Polish nominal construction involving fictive interaction

Abstract

This chapter discusses the semantics and pragmatics of the Polish construction in which a head noun is modified by a fictive interaction constituent, usually introduced by a quotative marker. A number of different quotative markers can precede fictive utterances in Polish, but these tend to occur in informal or spoken language. This nominal construction fulfils a variety of important functions in discourse. It is used to categorise concepts in a precise yet economical and often attention-gripping, humorous, or evaluative way. A wide range of concepts can be characterized by means of fictive interaction in Polish, including types of messages, individuals, and mental or physical activities. Culture-specific and novel social phenomena can also be successfully portrayed using embedded fictive utterances. The data comprises over 300 examples from a variety of oral and written texts in different genres.