The aim of the article is to define initially the repertoire of a certain subset of Polish language units which I call iterative operations. As I understand them (based on Bogusławski’s 1978, 1988), these are operations whose operandum is the expression w, which represents an unclosed class (which is a unit or a connection of units), while the outcome is a repetition of the expression w (or else at least double occurrence: w w…; possibly with some additional exponents) within a single speech whole (a phonological sentence phrase).
These operations contradict ready-made units including identical segments (compare e.g. aby aby, całkiem całkiem, on the one hand, and a textual phenomenon of repetition of an utterance or part of it, on the other hand. I distinguish the following types of such operations: A) units with segmental exponents, including Aa) those with prosodic ones (compare I–VII) and Ab) with positional-inflectional exponents (compare VIII–IX); B) units with segmental exponents (compare X–XVII). The abstracted operative units are not an object of detailed analyses, the repertoire of candidates for iterative operative units, as presented here, with their outlined description, is only an introductory outline of the research area.
Less frequently used in recent dialectological research questionnaires have undergone their own separate progress. Their former equivalents were guidebooks for gathering folklore materials, directions, instructions for researchers, i.e. the so-called quasi-questionnaires.
The article is an attempt to characterize three of them: by J. Karłowicz Poradnik dla zbierających rzeczy ludowe (1871), by J. Baudouin de Courtenay Wskazówki dla zapisujących materiały gwarowe na obszarze językowym polskim (1901) and by S. Szober Kwestionariusz dla dialektologii polskiej (1902).
Directions for folklore research (including dialects) inside the so-called questionnaires made the research easier and resulted in numerous works by researchers and amateurs. Thus the role of these research tools was crucial in the past, therefore they deserve to be acknowledged by contemporary explorers.
The article is devoted to the word harpagan, which has recently been introduced into standard Polish. Harpagan, whose existence has been registered in few lexicographic works, is defined as ‛a man of violent, impulsive nature and rough behavior’. Apparently, in colloquial speech, the word acquires other meanings, e.g. ‛a man who is efficient at work, hard working (sometimes working to much)’, ‛a stubborn man’, ‛a wicked man’.
The article includes an analysis of how the word functions in colloquial speech and in dialects. There is also an attempt to reveal the origin of the word, as well as factors which have made it so common in colloquial speech.
