The core aim of the author of the present monograph was to reveal nominal rules of the class
of particles, understood as metatextual operators, both opening and commenting the rheme of the
expression. Those units co‑
occur with the rheme, but they do not form any syntactic dependency
with it (rheme is not characterised by either grammatical or semantic features). Such a definition
and comprehension of particles was adopted by the authors of Słownik gniazdowy polskich
partykuł. The author of the present monograph refers quite often to this specialised lexicon,
however, the tasks she sets for herself are divergent. All analyses present in the monograph are
of explaining, not idiographic quality. The descriptive aspect comes down to collecting data essential
for constructing historical fact (language process). Naturally, any nomothetic inclination
in such a consideration is limited to the possibility and not necessity, since even if there are
advantageous conditions for the process, it can, but does not have to, come into existence.
Nominal rules of particles are called functional derivation, as it is all about presenting
how elements of the objective plan change their status, how they begin to function within the
metatextual plan. For some time we deal with homonymy, later those ties are broken and a lexeme
becomes only a metatextual operator, conf.: chyba, właśnie, głównie. Relevance of such
a derivational process corroborates the fact that within particles there are numerous symbols and
linguistic rules that were withdrawn from usage (zatem, nawet, przecież ← *przed się) — confer
chapter VI.
The arrangement and order of the nominal rules analysed are dictated by the linguistic
material. The description starts from the particles based on adverbs, the word level category
which is most often used as a base for particles. The analysis revealed three ways of shifting
from the class of adverbs to the class of particles. 1) It may happen that autoreferring parenthesis
(metatextual inclusion) includes an adverb; if it comes to the elision of the redundant verbal
constituent, the adverb receives the status of a particle, conf.: mówię właśnie → właśnie; mówiąc
oczywiście → oczywiście; wprawdzie wam powiadam → wprawdzie. 2) The particle may come
into being on account of elision of duplicated predication. It regards the so‑
called distinctive
particles — the distinctive element has the same predicate as the whole set (szczególnie, głównie,
zwłaszcza, głównie, przede wszystkim). 3) The last mechanism moving the adverb to the class
of particles is combining by the particle the element of the adverb which is standing next to it
and has a similar meaning. With time, the multi‑segmental
operator is shortened by the original
particle and then the adverb begins its life as a particle with which it was previously bound,
conf.: też jednak → jadnak, też podobno → podobno, też także → także.
As second come verbs which also serve as bases for particles. Here, functional derivation
deals with zeroing of the infinite structures (impersonal), conf.: być może → może, było widać → widać. A different type of functional derivation can also be observed in pronoun‑
derived particles,
like przeto, zatem, nadto, ponadto. Historical data reveals that in case of some metatextual
operators the pronoun element functioned as an anaphora or cataphora.
Chapters VI and VII illustrate linguistic processes whose effect is separation of the elements
of the metatextual plan from the objective plan. As a consequence of the parting from the
objective plan certain phonetic simplifications occur, conf.: albowiem/abowiem/abowim/albowim;
dopier/dopiro/dopirzo/dopioro (z: psł. *to pr’vъ!); podobno/podomno/podowno/podno/ponoć/
pono; przecież/przecie/przedsię/przedcię/przedsie/przećsie/przećcie/przedcię/przeć sie, ledwie/
ledwo/ledwa/jedwo ‘tylko, jedynie’. The character of these changes, however, is irregular and
unpredictable.
When it comes to the changes within the class of particles, they can concern only their
form, as generally particles are not prone to meaning alterations. The amendment may only
occur on the metatextual level, that is the particle is shifted to the class of conjunctions (conf.:
albowiem, oraz) or to the so‑
called appositions (Byłaś tam? Pewnie!/Owszem). In the final part
of the monograph the author recorded those particles that are not present in the modern Polish
language (over 70 items)
