On the syntactic functions of selected sentence-like Polish phraseological units

Niniejszy artykuł jest rozszerzoną i zmienioną wersją referatu wygłoszonego na konferencji Culture - Education - Society, organizowanej przez Lietuvos żemes ukio universitetas i Kaimo kulturos institutas w dniach 21 -22 czerwca 2007 r., por. Andrejewicz 2007.The aim of the paper is to describe the syntactic functions of selected Polish phraseological units containing finite forms (more precisely verbal components of finitive structure) and to research whether the syntactic functions performed by the analyzed units are in accordance with their interior structure. The method chosen is the distributive one, proposed by Zygmunt Saloni and Marek Świdziński in Składnia współczesnego języka polskiego (The Syntax of the Contemporary Polish Language, 1998), partialy modified by the author (cf. Andrejewicz 2006). The starting point is the division of phraseological units according to their interior structure, i.e. the type of group they represent. The next step is to analyze whether the phraseologism representing a given group performs the functions typical of its group, i.e. whether it is the realization of a given syntactic phrase or phrases. The conclusion is that the majority of verbal components of phraseological units, identical to finite forms retains their syntactic characteristics, i.e. they constitute a sentence. From the syntactic points of view the phrascological units formed with such verbs are finite phrases. Apart from such phraseological units which behave completely regularly as syntax, there is a small number of units which are not typical in this respect. Some of them, e.g. the phraseological unit do rany przyłóż ( lit. for putting on a wound) may perform the function of finitive phrase in utterance, but it also appears in sentences , in which it performs other functions which are usual of the syntactic group it represents. Moreover, there are phraseological units, which perform only non-standard functions, which are not typical of the group they represents. The type can be exemplified with the units ni przypiął ni przyłatał (lit. neither stuck, nor patched) or komuś w to graj (lit. somebody as if to play).7294