Temporal ‘since’ in Polish: Conjunctions & Tense-Aspect Constellations

Abstract

Conjunctions such as Dutch sinds and English since have temporal functions that involve restrictions on the choice of tense and aspect, which have been commented on quite extensively (cf. a.o. Fijn van Draat 1903; Heinämäki 1978; Fryd 2011; Barentsen 2009; 2016). In Slavic languages the semantic input of tense and aspect into complex sentences with connective items of this sort has recently also been the topic of research (cf. a.o. Zorixina-Nil’sson 2011; Popović 2012; Duijkeren-Hrabová 2017; Barentsen 2017; 2018). The present contribution aims to shed light on the particularities of Polish in this respect. On the basis of corpus research it provides a semantic analysis of the sixteen logically possible TA-constellations, which mostly provide past tense deixis and involve one of the three available connective items: odkąd, od kiedy, od {‘time’}, kiedy / gdy / jak. In passing certain further restrictions are noted and evaluated.