Studia Językoznawcze

In the article the attention is focused on the ways of grammaticalisation of the speaking subject (the lyric subject) in the poetry by Jan Lechoń in his last two collections (Aria z kurantem [‘Aria with Carillon’], 1945, and Marmur i róża [‘Marble and a Rose’], 1954). Only the pieces in which the speaking subject may be equated with the author himself have been chosen for examination (e.g. Naśladowanie Or-Ota [‘Imitating Or-Ot’], Wieczór w Salamance [‘An Evening i n Salamanca’], and Cytata [‘Quotation’]). In order to present his feelings, sensations, and experiences the poet expresses himself either in first person singular or in other forms. The former include both verbal forms, e.g. wiem [I know], tęsknię [I miss] and pronominal forms, e.g. mi [me] (compare: ‘Wiem, czego mi potrzeba: tęsknię do ojczyzny’ [‘I know what is necessary for me to live: my home country’]), which are unambiguously marked. The latter may be the verbal forms such as second person singular, e.g. ‘mógłbyś’ [‘you might’], or pronouns of second person, e.g. ‘ci’ [‘thee’] (compare: ‘Te same mógłbyś kwiaty oglądać stokrotnie / I zieleń, co wciąż bardziej zda ci się głęboką’ [‘The same flowers you might look at a hundred times’ / And at the verdancy that seems deeper and deeper’]. What takes place then is a stylistic substitution, as a result of which certain grammatical forms become carriers of other value than the one that is ascribed to them normally; in other words, the exponents of the speaking subject perform the function of first person (compare: ‘mógłbyś = mógłbym’ [‘you could = I could’], ‘ci = mi’ [‘thee = me’]), which is incompatible with their systematic characteristics. The grammatical processes presented in the article are examples of stylistic accommodation and perform diverse functions in a poetic text. Introducing other forms instead of the first-person ones may serve as a generalisation (the embracing function, compare: ‘Nieraz potop nas zalewał’ [‘Many a time had we been inundated with a deluge’]) or universalisation (the generalising function, compare: ‘Trzeba z tym się zgodzić’ [‘It is necessary to agree with that’]) of the phenomena indicated by them.