Jak karczować znane ścieżki? O jednostkach języka, włącznikach i metatekście

The aim of the paper is to investigate the process of crystallization of expressions into language units with the function of pragmatic markers, on the example of two Polish expressions: {że tak} ({so to…}, i.e. {so to speak}) and {że aż (so much)}. The authors thoroughly analyze difficulties related to drawing conclusions from language data resources considering the stage which the process of expressions’ lexicalization or delexicalizations has entered, and argue with the concept that a high frequency rate of the expression usage is a key argument in estimation of the stage of lexicalization or delexicalization process. The question whether some language units shall be considered as marked out to become a part of expressions which further lexicalize into pragmatic markers is also addressed.status: publishe