South Slavic Languages Research Articles

The be‐auxiliary's categorial status in Old Russian1

AbstractThis article proposes that the present tense forms of the be‐auxiliary byti (AUX) in Old Russian should be identified as weak pronouns, based on their prosodic, morphological, and syntactic properties. The loss of AUX in Old Russian, which distinguishes East Slavic from West and South Slavic languages, is ascribed to the competition between AUX and strong subject pronouns as a consequence of the reanalysis of AUX as a weak subject pronoun. This reanalysis was triggered by the early loss of synthetic past tenses in Old Russian. The AUX's position to the right of pronominal clitics indicates that the AUX remains in its initial merge position either as an auxiliary verb or as a subject pronoun. The co‐occurrence of AUXin situ and a null subject in Old Russian implies that rich verbal agreement and null subjects are unrelated with verb raising to I0.

My Small Apple Has Rolled Away: Poetic Peculiarities of Funeral Laments for Children in Ukrainian and South Slavic Folklore Traditions

Traditional notions about death at a young age shape the special character of funeral rituals for children and are reflected in associated funeral lamentations. These funerals are generally subject to the most mournful sympathy and sincere grieving owing to the emotional basis of the texts. At the same time, it was not common to mourn after the death of a baby or the first child. It is evident that there is a tendency to enhance the social status and the age of the dead child through ritual, e.g. by using specific vestments. The motif of the death-wedding seems to be the most relevant in this cycle. We also examine the traditional opposition of male / female children (especially evident in the South Slavic folklore tradition), reflected on the lexical level. The poetic style of the text is based mainly on two artistic “codes” – vegetal symbolism (metaphors of withering etc.) and zoological symbolism. The stylistics and composition found in these mourning rituals are characteristic of improvised folklore texts.

‘Ajde’ and ‘Hajde’: Contexts of the Use of Balkanisms in Translations into South Slavic Languages

The South Slavic languages belong to the wider Slavic language family and as far as we know, the similarities among them are very extensive. On the other hand, there are many differences between the South Slavic languages and other Slavic branches (the East and the West Slavic languages). To mention just one of them, it is the influence of the Turkish or Ottoman Turkish language. The influence of the Turkish language is very extensive among the South Slavic languages, but not so among the East and West Slavic languages. Nevertheless, the influence of the Turkish language is not consistent even among particular South Slavic languages. The purpose of this paper is to present the differences between the South Slavic languages which are based on the different usage of exclamations ‘ ajde ’ and ‘ hajde ’ among particular South Slavic languages, as from our experience this seems to be significant. The aim of this paper is to explore the contexts of these two exclamations in the three South Slavic languages, to compare the contexts, and to highlight the different usage of these two words not just among particular South Slavic languages, but also within individual language systems. We have found that the dictionaries of the researched languages do not contain the differences we found out by our comparison. For precise use of these words in identical contexts, we decided to use a comparative analysis of interlingual translations. We have chosen three translations of the children’s book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling, the Croatian, Serbian, and Macedonian ones. We have compared the contexts in which these words occur, and we found fundamental differences, whose explanation we offer in this article.

Nominalizations, double genitives, and possessives: Evidence for the DP-hypothesis in Serbian by Anja Šarić

Reviewed by: Nominalizations, double genitives, and possessives: Evidence for the DP-hypothesis in Serbian by Anja Šarić Petra Mišmaš Anja Šarić. Nominalizations, double genitives, and possessives: Evidence for the DP-hypothesis in Serbian. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2018. 169 pp. [Linguistics and Philosophy, 8.] A lot has been written and said about the universality of the DP projection in the last decade, especially if we consider all the work that has been done with South Slavic languages. And yet it seems that there are still phenomena and data that need to be considered in more detail in order to understand the nominal domain better. This book, a revision of Anja Šarić’s PhD thesis, makes a valuable contribution to the literature on the NP/DP debate. The author addresses one phenomenon—the double adnominal genitive construction in Serbian—in detail, but also considers other related phenomena. The book’s analysis of the central data falls into three parts—double genitives, nominalizations, and possessives. Šarić does not argue for either a DP or an NP analysis, despite addressing the issue several times. In fact, she does not end up claiming that the DP layer is universal (or the opposite), but rather that the DP needs to be assumed in Serbian if we are to account for the data presented in the book. Unfortunately, however, in much of the discussion, DPs are assumed without showing how the analysis would “suffer” if we assumed an NP structure. Still, Šarić presents counterevidence and alternative accounts for many of the claims against the universal DP. However, potential alternative accounts for the central data, such as recent work by Pereltsvaig (2018) who shows that (Russian) double genitives cannot be taken as an argument for or against a DP layer, are insufficiently presented. The monograph (or, if we use the author’s words, dissertation/thesis) consists of 8 chapters, of which chapter 1 is the introduction and chapter 8 the conclusion. In these chapters, the author undertakes the formidable task of presenting the vast background of literature relevant for the NP/DP debate and literature that itself can be described as a part of the debate, as well as presenting novel data. In what follows I give an overview of the monograph, together with my comments. Chapter 1 is the introduction to the central topic of the book, the double adnominal genitive construction in Serbian. The decision to refer to the language in question as Serbian is addressed in footnote 1. Serbian is used since it is not clear to the author whether the same judgments hold in Bosnian [End Page 93] or Croatian, as she consulted only Serbian speakers who are not speakers of varieties that have definite articles (varieties of Serbian which have a Macedonian influence, see fn. 36 (p. 41) and Stanković 2019 for details). This is worth noting since it has been proposed that languages without articles do not allow transitive nominals with two genitives (the adnominal genitives parameter, Bošković 2008: 116). In fact, it has been stated previously that Serbian, a language without articles, does not have double genitives, and this apparent lack of the double genitive construction has in turn been taken as evidence for Serbian being an NP language (like Polish, Czech, Russian, Latin).1 However, in the monograph, the author uses data gathered from Serbian speakers to establish that the double adnominal genitive constructions are in fact available in Serbian under certain conditions. I sum up the relevant data below (all examples are taken from the book). Serbian data reveals an interesting interplay between possessives and double genitives. Šarić shows that while double genitives with two simplex nouns are ungrammatical, (1a), we can find double genitives in instances where the agent argument of the deverbalized (process) noun (also called nominalization in the book) is a complex proper name, (1c), or a noun modified by an adjective, (2c), that is, phrases that cannot be turned into possessives. When a possessive is available, the agent cannot be expressed with a genitive, see the contrast in (2) and (3). Similar observations also hold for result nouns like fotografija ‘photograph’, but while the agent of process nouns can also...

The Interaction of Slavic Traditions in the Eastern Carpathians (On the Material of Demonological Vocabulary)

Slavic–non-Slavic contacts in the Carpathian region have long attracted the attention of researchers. Less attention has been paid to the interaction between different Slavic traditions. The difficulties of studying closely related traditions are obvious. At the same time, understanding of the convergent processes between them, the direction of cultural borrowing, etc., can provide additional information on the history of the studied peoples and the development of their languages. The analysis of demonyms allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about the processes of interference and cultural exchange over a wide area of the borderlands of Poland and Slovakia in the Eastern Carpathians, where in the 14th century the East Slavic population (Rusyns, Lemkos) developed. A detailed analysis of some demonyms, taking into account their form and semantics, distribution areas, and etymology, showed that, for example, the term boginka ‘forest woman abducting children’ should be distinguished from bohiňa ‘healer, sorceress’, and that there is another etymological possibility for the word boginka; that it spread in the region from the Polish-speaking areas. A common Slavic term with the root *jęg- (baba Yaga, ježibaba, etc.) demonstrates formal and semantic differences in the East, West, and South Slavic language groups. The Carpathian Rusyns eventually adopted the West Slavic look and meaning of the word (hindžibaba ‘witch, wild woman’). From Polish demonology, a character called mamuna came to the Slovaks and Rusyns. Surprisingly, the Rusyns were practically unaffected by the West Slavic image of the mora / mara; the latter remained generally within the framework of East Slavic reflections and root vowels. Other terms were also analysed. In general, it can be stated that despite the common Carpathian layer, the national Slavic demonologies in the Eastern Carpathians are distinctly different; they do not mix much and do not easily borrow names and images from each other.

АНТОН АЖБЕ И ЕГО ЮГОСЛАВЯНСКИЕ УЧЕНИКИ

In 1891, a private art school led by Anton Ažbe (1862–1905), a Slovenian artist and teacher, opened in Munich. A lot of artists from all over the world studied at the school during its operation. Anton Ažbe’s approach to teaching, which was based on the “Sphere Principle” and the “Crystallization of Color Principle”, influenced stylistic development of the European and Russian art in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The distinctive feature of Ažbe’s method was a combination of thorough technical skill training and openness to new ideas, which would bring out students’ personal creative talents. The school's alumni were later engaged in quite different areas of style, including the avant-garde. This paper offers brief overviews of the artistic careers of Ažbe’s most famous South Slavic students — Slovenes, Serbs and Croats; it also discusses some aspects of their relationships with their teacher and analyzes the impact of Ažbe’s teaching method on their stylistic development. Thus, the oeuvre of the Slovenian Impressionists R. Jakopič, I. Grohar, M. Yama and M. Sternen, of the Croatian painters J. Račić and O. Hermann and of the Serbian artist N. Petrović have been consistently examined. The author concludes that the Ažbe’s South Slavic students consistently introduced elements of his painting principles into the art of Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia.

ISTVÁN UDVARI’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE REHABILITATION OF ANTONY HODINKA’S SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE

The merit of István Udvari is enormous in the field of investigation of Ukrainian language history, the Ukrainian and Rusyn historical dialectology, the language of the Bachka-Srem Rusyns, the Ukrainian and Ruthenian Studies in Hungary, the Ukrainian-Hungarian and the Rusyn-Hungarian interlingual contacts, the identification, study and publication of the ancient Eastern and South Slavic written monuments; it was he who brought back to the science the forgotten linguists, historians, and other cultural figures. A significant contribution to the «rehabilitation» of the scientific activity of the scientist Antony (Antal) Hodinka belongs to Professor Udvari. A. Hodinka (1864–1946) is a famous historian, philologist, folklorist, publicist, and educator. He made a significant contribution to the development of Transcarpathia and Hungary's history and culture, particularly the history of the Greek Catholic Church, Hungarian-Slavic and Hungarian-Eastern Slavic historical and interlingual contacts. With the accession of Transcarpathia to the Soviet Union, with the ban on the functioning of the Greek Catholic Church, the activity of A. Hodinka was forgotten for many decades. The article aims to investigate and properly evaluate the scientific heritage of A. Hodinka through István Udvari's scientific research. Keywords: István Udvari, University of Nyíregyháza, history of Transcarpathia, prominent figures of Transcarpathia, Antony Hodinka.

Таїнство Покаяння в традиції південно-слов’янських друкованих требників XVI століття

Таїнство Покаяння в традиції південно-слов’янських друкованих требників XVI століття

The Undying Controversy of the Presence of Slavs on the Island of Crete. Remarks on a New Book by Pantelis Haralampakis

The paper demonstrates the current state of research on the presence of Slavs on the island of Crete in the Middle Ages, as well as in the modern times. The basis for the discussion is a new book of Pantelis Haralampakis, published in 2016. There are numerous controversies surrounding the issues of the exact chronology of Slavic presence on the island, the lexical influence of South Slavic languages on the Cretan dialect of Modern Greek, as well as possible traces of Slavic settlements in the Cretan toponymy.

Comitative Constructions in Slovenian: A Comparison with other South Slavic languages and Russian

Nase izhodisce so slovenske komitativne zgradbe z dvema cloveskima udeležencema, ki sta vkljucena v isto situacijo: prvi udeleženec je v vlogi jedra komitativne zgradbe najpogosteje izražen z imenovalnisko samostalnisko zvezo, drugi ali spremljevalni udeleženec pa je izražen z orodnisko predložno zvezo. Vsi slovenski primeri rabe komitativnih zgradb so predstavljeni vzporedno z možnimi ustreznicami v ruscini in stokavscini. Za slovenscino so znacilne predvsem komitativne zgradbe v osebkovi vlogi, z osebkom pa je poudarjeno predikacijsko razmerje. Predikacijsko razmerje odpira soodvisnost udeležencev in povedkov, zato izbira oblike povedka pogosto doloca stevilo referencnih udeležencev. V prvem delu sta predstavljeni dve komitativni zgradbi: prva z udeležencema, ki sta najpogosteje v medsebojno nesticnem položaju, in povedkom v edninski obliki (slvn. Anton je gledal film z Ano ); druga z udeležencema, ki sta medsebojno sticna, in nastopata kot celovita samostalniska zveza, ki doloca needninsko obliko povedka (slvn. Midva z Ano gledava film ). Razlike med slovanskimi jeziki se kažejo pri drugi komitativni zgradbi: tako na primer slovenscina dopusca zgolj zgradbe z osebnimi zaimki v dvojini ( midva z Ano ), pri cemer mora zaimek zaradi sticne rabe vkljucevati soudeleženca v orodniku (t. i. inkluzivna interpretacija). Po tej lastnosti se slovenscina razlikuje od stokavscine, v kateri sticne konstrukcije z inkluzivnim spremljajocim udeležencem in množinsko obliko povedka (* mi s tobom pisemo ) niso mogoce. V slovenskih zgledih inkluzivnost udeležencev v komitativni zgradbi potrjuje tudi dvojinska oblika povedka se posebej v primerih, ko prvi udeleženec ostaja neizražen ( Z Ano piseva pismo ). S povedkovo dvojinsko obliko je povezana tudi razlika med slovenscino in stokavscino. V slovenskem stavku S profesorjem se lepo imejta / Lepo se imejta s profesorjem ima lahko neizraženi zaimek vidva , ki oznacuje naslovljenca, najverjetnejso inkluzivno interpretacijo, ki vkljucuje spremljevalnega udeleženca. V stokavskem stavku z množinskim povedkom L(ij)epo se provedite s profesorom pa neizraženi zaimek vi glede na profesorja nikakor ni v vkljucevalnem razmerju. Profesor ima v stokavskem primeru vlogo okoliscine, torej ni del komitativne zgradbe. Primerjava s stokavscino kaže na to, da v slovenscini ravno dvojina (dvojinska oblika povedka z dvojinskim osebnim zaimkom) omogoca in hkrati napoveduje možnost inkluzivne komitativne zgradbe. V povezavi z zgornjimi ugotovitvami je treba poudariti, da komitativne sticne zgradbe s prvim udeležencem, izraženim z lastnim ali obcim imenom in needninskim povedkom (rus. Павел с Евой пришли ) za južnoslovanske jeziku niso znacilne; v teh jezikih se namrec zveza dveh lastnoimenskih vrsilcev izraža s koordinacijo in veznikom (slvn. Pavel in Eva sta prisla , stok. Pavel i Eva su dosli ). V slovenscini in stokavscini je v nasprotju z ruscino raba vkljucevalne sticne komitativne konstrukcije v neimenovalniskih sklonih dokaj neobicajna in omejena zlasti na glagole zaznavanja. V drugem delu so predstavljene razlike med povedki, ki obvezno implicirajo skupno dejanje, in povedki, ki sele sobesedilno lahko izražajo pomene skupnega dejanja. Ugotavljamo, da se vzajemnost pri prvem tipu povedkov v slovenscini in stokavscini pogosteje kot v ruscini izraža s povratnoоsebnimi glagoli (slvn. prepirati se , stok. svađati se vs. rus. спортить ). Velja se pripomniti, da se ruscina bistveno razlikuje od južnoslovanskih jezikov po tem, da komitativno konstrukcijo uporablja tudi za izražanje skupne svojine (rus. твоя с Машей книга ). Ponujene so razlicne možnosti smiselnega prevajanja te svojilne zgradbe v slovenscino.

The Embedding Puzzle: Constraints on Evidentials in Complement Clauses

The Embedding Puzzle: Constraints on Evidentials in Complement Clauses

Shortening, lengthening, and reconstruction

The paper is a part of an ongoing discussion on various topics of historical Slavic accentology with Frederik Kortlandt. The topics discussed in the paper are: the reflex of the Proto-Slavic short neo-acute in Kajkavian; the reflex of pretonic and posttonic length in West and South Slavic; the reconstruction of the ending *-ъ in Slavic genitive plural, its accentuation, and the ending -ā in Štokavian and Slovene; the lengthening of the bȏg ‘god’ and kȍkōt ‘rooster’ type in Western South Slavic; the *obőrna ‘defense’ and *čьrnĩna ‘blackness’ type accent and retractions of contractional neo-circumflexes; the reflex of Slavic *ò in Slovak and Czech monosyllables; and the valence theory and Proto-Indo-European origin of Balto-Slavic accentuation.

SPECIFICS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF GENETICALLY CORRELATED PRE-SLAVIC REFLEXES IN THE FIRST PETITION OF AVVAKUM

The period of church reforms of the middle of the XVII century is one of the important stages in the development of the Church Slavonic language, in which the norm stabilizes as a result of editing and printing of liturgical texts, and the Russian literary language in the new conditions of correlation with the Church Slavonic language and expansion of its own borders. Textual approach allows to determine the main directions of changes in the systems of these languages. Genetically correlated reflexes of the Slavonic diphthongic combinations are the diagnostic signs of the East Slavic and South Slavic languages. Multiple-editions of the First petition of Archpriest Avvakum chosen for study. The analysis shows that the full-voice / non-full-voice vocabulary recorded in the message is represented mainly by South Slavic correlates, with different preferences for equivalents of correlative pairs of the -глад-/-голод-. The implementation of heterogeneous reflexes * dj as a whole corresponds to the Old Russian manuscript tradition and suggests that the strengthening of the South Slavic жд is not the result of the so-called second South Slavic influence period, but is determined by editing of the church literature of the XVII century. Against a wide background of the South Slavic designation of the suffixes of real participles of the present tense, the realization of reflexes *tj is genetically diverse, which causes the emergence of transplants of the type тружающiися. Editorial editing of the First petition in the XVIII and XIX centuries was directed towards strengthening the realization of the South Slavic-derived reflexes. Each of the analyzed groups creates a complex pattern of implementation of genetically correlated reflexes, which leads to a heterogeneous genetic background of the text, including due to the content of the First petition, close to The Life of the Archpriest Avvakum by Himself.

Ориентализмы-антропонимы в южнославянских устойчивых сравнениях

The author discusses similes of southern Slavs (Bulgarians and peoples of the former Yugoslavia, i.e. Bosnians, Serbs, Croats, and Montenegrins) with a semantically similar component such as an anthroponym of Oriental origin. The author deals with both outdated similes and those that are actively used nowadays. Orientalisms usually include words belonging to different groups of Turkic as well as Iranian and Arab-Semitic languages. Historical events and language contacts contributed to the borrowing of thematically diverse Orientalisms by South Slavic languages. The result of the five-century domination of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Peninsula is borrowing from the Old Ottoman (Old Turkish) language, which became both the source language and (often) the intermediate language through which Arabisms and Persisms entered the South Slavic recipient languages. Therefore, in Bulgaria, the term Turkish-Arabic-Persian words is used to refer to this vocabulary. In addition to the Arab-Persian elements, the old Ottoman language is rich in borrowings from other languages (e.g. Greek). The term Turkish usually refers to the vocabulary of the old Ottoman rather than the modern Turkish language. Due to the vastness of anthroponyms of Oriental origin as a special genetic layer of South Slavic vocabulary, the author analyzes the expressions that denote a person in such aspects as intelligence, gender, and occupation. Oriental vocabulary penetrated into the languages of Southern Slavs mainly through oral spoken language. The degree of penetration of Turkish words into the languages of the peoples of Southern Slavia is different. The outcome of borrowings also varies: they either remained in the recipient languages as exoticism, or have been completely assimilated in them. During semantic adaptation in the language that accepts Oriental vocabulary, there is sometimes an expansion or contraction of the meaning of a word. Many of the Turkish words that make up the comparison became historicisms and entered the passive vocabulary and in the modern language they are not used because of the disappearance of the realities they denote (for example, words associated with the system of administration in the Ottoman era). Another reason for transition into the passive vocabulary in the Balkans is the process of replacing the original words. The paper defines the functional, semantic, and stylistic status of Eastern vocabulary in different social and cultural layers (standard languages and dialects) of South Slavic similes. Due to historical reasons, the greatest number of borrowings from the Turkish language as a part of similes is observed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as in Shtokavian dialects of Croatia. In addition to this, the author gives cultural, historical, and etymological comments to similes, analyzing the meaning of units and components that are parts of similes.

Elided Clausal Conjunction Is Not the Only Source of Closest‐Conjunct Agreement: A Picture‐Matching Study

AbstractA recurring hypothesis about the agreement phenomena generalized as closest‐conjunct agreement takes this pattern to result from reduced clausal conjunction, simply displaying the agreement of the verb with the nonconjoined subject of the clause whose content survives ellipsis (Aoun, Benmamoun & Sportiche 1994, 1999; see also Wilder 1997). Closest‐conjunct agreement is the dominant agreement pattern in the South Slavic languages Slovenian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. A natural question is whether closest‐conjunct agreement in these varieties may indeed be analyzed as entirely derived from conjunction reduction. In this article, we report on two experiments conducted to test this. The results reject the hypothesis as far as these languages are concerned, thereby upholding the relevance of models developed to account for closest‐conjunct agreement within theories of agreement.

Функціонально-граматична специфіка українських віддієслівних іменників зі значенням дії на фоні інших слов’янських мов

The article analyzes the grammatical, semantic and functional features of verbal nouns with the meaning of action in the Ukrainian language on the background of other Slavic languages. Research methods: quantitative formally-semantic analysis of the corpus of Ukrainian nomina actionis, obtained by the continuous sampling method from the largest Ukrainian-language dictionary; a linguistic experiment with native speakers focused on finding out the perception of the aspectual properties of the nomina actionis. In the South Slavic, Western Slavic and Eastern Slavic languages the verbal noun of the action is located at different distances from the verb, and has different grammatical status. The verbal noun with the meaning of action in the Ukrainian language isn’t a verbal form. It is a special category of noun. To a large extent this category of words inherits the verbal aspectual semantics. Absolute majority of Ukrainian verbal nouns is strictly related to the verb of a certain aspect. Almost half of the Ukrainian nomina actionis keeps verbal aspectual pairs. Members of such pairs inherit the verbal aspectual characteristics. This especially refers to those nouns that have retained the formal markers of the aspect (perfective prefixes or imperfective suffixes) The speakers of the Ukrainian language clearly differentiate the members of the prefixed pairs in the speech; less pronounced functional difference between the verbal nouns, which differ of an imperfect suffix. The aspectual peculiarity of the Ukrainian nomina actionis is partially affected by the transposition suffixes. The Ukrainian language avoids the aspectual universality of the nomina actionis, in the system of verbal nouns there is a tendency to express different aspectual meanings using different forms. The ratio of nominal and verbal semantics in these hybrid formations is the unique feature of the Ukrainian grammatical system in comparison with other Slavic languages.

Areal linguistics and etymology

1. This article reconstructs six pairs of PSl equivalents for ‘alder' preserved in Slavic dialects in an appellative and/or onomastic function, whose elements can be distinguished from one another by grammatical gender (feminine or masculine) and declension type: *olьxa - *olьxъ, *olьša - *olьšь, *olьs'a - *olьs'ъ, *elьxa - *elьxъ, *elьša - *elьšъ, and *elьs'a - *elьs'ъ. The masculine forms are known only in East and South Slavic dialects. 2. The elements of the pair with the oldest phonetic form, which show the word-formational relationship of an ā-stem for the feminine form (*alisā) versus an o-stem for the masculine form (*aliso-s), can be dated at least to early PSl; other phonetic pairs developed later because they contain younger phonetic forms. 3. The base pair (*alisā ‘alder' - *aliso- ‘alder?') shows the same word-formational and morphological relationship as certain other expressions for trees derived from stems denoting colors (e. g., PSl *berzā - *berzo- ‘birch', *berstā - *bersto- ‘elm'). 4. The masculine and feminine elements of all pairs are phonetically equal, refl ecting the same principles of Slavic phonetic development (except for the oldest phonetic change at word onset manifested in Slavic *o- : *(j)e-, which cannot be unambiguously explained): cf. the pan-Slavic development of PIE *s > PSl. *x (*oalisā > *oalixā or *ealisā > *elixā), the pan-Slavic development of PIE *i > PSl. *ь (*oalixā > *olьxa, *ealisā > *elьxa), and the development of PSl *x > s' after progressive palatalization (*oalixā > *olьs'a, *ealisā > *elьs'a) in East and South Slavic dialects. In contrast, the -š- in the West Slavic forms *olьša, *jelьša is explained as a structural element rather than the West Slavic refl ex of the progressive palatalization of PSl. *x > *š' (*oalixā > *olьš'a, *ealisā > *elьš'a), as would be expected. The reason for this should be sought in the South Slavic phonetic forms of the type *olьša and *elьša, in which the appearance of -š- could imply morphological generalizations from various derivatives. 5. The PSl presence of phonetic variants with a sibilant *s' < PSl *x (i. e., *elьs'a and *elьs'ь) in South Slavic is indicated by rare lexical vestiges from the periphery of the vast linguistic area extending from eastern Prekmurje and Prlekija in Slovenia to Kajkavian territory (i. e., the area around Varaždin, Kotoriba, Gola to the east of Koprivnica, the area around Zagreb, and the southern edges of Slavonia in Croatia) as well as the Čakavian area (i. e., Brinje in the Lika region, and Jelsa on the island of Hvar in Croatia). 6. The phonetically innovative South Slavic forms *elьs'a, *elьs'ь alongside archaic *elьxa, *elьxъ can be compared to the phonetically innovative East Slavic forms *olьs'a, *olьs'ь alongside archaic *olьxa, *olьxъ, and the *s' can be defi ned as an East or/and South Slavic refl ex of *x after progressive palatalization, which extends well into the PSl period and, alongside PSl *vьxъ (East and South Slavic *vьs'ь and West Slavic *vьš'ь), is another lexeme with progressive palatalization of *x in the stem.

North Slavic -ě vs. South Slavic -ę: A Problem of Forward Reconstruction

The long problematic correspondence of North Slavic -ě ~ South Slavic -ę in the jo-stem accusative plural and jā-stem genitive singular and nominative and accusative plural is best explained by positing a Proto-Slavic contrast within the soft jā-stems between gen. sg., nom. pl. *-ē and acc. pl. *-ę̄, which was leveled in different directions as NSl -ě and SSl -ę. With its nasal vowel, the acc. pl. ending must go back to *-jāns, thereby demonstrating that the PIE eh2-stem desinence *-eh2s > *-ās was remade to *-āns after the other declensional classes in the early prehistory of Slavic. The Baltic facts are consistent with a Proto-Balto-Slavic date for this innovation.

Подчинительный союз да / da в южнославянских языках

South Slavic languages show two opposite trends in the development of the subordinate conjunction da. In South Slavic languages of the Western subgroup (such as Serbian, Slovene) da conjunction became a functional conjunction, while in the Eastern subgroup (Bulgarian and Macedonian) it underwent the process of grammaticalization as a verbal modifier with functions and properties of a subjunctive particle. This difference shapes both linear syntactic and semantic peculiarities of da inthose languages. In contrast to the Western South Slavic languages, where da is a subordinate conjunction of an undifferential meaning, in Bulgarian and Macedonian, due to the role of da as a verbal modifier, the conjunction da and composite conjunctions including da influence the structure of a compound sentence: the transfer of syntactic phrases from the subordinate clause to the position preceding da, the separation of composite conjunction components, etc. The semantic peculiarity of the Balkan Slavic da lies in its inability to introduce real states of affairs, which induces modal and temporal features of the subordinate predicate forms. There are, however,cases where these semantic constraints are neutralised. The reasons (mostly of diachronic nature) which caused such cases are studied by the author.

Types of Modality in South Slavic Stative Reflexive-Dative Constructions

This paper analyses the constructions with a reflexive marker on the verb and a dative argument experiencing a state, such as necessity or craving/desire for something. They occur in all Slavic languages, with varied scope of distribution, but this research focuses on their use in South Slavic languages: Macedonian, Bulgarian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS), in which such constructions have a wide distribution. Although these types of clauses have been studied a lot, there are still contentious issues regarding their nature. Assuming that this particular combination of the reflexive marker with a dative argument represents a steady construction with specific formal properties we argue that its semantics cannot be computed from the meanings of the structures involved. The construction contains as part of its meaning a covert modal component of necessity, which cannot be explained as an inherited feature, neither from the reflexive, nor from the dative marker. Moreover, this component is of a more complex nature, ranging from a strong urge to inclination and craving. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the nature and the origin of this modality. Adopting a Construction Grammar approach we assume that the specific semantic-pragmatic features of the construction are a result of particular constraints operating on the morpho-syntactic and semantic features of the constituent components. DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2019.8.2.10