A Concise Polish Grammar 
                   by Ron F. Feldstein 
                      © SEELRC 2001 
         
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          A Concise Polish Grammar                            Ronald F. Feldstein
                                                     Contents
          Introduction
          Chapter 1.  Polish Sounds and Spelling
          Chapter 2.  Major Types of Morphophonemic Alternations
          Chapter 3.  The Polish Noun
          Chapter 4.  Polish Adjectival Declension and Comparison.  Notes on the Adverb.
          Chapter 5.  The Polish Numeral
          Chapter 6.  Polish Pronouns
          Chapter 7.  The Polish Verb:  Conjugation and Notes on Aspect
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     Acknowledgement
        I would like to acknowledge the help of Charles Townsend, of Princeton University, and Frank
     Gladney, of the University of Illinois, who patiently read through earlier versions of this grammar and
     pointed out many errors and inconsistencies in my exposition.  In fact, they provided so many helpful and
     valuable suggestions that it would be impossible to offer separate attributions for each instance where
     their ideas have made their way into the final version.  Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude at
     the outset and add that I bear the responsibility for any remaining errors that have not been corrected.
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     Introduction
        The following grammatical sketch of Polish, designed for use on the Internet, attempts to cover
     many of the important points of Polish sounds and spelling and morphology, plus selected points in the
     areas of syntax and usage.  It is neither complete nor designed for a sophisticated linguistic audience.
     Rather than use IPA (International Phonetic Association) or scholarly symbols, standard Polish
     orthography has been used wherever possible in discussions of the sound system.  Nevertheless, I have
     tried to make all statements accurate, while deviating, in some respects, from traditional school grammars.
     For example, the morphological discussion of cases according to Roman Jakobson's morphological
     studies:  nominative, accusative, genitive, locative, dative, instrumental--in preference to the older
     ordering of nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative.  Jakobson’s ideas have also
     influenced the presentation of the Polish verb, which is based on the notion that the entire verbal paradigm
     can be derived from a single stem.  Although these Jakobsonian ideas are already found in many scholarly
     treatments of Polish and other Slavic languages, they are still somewhat rare in presentations designed for
     general audiences.  Thus, this grammatical sketch tries to occupy a middle ground, not attempting to be
     comprehensive, but aiming at accuracy in its descriptions.  While not a substitute for a textbook, it might
     provide a useful review of the sound system and Polish inflection.