Breakdown of Uzyskawszy tytuł, badacz wyjechał do stolicy.
do
to
stolica
capital city
wyjechać
to leave / to go away (by vehicle)
uzyskać
to obtain
Questions & Answers about Uzyskawszy tytuł, badacz wyjechał do stolicy.
How do we form uzyskawszy and what exactly does it replace in this sentence?
Uzyskawszy is the anterior adverbial participle, translating to 'having obtained'. It replaces a full time-based clause like po tym, jak uzyskał (after he obtained). Because the perfective infinitive uzyskać ends in a vowel before the -ć, we form the participle by replacing -ć with -wszy.
Is it possible to use this -wszy structure if someone else obtained the title, but the researcher left?
No, that would be grammatically incorrect. A strict rule for these participles is that the subject of the participle and the main verb must be exactly the same. Since badacz (the researcher) is the subject of wyjechał, he must also be the one who obtained the title. If the subjects were different, you would be forced to use a full clause with po tym, jak.
Could I form this kind of 'having done something' participle from an imperfective verb?
No, anterior participles ending in -wszy or -łszy are only ever formed from perfective verbs. This is because they describe an action completely finished before the main action started. To describe an ongoing background action happening at the same time as the main verb, you would use an imperfective verb with the -ąc ending instead.
Why is stolica in the genitive case (stolicy) here?