Niedookreślenie, dekonkretyzacja i zmienne językowe – o quasi-tautologicznych układach typu ten i ten, to i to, tak a tak

Abstract

Underclarification, Substantiation and Language Variables. On Quasi-Tautological Arrangements of the ten i ten, to i to, tak a tak typeThe paper analyses the semantic-syntactic description of expressions of the ten i ten, tak a tak (‘such and such’, ‘so and so’) type. These are not units of language but rather constructions which result from the filling of slots meant for anaphoric pronouns in such arrangements as _i i _i and _i a _i. In contrast to the _i i _j arrangement, the discussed idiomatic constructions express a reference to single elements, and hence are not tautological. The paper formulates the following hypotheses: a) expressions of this kind are used in sentences which refer to a different act of speech (potential or real) but instead of designating an element in the current utterance, they recount a reference made in the adduced utterance; b) the analysed constructions act as “position markers” in a sentence, but despite that, they cannot be interpreted as logical variables because they preserve the characteristics of linguistic expressions.