Disputable issues of verb morphology in grammatical descriptions and in teaching Polish as a foreign language

Streszcz. po ang., bibliogr.

Opinions on the scope and methods of transferring grammatical knowledge in teaching a foreign language, are diverse. One issue, however, should be standing beyond doubt. A version of description has to meet two conditions if it is to be accepted as a basis: 1. it has to be agreed upon, that is as free from controversy as it is possible, and necessarily, free from inconsistency, and 2. it has to reflect the state of the art in the respective field. The current paper argues that the glottodidactic, school and university practice of teaching grammar does not satisfy these conditions. This pertains in particular to verb morphology, and especially to the issues concerning the category of aspect. There is no universal agreement on the number of morphological categories of the verb, but a greater confusion and disorientation still is caused by the lack of uniformity in the treatment of temporal subparadigms and, following directly from this, a very inconsistent usage of different names for Polish tenses. The newest handbooks on Polish grammar, too, display a true chaos in this regard. An overview of these diverse versions is the central point of the considerations presented in this paper, together with a proposition of a uniform solution which is both in compliance with the economy of description and friendly (i.e. simple) for foreigners learning Polish.