About the Word-Order in Old Russian Noun Phrases with Pronominal Adjectives (on the Material of Direct Speech in “The Tale of Bygone Yearsˮ)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the word-order in simple noun phrases, which include pronominal adjectives as definitions, in statements of the characters of “The Tale of Bygone Years&8j1; (non-translated dialogic fragments are analyzed). A regularity is established: pronouns in anaphoric and deictic functions are characterized by their common use in postposition relative to the main component, and pronouns in cataphoric and quantifier functions are prepositive usually. It is also established that the main reason for a variation of the usual word-order is the need for communicative highlighting of the component of the phrase moved to the preposition. At the same time, the usual use of quantifiers in preposition is not associated with their communicative selection, but with the fact that, being indicators of referential status, in combination with the components being determined, they form a kind of “complex words&8j1;, the “decoding&8j1; of the meanings of which in a linear flow of speech implies the first stage of this "decoding" is the establishment of a referential status. The described patterns of the word-order are associated, in our opinion, with the fact that direct speech depicts oral speech, reflecting its linearity: the first in the focus of the listener's attention is the prepositive component, which determines its emphasis – semantic and / or communicative.