Prepositional phrases with the nouns 'miara', 'sposób', 'stopień', 'sens' on their way to lexicalization

Abstract

The author analyzes the level of lexicalization of the expressions that take the form of a prepositional phrase such as w _ mierze, do _ stopnia, w _ stopniu, w _ sposób, na _ sposób, na _ sposoby, w _ sensie. These expressions are compared with instrumental phrases __INSTR miarą and __INSTR sposobem, __INSTR sposobami that are regarded in lexicography as synonymous with the former. The analysis is based on tracing the restrictions imposed on a descriptive element and its position in the phrase. Even though most of the analysed expressions show preferences for a certain kind of a descriptive element, only few of them can be recognized as lexicalized. Those are mainly the ones taking the form of a prepositional phrase and including a pronominal descriptive element.