Differential subject marking in Polish: The case of Genitive vs ...

c. * Jana nie bywalo na przyjeciach.
JohnGEN NEG BE3.SG.N.PAST.HABIT at parties
Unlike the subject of bywac, the “subject” in existential-locative clauses with byc has a different
case marking depending on the presence of negation. In an affirmative clause it is marked for
NOM, and in the negated variant thereof it is marked for GEN; cf. (23a) versus (23b). Moreover,
the subject in an affirmative existential-locative clause tends to occupy a postverbal position (cf.
(23a)), whereas the subject in a negated existential-locative clause usually shows more freedom
of word order, i.e., it does not necessarily need to occupy a postverbal position (cf. (23b) vs.
(23c)); see Borschev and Partee (2001), Harves (2002), among others, for a similar observation
regarding the Russian facts.
(23) a. Na stole byla ksiazka.
on table BE3.SG.F.PAST bookNOM.SG.F
‘There was a book on the table.’
PP V S NOM
b. Na stole nie bylo ksiazki.
on table NEG BE3.SG.N.PAST bookGEN.SG.F
‘There was no book on the table.’
PP NEG V S GEN
c. Ksiazki nie bylo na stole.
3.1.2 (Non)Agentivity
bookGEN .SG.F NEG BE3.SG.N.PAST on table
Lit. ‘There was not the/a book on the table.’
(‘The book was not on the table.’)
S GEN NEG V PP
Not only does the position of the nominal argument differ but there is also a clear difference in
the interpretation of the NOM vs. the GEN NP. The first thing to observe is that the subject of
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