Nowe zastosowania form czasownikowych 1. i 2. os. lp. rodzaju nijakiego czasu przeszłego we współczesnych tekstach

Abstract

The article describes very rare neuter gender verb forms in the first and second person singular past tense (like byłom, byłoś), the use of which was traditionally constrained to anthropomorphism of objects, whose names were in the neuter grammatical gender. In the contemporary literary texts and internet utterances these forms surface as ways of addressing people – the sender and the recipient in the act of communication. New functions are connected to expressing untypicality, non-normativeness, difficulty of categorizing said people – on the basis of their gender, but also community, ideology and personal affiliations. They can also signal states of temporary confusion. They are used to refer to an unborn child before its sex can be identified or suggest “childlikeness” of an adult person. Forms discussed in the article can also serve as an element introducing multidimensional narration. In literature, they refer to postgender and genderless persons, as well as virtual characters.