Grammatical qualification of some indeclinable lexemes in Latin lexicography

Bibliogr. s. 36-37

Classifying lexical items into functional classes, traditionally called parts of speech, is an important lexicographic tool serving to inform the dictionary’s readers about the most general, structural features of the lexical units being described. Yet, the problem of setting right criteria for the classification still remains unsolved, especially with reference to uninflected lexemes, devoid of formal inflectional features. The lack of clear and commonly accepted rules of differentiating between paricular kinds of indeclinable words characterizes also Latin grammatical theory and lexicography. As a result, the main Latin-Polish dictionaries differ in ascribing grammatical status to Latin uninflected lexemes like igitur, nam, utinam, num, quidem, itaque, an, praeter. The aim of this paper is to reflect on functional and syntactic status of Latin indeclinable words, and to suggest a solution for the above mentioned problem.