The middle of a family: Reflexively marked structures in Polish

Anna Malicka-Kleparska

doi:10.18290/rh.2015.63.11-6

Anna Malicka-Kleparska The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh.2015.63.11-6

Keywords: middle voice; anticausative; clitic się; agency; genericity; Polish

Abstract

The paper is devoted to an analysis of ‘notional middles’ in Polish within a construction-based morpho-syntax. The problem of the distinction which should, or should not, be drawn between middle and anticausative structures is taken up here. We analyze the Polish data, considering the correlation of major parameters distinguishing middles and anticausatives in languages of the world, and decide that in Polish ‘notional middles’ constitute a single class. As a consequence, the differences between anticausatives and middles should not be reflected by distinct structures ascribed to these groups of forms by grammar. The existent differences should be attributed to broader context and to encyclopedic knowledge concerning events.

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