Osobiście w zdaniu i w strukturze tematyczno-rematycznej wypowiedzenia

Abstract

UNITS WITH THE FORM OSOBIŚCIE IN SENTENCES AND IN THE THEMATIC-RHEMATIC STRUCTURE OF UTTERANCES

The author of this article claims that in Polish there are three independent language units containing the form osobiście. They differ both functionally and formally. Only one of these units (osobiście₁ ‘in a personal manner’) is an ordinary adverb operating on the syntactic level, that is, entering into syntactic and semantic relations with other components of a given sentence. The other two units are operators of the thematic-rhematic structure. They organize the content of utterances they participate in and comment on it. Osobiście₂ (‘personally’) is inherently thematic; it can function as the main theme of a given utterance or stands next to the theme making this element easier to identify. The unit osobiście₃ (‘in person’) is, in turn, primarily rhematic or precedes the rheme as its thematized exponent. Osobiście₂ and osobiście₃ are two types of dictum, on the one hand – thematic comment and on the other – rhematic. These expressions have much in common with the units of the form sam. Besides osobiście₁, osobiście₂ and osobiście₃, there is also in Polish the idiom znać / poznać [kogoś] osobiście ‘know / get to know someone personally’.