Polskie composita o zamiennych członach typu wiertarkowkrętarka

The subject of the article is common names of artefacts, mostly neologisms, referred to in the literature as compounds. They differ from previously known compounds in that their components can occur interchangeably (e.g. kocobluza and bluzokoc), a fact that is attested in actual texts. The aim of the article is to identify the reasons for the occurrence of such semantic doublets and the conditions that make the interchangeability of the components of the compounds in question possible. The analysed compounds were formed in Polish from two word-formation bases whose stems are joined by the interfix -o-. They are coordinative in nature; however, the article challenges the thesis of the coordinative status of their components. The presence of compound structures with interchangeable components constitutes yet another manifestation of the tendency toward explicitness and precision in language.