Constructions with the quasi-participles (rzecz) ujmując and (rzecz) biorąc in Polish: a comparative corpus-based analysis of distinctive adverbial complements

Drawing on the foundational concepts of Construction Grammar and the analytical approach of Distinctive-Collexeme Analysis, this linguistic inquiry systematically investigates the affinities of adverbial complements (ACs) for the AC-(rzecz) ujmując-construction (e.g., ogólnie rzecz ujmując ‘generally speaking’; verbatim: generally thing/matter expressing/phrasing) in comparison to the AC-(rzecz) biorąc-construction (e.g., ogólnie rzecz biorąc ‘all things considered’; verbatim: generally thing/matter taking). The analysis of the dataset from the National Corpus of Polish (NKJP) shows that these linguistic constructions extend beyond mere syntactic variance, revealing distinct semantic nuances, assuming varying pragmatic roles within communicative contexts, and exhibiting marked collocational patterns with a diverse array of adverbs and adverbial phrases.