (the most neutral form)
Me and my wife/My wife and me wish you well for the future (usually in speech only)

Exercises
I. Decide which of the following types of semantic reclassification is involved in the following cases
of conversion:
1. abstract concept concrete instance; 2. unbounded mass/substance  bounded product or
portion; 3. unbounded mass/substance  kind of mass/substance (individuated); 4.
individual/object  mass/substance of which the individual is made

1. a. Szczęśliwi czasu nie liczą.

b. Zajmę się tym we właściwym czasie.
2. a. Kup sok!
b. Kup dwa soki!
3. a. W lodówce jest tylko jedno jajko.
b. Masz jajko na koszuli.
4. a. There is a chicken in the pen.
b. There is chicken in this soup.
5. a. Dałeś jej jabłko do szkoły?
b. Dodałeś jabłka do sałatki?
6. a. Przy drzwiach stoi facet.
b. Jest w niej więcej faceta niż kobiety.
7. a. Srebro ostatnio podrożało.
b. W tej sali znajdują się srebra, na których jadano w dworze.
8. a. Oszczędność jest dobrą cechą.
b. W tym tempie, szybko wydasz wszystkie swoje oszczędności.

II. For each of the nouns below provide a count and a non-count syntactic context in which it can
occur:
1. kasztan
2. proszek
3. lód
4. dąb
5. szafir

III. Translate the following into English and comment on any differences in the syntactic status of
the nouns in English and Polish:
1. To są wspaniałe wiadomości!
2. W tym sklepie sprzedają włoskie obuwie.
3. Jej włosy są teraz proste. Dawnej miała kręcone włosy.
4. Ile chcesz tostów na śniadanie?
5. Ten owerol, który kupiłam ci na wyjazd w góry w zeszłym roku jest już za mały.

References
Nagórko, A. 2006. Zarys gramatyki polskiej. Warszawa.
SIEG: Huddleston, R. D. and Pullum, G. K. 2006. A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge.
Willim, E. and Mańczak-Wohlfeld, E. 1997. A Contrastive Approach to Problems with English. Warszawa-
Kraków.

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