Possessive resultative constructions in Old and Middle Polish

The possessive resultative construction (PRC) of Modern Polish has been a topic of interest in Polish linguistics for quite some time. One of the main issues is its relationship to a grammaticalized perfect and the question of whether there is an ongoing process of grammaticalization to a new perfect in contemporary Polish. However, the discussions do not take the earlier stages of Polish into account. This paper analyses the syntactic and semantic features of possessive resultatives in Old and Middle Polish with regard to their diachronic dimension and their areal setting. Particular emphasis is placed on the delineation of possessive constructions proper and possessive resultatives. The analysis shows that there have been almost no changes to this category since the first written documents. The construction has thus basically stayed the same for 600 years. It is further suggested that the Polish PRCs are the outcome of a language contact induced process. There are two possible source languages: Latin and German. However, the question of which one of the two was in fact responsible for the possessive resultative cannot be answered definitively, due to the scarcity of relevant data from the earliest period

German · Grammaticalization · Linguistics · Possessive · Resultative · Syntax · Verb · History · Language and Culture · Linguistics and language evolution · Literature, Language, and Rhetoric Studies · Philosophy