Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr hab. Bożena Rozwadowska
The Department of Institut für deutsche Sprache und Linguistik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, is pleased to announce a guest lecture by Prof. Dr hab. Bożena Rozwadowska (University of Wrocław).
Title: Polish upper bounded Experiencer Object (EO) verbs
Date and Time: 10 October 2025 at 10:00 am
Venue: Dorotheenstraße 24, Raum 3.308, 10117 Berlin
In her talk, Prof. Rozwadowska will address the distinction between upper bounded and lower bounded experiencer-object (EO) verbs in Polish, examining how verbal prefixes and lexical bases determine the boundary orientation of psychological predicates. Drawing on new Polish data and cross-linguistic comparisons, she offers valuable insights into the event structure and argument realization of psych verbs within the broader domain of change-of-state predication.
Abstract:
Polish upper bounded Experiencer Object (EO) verbs
Bożena Rozwadowska (University of Wrocław)
In this talk, Prof. Rozwadowska will focus on a small group of EO verbs such as Polish odstresować (się) 'de-stress', odprężyć (się) 'relax', and their Spanish equivalents (e.g. desestresar). These upper bounded verbs refer to the right boundary—the point in time at which the experiencer exits a previous mental or emotional state (cf. Fritz-Huechante & Verhoeven 2024). They contrast with verbs that mark the left boundary, where the experiencer enters a mental or emotional state (e.g. Spanish molestar 'bother', Polish (z)denerwować). Drawing on recent work on Spanish, Prof. Rozwadowska presents new Polish data on upper bounded psych verbs, showing that interpretation (lower bounded vs. upper bounded) depends on both the verbal prefix and its base. This calls for a reevaluation of earlier proposals that psych verbs are necessarily left-boundary oriented. The presentation will be data-oriented, demonstrating that psych verbs—like non-psych change-of-state verbs—can be both upper bounded or lower bounded.
All members of the university community and interested guests are warmly invited to attend.