Revisiting the evolution of linguistic views and poetic language of the poet and reformer Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky

Abstract

The paper presents a linguo-stylistic analysis of two poems by V. K. Trediakovsky, namely "A Ceremonial Ode on the Surrender of the City of Gdansk" (1734) and "Ode I. A Solemn Ode on the Surrender of the City of Gdansk" (1752). The study aims to determine the correlation between the key provisions of Trediakovsky’s language programme and his linguistic style reflected in the two chronologically distant texts. To achieve this goal, we used analysis, synthesis, as well as inductive, deductive, comparative-contrastive, typological, linguo-stylistic, lexicographic, and quantitative methods. The contrastive analysis confirms the genre-driven systematic use of bookish Slavonic elements. Moreover, a significant proportion of them, primarily lexical and morphological, are found in the 1752 version, which indicates the tendency for the style of mature Trediakovsky to archaize. Both texts are characterized by the use of phonetic Old Church Slavicisms and clipped adjectives. The observation of lexical units enables us to postulate a wider range of such means in the 1752 text. It is in this poetic version that some cases of replacing a stylistically neutral word with a Slavicism are identified, which seems important in the light of confirming the archaizing tendencies in the style of late Trediakovsky. The observations of the sentence typology and structure allow us to suggest that the new verse requirements of the 1752 version triggered syntactic transformations. The result was a rarer use of one-member sentences, an increase in the number of two-member and asyndetic composite sentences, and an insignificant decrease in the proportion of extending members of the sentence and syndetic multi-component composite constructions. At the same time, the syntactic pattern of the text does not appear to be completely renewed and innovated due to such constraints as the inverted order of sentence members and their significant intentional distancing. The analysis we performed confirms the inconsistency in the style and linguistic aspirations of V. K. Trediakovsky. His individual style still remains to be studied comprehensively.