SUMMARY
The meaning of bilingual corpora in the Polish-Lithuanian comparative studiesIn his article, the author compares and contrasts the results of his own research on the hypothetical modality in Polish and Lithuanian: a) carried out together with Danuta Roszko, using the traditional method (without use of bilingual corpora in the 90s); b) with use of parallel Polish-Lithuanian corpora resources. As for the contrast of the two methods, special attention has been drawn to the lexical exponents singled out. The use of the corpora resources resulted in the fact that the number of exponents of hipothetical modality singled out in the two languages has slightly risen. Moreover, the borders between the corresponding groups of exponents have become more distinct and obvious. There has been confirmed a possibility of using the corresponding groups of exponents to express the meanings of the adjacent groups. The conclusion has been drawn that this phenomenon is as obvious now as it was earlier expected (in studies without use of bilingual corpora). The separate analysis of corpora resources with the division into the material being a) mutual Polish-Lithuanian translations (i.e. from Polish into Lithuanian and vice versa) and b) translations into Polish and Lithuanian from third languages (here: from German, English or Russian) does not significantly influence the number and diversity of the lexical exponents applied in the two languages. This fact proves a high competence of the translators. The formal resemblance of some of the Polish and Lithuanian exponents does not have a significant influence on which form to choose in the target language. In the translations from Polish into Lithuanian, part of the lexical exponents are conveyed with morphological exponents (lack of such in Polish). The hypothetical modality understated in Polish is sometimes clarified in translations into Lithuanian with the help of morphological forms. In some translations from Lithuanian into Polish the total omission of meanings (also the hypothetical) can be noticed, which results from applying the Lithuanian modus relativus forms. In several cases where some Lithuanian-Polish divergences in translations from Lithuanian into Polish have been noticed, a preliminary comparison of a Lithuanian original material and its translation into Russian can suggest that despite the confirmed direction of translation (from Lithuanian into Polish), it can indeed be a translation from Russian into Polish. However, proving this hypothesis requires the establishing of a trilingual Polish-Lithuanian-Russian corpora for the selected material to allow systematic and consistent studies in this direction. The author gives statistical data for the Polish-Lithuanian lexical exponents of hypothetical modality to distinguish between the mutual translations (Polish-Lithuanian) and those of third languages.