SEMANTIC-FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE TYPE KOY (LI) NE IN MODERN BULGARIAN

Abstract

The object of scientific analysis in this paper are the structural-semantic, functional and stylistic characteristics of a type of quasi-negative constructions with generalizing meaning in the modern Bulgarian language, which are formed by interrogative pronouns (or adverbs) by adding the particles li or ne (or just ne) – cf. koy (li) ne, kakav (li) ne, kade (li) ne, etc. Based on the observations on a rich corpus of excerpted examples, an answer to the question of the status of the combinations in question, the degree of their idiomatization, the semantic difference between them and the corresponding generalizing pronouns, the role of context in their use in speech is sought. Attention is drawn to the fact that, unlike the generalizing pronouns, these combinations are not used in sentences with a verb negation, nor in real interrogative sentences. It is concluded that in the current stage of development of the Bulgarian language there is a process of lexicalization of composites of the type koy (li) ne, but it has not reached its final phase. Evidence of this is the uncertainty of the constituent model of the combinations (there are the following structural variants – koy li ne (koy li nyama – in rhetorical questions), koy li ne, koy li ne shtesh), their dependence on the context, the situation and partly on intonation (when used in rhetorical questions), as well as their functional limitations.