Phrasemity of numeral instrumental forms ending in -u

Abstract

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that in contemporary Polish – contrary to the view expressed in dictionaries, grammars, Polish textbooks for foreigners and theoretical linguistic publications – instrumental forms of cardinal numerals ending in -u (e.g. pięciu ‘five’) are not in free variation with forms ending in -oma (e.g. pięcioma). On the basis of attested data drawn mainly from the National Corpus of Polish, it is shown that forms ending in -u, when used as simple numerals in instrumental positions, are limited to the construction przed X-u laty ‘X years ago’, while forms ending in -oma are fully productive. In order to distinguish, within a given lexeme, forms which may only occur in phrasemes (i.e. broadly understood phraseological expressions) from forms which occur productively, a new grammatical category is proposed: “phrasemity”.