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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
ThetextbookLiczebnikteśsięliczyhasbeendesignedforlearnersofPolishas
aforeignlanguage,towhomthenumeralseemsanunfriendlyanddifficultpartofspeech
atalllevelsofadvancement.
Filledwithsyntacticpitfallsandsurprises,thecomplexworldofthePolishnumeral
causesproblemsnotonlytoforeignersspeakingPolish.Eveninthecaseofveryexpe-
riencedteachersthepeculiarbehaviorofnumeralsinallaspectsoflanguagemaybeco-
meareasonformanydoubtsandmisunderstandings.
ThenumeralhardlyfeaturesinPolishlinguisticstructuresencodedinlanguage
awarenessofthePolishnativespeaker.Forthisreason,languageintuitionisnotsuffi-
cienttosolveaproblemorproperlyclarifydoubtsthePolish-speakingforeignermay
have.Astrongconvictionthatagivenformorsentenceconstructionisself-evidentmay
wellturnouttobeerroneous.Wherelanguageintuitionfails,reliablegrammaticalknow-
ledgeofinflection(forms)andfullmasteryofsyntacticrulesthatgovernthisgrammati-
calcategorybecomeanabsolutenecessity.
Inscholarlydescriptivegrammars,theGenitivecaseandthepredicateinthesingul-
arareregardedasthemostsignificantsyntacticfeaturesofthePolishnumeral.Indidac-
ticpractice,however,innerheterogeneityofthenumeral(italsomustbeinagreement
withdefiningnouns),frequent–especiallyincolloquialspeech–variabilityinusingits
forms,appearanceofthepluralmeaningofthenumeral,etc.forcetheforeignstudentto
referconstantlytodictionariesofPolishorotherspecialistpublicationsbyappliedlingu-
ists1.
Theaboveremarksaredirectlyconnectedwiththegenerallyknownfactthatin
Polishthedevelopmentofthisspecialandatthesametimeindependentgrammatical
categorywasuntypicalandheterogeneous.
Apartfromitsuntypicalityandheterogeneity,thePolishnumeraldisplaysacon-
stantandcleartendencytoevolve.
Itissmallwonderthenthatnormativepublicationshaveforyearsbeenmaking
attemptstodispeldoubtsaboutthecorrectuseandfunctionsofnumeralsinthestruc-
turesofcontemporaryeverydaylanguage.Comparisonsofmanynormativedictionaries,
dictionariesoftroublesomewordsanddetailedstudiesofthisindependentgrammatical
categoryseemtoimplythatfunctionsofnumeralsinlinguisticstructureshavecaused
avarietyofproblems2.
AuthorsofresourcebooksinPolishasaforeignlanguagepublishedinPolandare
reluctanttoaddresstheproblemsofinflectionandsyntaxofthePolishnumeral.Apart
1Cf.Kaleta,Z.,Gramatykajęzykapolskiegodlacudzoziemców,UniwerstetJagielloński,
Kraków1995,pp.251–264,andNagórko,A.,Zarysgramatykipolskiej,WydawnictwoNaukowe
PWN,Warszawa1996,pp.149–156.
2SeeBibliography,p.251.Cf.alsoremarksbyG.Hentschelonthephoneticproblems
causedbyPolishnumeralsin:Językpolskiwświecie,PWN,Warszawa–Kraków1990,acollection
ofpaperseditedbyW.Miodunka,pp.327–330.
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