Colloque

In search of the category prototype and/or the potential significate for the Polish instrumental

Michal Pawica

Membre a labase

Michal Pawica

Résumé du colloque

The objective of this paper is to identify common elements of meaning of the Polish Instrumental case, found in its diverse uses. It will be demonstrated, with the methods of cognitive linguistics, that all the uses of the Instrumental share common semantic characteristics less general than those suggested by Jakobson's (1984) description. The apparently diverging semantic effects of the Polish Instrumental will be shown to be results of similar conceptualizations and to stem from one category centre. Finally, the possibility will be examined of finding for the Polish Instrumental one potential significate in Guillaume's (1992) understanding of the term.