1.

Basic Syntactic Structures - Polish and English simple sentences

Types of differences that are distinguished:
1. structural differences
a. where one of the languages allows for a syntactic structure which
has no counterpart in the other language
b. the difference is attributed to peculiarity of a grammar (system) of
one language.
The first striking difference concerns presence or absence of the subject element
of a sentence or clasuse.
In an English sentence the subject NP is an obligatory constituent.
In Polish the main clause need not have a subject on the surface the subject NP
may be omitted or deleted.
e.g. On wyjecha z Olsztyna. Wyjecha.
Ona wyjechaa z Olsztyna.
Wyjechaa.
Oni wyjechali z Olsztyna. Wyjechali.
The overt subject is also not obligatory (or even obligatorily absent) in Polish in a
number of subjectless constructions.
Their common feature is the lack of a noun phrase in nominative case with which
the main verb could agree in person, number, gender.
The types of subjectless constructions can be distinguished depending on the
type of the main verb form:

a) a 3rd person singular verb

1. Padao wczoraj. It rained yesterday.
2. Byo ciemno.
It was dark.
3. Jest nam zimno. We are cold.

b) a 3rd person singular neuter reflexive verb

4. Mwi si o tym niewiele.
5. Podaje si tu kaw.

One does not speak about it much.

Coffee is served here.

c) special no, -to impersonal verb forms

6. Zadowano siano na wz.
Hay has been loaded onto the cart.
7. Pobito Janka.
John has been beaten up.
d) a 3rd person plural
8. W Olsztynie zamknli stare kino.
The old cinema has been closed in Olsztyn.
/
They closed the old cinema in Olsztyn.

e) special non-inflected forms of a verb

9. (Jest) wida std miasto.
The town can be seen from here.
10. Trzeba nam ucieka.
We should escape.
11.
12.
13.
14.

f) sentences denoting absence or non-existence

Nie ma skrzydlatych koni. There are no winged horses.
Nie ma ich w domu.
They are not at home.
Ubywao wody.
There was less and less water.
Brakowao (im) poywiena. There was not enough food. / They lacked food.

These sentences in (f) are different than those in (a-e) because the case form is
different from nominative, and their number, person and gender features have no
influence on the shape of the verb.
The subjectless constructions 1-14 were grouped depending on the syntactic
features. But they can also be divided depending on another factor: whether the
real-life performer of the action expressed by the verb can or cannot be
recovered.
In (b, c, and d) there is an unspecified performer of the action described by
the verb.
The performer is not overtly the subject, but his existence is
implied.
The subject could be expressed by kto, ktokolwiek.
Such sentences usually have passive equivalents in English, with
the Subject NP unexpressed (deleted). Other possible
translations:
One (4)
they e.g. Kradn tu samochody They steal cars here.
The subject of an English sentence corresponds to the
object NP in the Polish equivalent (3, 10)
There is no implied subject (i.e. it is impossible to recover the deleted
agent/performer of the action) as in the examples below.
They are usually translated with it. or Existential there (11, 12, 13,
14)
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

Dniao.
Zmierzacho (si).
ciemnio si.
Byo sonecznie.
Byo nam przyjemnie.
Jest nam wygodnie.
A. Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz