he paper is an attempt to determine the grammatical status of the sequences of the words weź, weźmy, weźcie, which collocate with imperative forms of other verb lexemes. The methodologically presented analysis is established on the grounds of structural linguistics. The direct inspiration for raising the subject was the critical reading of the description of the sequences in question presented by A. Śledź in „Poradnik Językowy” in 2001. What particularly encourages the discussion is attributing an empty connotation to the pre-imperative weź, weźmy and interpreting them as the centres of exclamatory utterances.
As a result of research, it was proved such expressions as weź się zastanów, weźmy zróbmy, weźcie wytłumaczcie are subordinate structures in terms of distribution, built with the superordinate imperative form of any verb lexeme and one of three forms of the lexeme WEŹ, which are diverse in person and number. The syntactic features allow to classify WEŹ as an adverbial particle. WEŹ is a semantically empty unit, the function of which is to enhance the illocutionary force of imperative utterances. It may be at the same time a component of all types of imperative utterances, that is directive, preventive, permissive, and those which express the inability to perform an action or the futility of effort.
