Pochodzenie i przeobrażenia formalno-semantyczne zwrotu być, znaleźć się w kropce w polszczyźnie

Abstract

THE ORIGIN, FORMAL AND SEMANTIC TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE PHRASE BYĆ, ZNALEŹĆ SIĘ W KROPCE IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE

The contemporary phrase być, znaleźć się w kropce, which appeared in the Polish language in the 19^th century, functioned initially in the form znaleźć się w punkcie, or humorously w kropce in the meaning of ‘behaving properly, as it is expected’. In the bibliography of the subject one can find different hypotheses on its origin and reasons of semantic modification (K. Nitsch, W. Doroszewski, W. Pisarek). The language materials gathered to aid the research allowed to formulate new hypotheses on the subject. According to that data, it seems probable that the phrase znaleźć się w punkcie, w kropce is motivated by a free word combination in which the verb znaleźć się meant ‘to act, to behave appropriately, properly, suitably’; in metaphorical temporal sense the prepositional phrase w punkcie, or humorously w kropce meant ‘just in time, accordingly’.