On the argument-adjunct distinction in the Polish “Semantic Syntax” tradition

On the argument-adjunct distinction in the Polish Semantic Syntax tradition The aim of this paper is to examine the understanding of the Argument-Adjunct Distinction within the Polish Semantic Syntax (SS) tradition, associated with the name of Stanislaw Karolak and presented in the nominally syntactic volume of the Grammar of contemporary Polish (Pol. Gramatyka wspolczesnego jezyka polskiego ; Topolinska, 1984), especially in Karolak (1984) and Grochowski (1984), as well as in later work. Section 1 reviews the three approaches to determining the number and kind of arguments of a given predicate, as discussed in Karolak (1984), concentrating on the one that is endorsed there. Then, Sections 2–3 show that the key notions used in this approach have not been – and probably cannot be – made operational. Moreover, Section 4 briefly reviews some more recent Semantic Syntax work and shows that this lack of operational AAD in Karolak (1984) extends to the SS programme at large. Finally, Section 5 concludes that this deficiency, while common in linguistic theories, is particularly troublesome in the case of SS, which is founded on the notion of predicate-argument structure . O rozroznieniu argumentow od modyfikatorow w polskiej tradycji „skladni semantycznej” Artykul poświecony jest kwestii fundamentalnej dla szkoly „skladni semantycznej” (kojarzonej przede wszystkim z nazwiskiem Stanislawa Karolaka), a mianowicie kwestii odrozniania argumentow od modyfikatorow. Celem artykulu jest wykazanie, ze w tradycji „skladni semantycznej” nie zostala zaproponowana operacyjna procedura odroznienia argumentow od modyfikatorow, choc istnienie takiej procedury wydaje sie warunkiem koniecznym dla wyodrebnienia struktury predykatowo-argumentowej, glownego celu wielu prac zakorzenionych w tej tradycji.