The functional and semantic features of perfect forms in the manus­cript of the 13th century

E.Kh. Shayakhmetova^*, O.F. Zholobov^**

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: ^*sha.elvira@mail.ru, ^**ozolobov@mail.ru

Received April 27, 2017

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Abstract

This paper reflects the results of the investigation of the semantics of perfect forms in the manus­cript (NLR, F.n. 1.39) of the 13th century, which was performed within the framework of the project devoted to the evolution and functioning of the Old Russian verb. The manus­cript involves Kirill of Turov's tales and the oldest South Russian translation of the apocrypha “The Tale of Aphroditian”. In this regard, we have focused our attention on the contents of the collection, and not on its linguistic and morphological characteristics. The work is a part of the comprehensive analysis of the linguistic features of Tolstoy's Collection. It has been found that most perfect forms in the source under study, as in many other manus­cripts, are represented by 2- and 3-person singular forms, but, unlike the “traditional” using of 3-person forms without a link, there are few such forms. It seems impossible to identify a single meaning that could explain all contexts of both use and non-use of perfect forms. It has been suggested that perfect forms convey a certain complex of subjectively colored meanings associated, on the one hand, with the emotionally expressive emphasis on the action or event and, on the other hand, with the evidence of or reference to the known information/source.

Keywords: Old Russian language, perfect tense, complex preterites, semantics of verbal forms, Old Russian manus­cript of 13th century

Acknowledgments. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 15-04-00283).

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For citation: Shayakhmetova E.Kh., Zholobov O.F. The functional and semantic features of perfect forms in the manus­cript of the 13th century. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 5, pp. 1163–1174. (In Russian)

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