Dopełniacz liczby pojedynczej rzeczowników męskich w XVI- i XVII-wiecznych tekstach małopolskiej literatury plebejskiej

Abstract

The article is focused on the problem of choosing formal expressions -a, -u in singular genitive of masculine nouns, which has been frequently discussed in literature. The study, as distinct from an extensive work by J. Kobylińska on this case, organises the material in a synchronic way comprising the data taken from texts of the last decade of the 16th and 17th centuries. The first part groups nouns semantically, and then an attempt is made to explain possible violations of the norm formulated for choosing one of the endings with reference to various ideas emphasising either the structural or social criterion. The second statistical part presents the basis of form categorisation, which is the quality of final consonant of the noun root. The results of specification are contrasted with the analogous comparison provided for the Polish language of the half of the 19th century by E. Łuczyński. On the basis of the conducted analysis it was not possible to formulate a general, universal and perspicuous norm of choosing one of the two competing endings -a, -u with reference to the middle plebeian Polish, which would not be known in the contemporary Polish.