A few comments on the correct usage of contemporary participles. A polemic with the Great Dictionary of Correct Polish Usage

Abstract

The article analyzes the normative rules governing the use of Polish contemporary adverbial participles. The starting point is the set of principles formulated in the „Wielki słownik poprawnej polszczyzny” (The Great Dictionary of Correct Polish Usage, 2022), which are treated as primary criteria for correctness. However, in descriptive linguistic literature, these norms are formulated in a significantly less restrictive manner. We focus primarily on the views of Wróbel (1975), Bojałkowska (2010), and the modifications proposed by Czachor (2024), highlighting a broader understanding of simultaneity as well as the acceptability of resultative, purposive, and conditional clauses with contemporary adverbial participles. The article summarizes the positions of the first two authors, and also presents examples taken from their work and from Czachor’s study to support the argument that the norm can, in fact, be interpreted more broadly. An analysis of material excerpted from the National Corpus of Polish (NKJP) demonstrates that such constructions function in the language and are accepted, even though they extremely rarely serve exclusively conditional or purposive functions. We also address a note from the dictionary which states that striking temporal disproportions – such as in the construction Będąc uczniem, spadł z wysokiej sosny (Being a student, he fell from a tall pine tree) – render the participial clause incorrect. We propose an alternative explanation for the questionable correctness of such sentences, showing that the temporal disproportion alone does not determine incorrect usage.