Abstract: | In the modern Polish language, it is difficult to determine in an unambiguous
manner the word-formative status of formations which feature the element
współ-. Such elements are treated as compounds or, more frequently, as prefixal
forms. Historically, these elements, along with the constructions spół-, społu,
constituted a class of compounds which were synonymous. The first attestations
of the structures which are discussed in this article date back to as early
as the Old Polish period (cf. społupomoc, społudziedzic), although their expansion
occurred only in the nineteenth century (e.g. współdryblas, współdziałać,
współinteresowany). The development of this derivative group is clearly associated
with the evolution of adverbs of the type społu, pospołu, wespół, współ, wspołek;
it mainly consists in the expansion of the forms which feature współ on the one
hand, and in the slow process of disassociation of the relationship in question
on the other. Owing to specialisation of the forms współ, spół in the derivational
function (a process relatively discernible since the sixteenth century), we may speak about a slow process of their transformation into a prefix, which intensified
along with the process of the obsolescence of the adverb wespół. |