In colloquial Polish speech, hyperbaton is associated with strong focus, optimally with symmetrical contrast. However, in literary prose hyperbaton can also occur with weak focus and with unfocused nonlexicals. When presented with examples of the exclusively literary type of hyperbaton out of their literary context, native speakers of Polish either rejected them say-ing that they did not understand why the Y1 modifiers were in hyperbaton, or corrected them into colloquially acceptable hyperbata by stressing the Y1 modifier so as to induce a strong narrow focus.

Consider the following Polish examples (Giejgo 1981)

Slynnego przywitali-my j-znawce famous we greeted linguist J-zykoznaw-e przywitali-my s-ynnego linguist we greeted famous 'We greeted a famous linguist' Szynk? kupil I chleb ham bought and bread 'We bought ham and bread.'

The first example is an Y1 modifier hyperbaton, the second an Y2 modifier hyperbaton. In the third, the verb is straddled not by a noun and...
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