O precyzji terminologicznej w kontekście badań diachronicznych (na przykładzie przyimków)

Abstract

Terminological precision constitutes one the most important determinants of scholarship because it is directly associated with precise thinking. However, in the humanities, also in linguistics, this requirement is frequently omitted, for it is hardly possible to capture the majority of linguistic phenomena within a rigid scientific framework. The paper focuses on the problem of defining the boundaries of the class of prepositions (we are concerned mainly with secondary prepositions: wzdłuż, wobec, celem, na początku, pod wodzą), a class whose description is difficult due to the lack of uniformity and the dynamic nature of the phenomena related to the use of prepositions. It is a part of speech which in a way is developing “right before our eyes”. The author presents an overview of the multifarious definitions of prepositions proposed to date. They range from approaches which to a great extent narrow down this class of lexemes to “certain”, lexicalised forms, to descriptions which take into account a whole range of syntactic features related to the analysed lexical units, as well as some borderline phenomena. The author intends to point to the most useful approach to the understanding of the phenomenon of the prepositional class and indicate which approaches should be (or may be) taken into account in historical analyses. The author also addresses the problem of the adjustment of terms used in synchronic and diachronic linguistics.