On the Role of Old Church Slavonic Suffixation in the Calquing of Greek Compounds

Abstract

The section discusses the translation settings of St. Cyril applicable to the transfer of Greek compounds and derivatives from compounds in the Old Church Slavonic language. The author reveals that initial St. Cyril's setting of translation of the two-root Greek words by simple (single-root) words further evolves towards the transfer by compounds. At the same time, another St. Cyril's setting retained: the use of the productive suffixes in the procedure of calquing of the two-root Greek counterparts. This setting indicated that the newly formed word was associated with adjectives or substantives. The suffixation by productive suffixes distinguished Old Church Slavonic compounding from compounding in Slavic folk speech of the time and was used more widely than in Greek compounding. The author suggests that in the absence of the article as such in the Slavic grammatical system, St. Cyril introduced the suffixation into the procedure for the formation of compounds to distinguish between adjective compounds and substantive compounds nominating objects (most often persons).