Morphosyntactic Solid Compounds in Polish and the Lexicon-Syntax Continuum

The aim of this paper is to explore a class of Polish compound words – solid compounds (pol. zrost, e.g. czci-godny ‘venerable’, lit. ‘respect.gen.sg.f + worthy.nom.sg.m’) – which appear to represent a borderland between morphology and syntax. I disagree with the traditional classification of solid compounds as a subclass of compound words sensu largo, i.e. a word-formation type parallel to compounds proper (e.g. parN-o-statekN ‘steam boat’) and juxtapositions (e.g. wieczneA pióroN ‘fountain pen’). Instead, I contend that solid compounds constitute a transitional category, exhibiting properties typical of a phrasal lexical unit and a morphological word. On the one hand, the constituents of solid compounds are non-projecting categories which do not permit insertion, coordination, reordering or the replacement of their building blocks. On the other hand, they are fully fledged words. Their inflectional forms are exactly the same as those encountered in the corresponding syntactic phrase, and so are the grammatical relationships that hold between them. Notably, solid compounds allow internal agreement, to the extent that both constituents can even undergo active inflection – a phenomenon incompatible with standard assumptions of the Lexical Integrity principle. Accordingly, this study adopts the theoretical underpinnings of Construction Morphology, which posits a continuum between lexical and syntactic structures, to challenge the notion that solid compounds in Polish can be neatly classified as either purely morphological or purely syntactic constructions. I argue that solid compounds exemplify a hybrid formation type which underscores the need for a more gradient view of lexical and syntactic interactions. Drawing on the classification of lexical units as outlined in Construction Morphology, I propose to expand it by introducing a distinct category along the lexicon-syntax continuum, intermediate between morphological and syntactic compounds, tentatively termed here a morphosyntactic compound. I believe that my findings may have significant implications for the descriptive adequacy of both the Polish and the cross-linguistic word-formation systems, providing evidence for a scalar model of wordhood.