Od przysłówka do przedrostka (na przykładzie polskiego współ-)

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.