The Four Seasons and the Accusative-Locative Opposition in Polish

It sometimes appears that the very possibility of a given case usage depends on the lexical content of the declined nominal. For instance, in Polish the prepositionless instrumental can easily mark the time substantive noc 'night' in sentences such as Przyszli nocQ 'They came at/by night-INsTSG' or Pracuje nocami 'He works at night-'NsTPL' but it is impossible to find it on the substantive dzien 'day' in the same or similar context. When used in an adverbial of time, the instrumental form of dzien occurs only in some set phrases, such as dzien za dniem 'day in, day out-INSTSG'or dniami i nocami 'days-INsTPL and nights'.