Adverbs introducing the quantitative characteristics of the participants of an event: main semantic oppositions

Abstract

The article is devoted to Polish adverbs introducing the quantitative characterization of the participants of an event, that is, on the one hand, lexical units such as: pojedynczo, ‘one by one’, jednoosobowo ‘singly’, indywidualnie ‘individually’, samotnie ‘solitarily, alone’, solo, solowo ‘solo’ and on the other – licznie ‘in large numbers’, tłumnie ‘in crowds’, masowo ‘on a large scale’, gromadnie ‘in droves’, stadnie ‘in herds’, grupowo ‘in a grup, as a grup’, gremialnie, kolektywnie, zbiorowo ‘collectively’, kolegialnie ‘collegially’, zespołowo ‘as a team’, chóralnie ‘chorally’. The author distinguishes and briefly discusses the main oppositions that constitute and organize this subsystem of meanings. These oppositions are as follows: a) one individual – more than one; b) person – another organism – something; c) multiplicity conceptualized as a whole – multiplicity not being a whole; d) characterization of all the indicated participants – no information on completeness; e) quantitative component as a gradable – not-gradable trait; f) doing something – lack of action.