The Thematic Aspect of Utterances and Its Exponents in the Polish Language

The article discusses exponents of the thematic aspect in the thematic-rhematic structure of utterances, involving two types of expressions which fulfil lexical and grammatical functions. For instance, the phrase pod wzgledem 'in terms of belongs to the former, i.e. lexical, type. Here, the author focuses on the main prosodic, syntactic and semantic features of this phrase. The latter type of exponents in question is represented by (1) thematized adverbs, e.g. teoretycznie 'theoretically' (Teoretycznie masz racje 'Theoretically you are right'), (2) a special instrumental form, e.g. wzrostem, or (3) prepositional phrases, e.g. ze wzrostu (Wzrostem / ze wzrostu Jan podobny byl do swego ojca 'John was like his father in terms of height'). Offering empirical examples of the use of these exponents the author tries to prove that the thematic aspect is not a theoretical construct but a real semantic property of each utterance.