ABOUT MEANINGS AS A RULE NOT INCLUDED IN DICTIONARIES

The article discusses the problem of ambiguity of the exponents of logical existential quantification occurring in the verbal group of Bulgarian, Polish and Russian sentences: Bulg. отвреме навреме, понякога, Pol. od czasu do czasu, czasem, czasami, Rus. время от времени, иногда. This ambiguity can be explained by strong and weak existential quantification. Lexical semantics did not distinguish between these two types of existentiality. Here we present a description of selected exponents of logical existential quantification in Bulgarian, Polish and Russian.

1.As stated already in Volume 2 of Bulgarian-Polish contrastive grammar, and confirmed in its Volume 7 (Koseska, Gargov 1990), (Koseska 2006), the Polish expressions od czasu do czasu, czasem, czasami and the corresponding Bulgarian отвреме навреме, понякога are expressions of existential quantification, and occur next to verbal forms in sentences with incomplete quantification in the verbal phrase.In Russian, their analogues are the expressions время от времени, иногда, временами1 .
1.1.Bulgarian expressions of the type: понякога P, отвреме -навреме P and the corresponding Polish expressions czasem P, czasami P, od czasu do czasu P , as well as Russian иногда P, временами P, время от времени P, have the contents which can be explicated using the existential quantifier, though the picture is much more complicated.Hence we will consider it in more detail.
1.2.In all the three Slavic languages discussed here, quantifying expressions can have different meanings within the same quantification: universal, existential, or unique.For example, the expressions of universality Bulg.винаги // Pol.zawsze // Rus.всегда have at least two meanings.
In the FIRST meaning, Bulg.винаги // Pol.zawsze // Rus.всегда can be explicated using the universality quantifier ranging over a sets of given cases (conditions).
See the impossibility of building a Bulgarian sentence with понякога next to the aorist of perfect verbs, or *Той понякога отиде на работа.(See Koseska-Toszewa, 1985: 195-201).The above semantic limitation is of the same character as the semantic limitations in the examples given by Padučeva: *Иван всегда глухой, * Кит всегда млекопитающее, according to whom Rus.всегда does not occur in the context of constant properties, i.e. in a situation without temporal localization.(See Padučeva, 1985: 226-227).
The quantifying expressions понякога // czasami // иногда occur in this meaning only when they can be replaced by the expressions: nie bez przerwy, z przerwami without changing the meaning of the sentence.In this meaning, понякога / / czasami // иногда come close to the meaning of the expressions Bulg.отвреме-навреме, сегиз-тогиз, час по час // Pol.od czasu do czasu // Rus.время от времени, which have not only an existential quantificational meaning, but also posses a quantitative shade of meaning, connected with the signal of interruptability within a given state.

2.
In the second volume of Bulgarian-Polish Contrastive Grammar, Violetta Koseska-Toszewa and Georgi Gargov proposed distinguishing the above differences in meaning within the same quantification with the labels of strong and weak quantificational meaning, singled out based on secondary semantic properties of expressions.We are of the opinion that this phenomenon is worth reminding about, among others, because of the various misunderstandings occurring at present in the so-called subject literature.
2.1.The strength of a quantificational meaning is determined by the position of the quantifier in the semantic structure of the sentence (Not to be mistaken for the formal structure of the sentence!) If the quantifier has the broadest scope in the semantic structure of the sentence, i.e. if it encompasses with its scope all other quantifiers present in the semantic structure of the sentence, then we speak about a strong quantifying meaning.
If the position of the quantifier is within the scope of other quantifiers present in the semantic structure of the sentence, then the quantificational meaning is weak.
Hence in case of the sentence: Всички бяхме ангажирани в една ( някаква) работа, която ни отнемаше цялото време.// Wszyscy byliśmy zaangażowani w pewnej sprawie, która nam zabierała bardzo dużo czasu.// Все мы были заняты одним делом, которое занимало у нас очень много времени.we have the following interpretation: "There is a certain object (some work!), for which it is true that for a unique set (we -us) there was a state in the past (byliśmy zaangażowani -we were engaged), and that for each of us it is true that he/she was engaged in the same object, i.e. the work was the same!" The existential expression pewna praca // една работа // одно дело has the broadest scope of quantification in the semantic structure of the sentence, and encompasses with its scope all other quantifiers, i.e. the unique quantifier (us all) and the existential quantifier (there was a state of "being engaged").The expression pewna praca // една работа // одно дело has a strong existential meaning.
However, in case of the sentence: Всички бяхме ангажирани в една ( някоя) работа, която ни отнемаше цялото време // Wszyscy byliśmy zaangażowani w (jakiejś) sprawie, zabierającej nam bardzo dużo czasu // Все мы были заняты (каким-либо) делом, занимающим у нас много времени., we have the following interpretation: "For a unique set (we -us), it is true that there was a state in the past (byliśmy zaangażowani -we were engaged), and that for each of us it is true that there was an object (here work!) that engaged us.However, that object (work) could have been different for all of us." In this case, the expression: една работа -някоя работа // praca -jakaś praca // работа какая-либо работа has a weak existential meaning, since it occurs within the scope of two quantifiers: the unique quantifier (us all) and the existential quantifier (there was a state of "being engaged").
In this case, the most important factor for the semantic structure of the sentence is the information about the work that we all performed.In the second -about the work performed by each of us.There is no doubt that the distinction between strong and weak quantifying meanings reflects in a precise way what cannot be reflected by the theory of the thematic -rhematic structure of the sentence.
3. When the Bulg.понякога has a strong quantifying meaning, its Polish analogues are the expressions czasem, czasami , and the Russian analogue -the expression иногда.
If the Bulg.понякога has a weak existential quantifying meaning, its Bulgarian synonyms are отвреме-навреме, сегиз-тогиз, час по час, the Polish onesthe expressions od czasu do czasu, czasami (only when czasami is equivalent with respect to meaning to the expression od czasu do czasu), and the Russian expression время от времени.
3.2.Due to the absence of article and a smaller number of tenses, in Polish and Russian we have more sentences with a semantic structure characterized by incomplete quantification than in Bulgarian (compare Pol. Dziewczyna czeka, Rus.Девушка ждет -Some, Certain, This unique, or Every? with the Bulgarian Момичето чака, where Момичето 'girl' is either this unique one, or each.) This fact shows the stronger role of Polish lexems like czasami, od czasu do czasu, czasem, and Russian иногда, время от времени, in the semantic structure of the sentence compared to their Bulgarian analogues.In Polish and Russian such lexems are a very important, and often the only factor determining the scope and position of a quantifier in the semantic structure of the sentence.

3.3.
The distribution of the expressions понякога, отвреме-навреме, czasem, czasami, od czasu do czasu, иногда, время от времени shows that we cannot talk about the meaning of selected lexems without analyzing the whole semantic structure of the sentence.This fact might perhaps be trivial, but it is still worth stressing, because sometimes linguistic semantics is -unfortunately -still understood as lexical semantics only.And both these fields of linguistic semantics should be married.We firmly believe that, together with development of contemporary linguistic semantics, the methodology used in lexical semantics will also changed -and as a consequence our ordinary and electronic dictionaries will be enriched.