Coś innego to coś innego niż co innego. O tym i rzeczach podobnych

Abstrakt

Coś innego (Something Else) Is Different than co innego (Something Different). These and Similar Issues

The article discusses the opposition between Polish pronouns ending with -ś and corresponding pronouns which lack this exponent. Such an opposition can be noticed in the combinations of units of both types with the expressions: inny/indziej (else/other), (e.g. ktoś inny : kto inny, coś innego : co innego, gdzieś indziej : gdzie indziej, kiedyś indziej : kiedy indziej, etc.), as well as in some modal contexts (e.g. Potrzebuję kogoś do pomocy vs. Potrzebuję kogo do pomocy, i. e. ‘I need someone to help me’). The author of the article claims that pronouns in such pairs do not possess the same meaning, as they differ semantically and, in some cases, also pragmatically. The semantic difference between them comes down to the key contrast between the subject being spoken of and what is said about the subject. In the contexts under consideration, the pronouns ending with -ś are indexes used to denote objects in the world, while those belonging to the other type only pretend to occupy the positions of the predicate arguments, which are neither specified nor implemented. The article also considers the possibility of treating the analyzed types of expressions not as sets of separate lexemes, but rather as products of adequate operations that should be properly described.