Niektóre "akademickie" pluralia tantum - semantyka, pragmatyka, struktura

Abstract

The article presents the issue of nouns with a problematic relation between semantic reference and inflexional indicator of grammatical number, that is, such nouns which have only plural form while referring to a single object. The author analyses changes in adapting inflexional indicators in cases when belonging to the group of nouns with both singular and plural form or to the group of pluralia tantum makes a significant difference in meaning. It is one of the most difficult problems of Polish declination. The grammatical category of number, which accumulates important grammatical and semantic information, is difficult not only for foreigners studying the Polish language, but also for native speakers. The author of the article concentrates on such pluralia tantum that are being used either in singular or plural form at the moment: warsztaty/warsztat (workshop), ćwiczenia/ćwiczenie (seminar), zajęcia/zajęcie (calss), badania/ badanie (research). The author tries to explain why pluralia tantum, such as ćwiczenia, zajęcia, warsztaty, badania are being used increasingly often as nouns with both singular and plural forms by the young generation of academics. The explanation is based on dictionary analyses, system considerations, as well as semantic and social analysis.