Diachronic Slavonic Syntax: Traces of Latin, Greek and Church Slavonic in Slavonic Syntax

Description

The impact of the ecclesiastical languages Greek, Latin and Church Slavonic on the Slavic standard languages still lacks a systematic analysis in the theoretical framework of contact linguistics. Based on corpus data, this volume offers an account in the light of “literacy language contact”, i.e. contact between varieties that are used only in a written variant and only in formal registers. Latin was used as literary language in medieval Slavia Romana; Greek was the source language for Church Slavonic, which, in turn, was the literary language for many Slavonic speaking communities and thus had an enormous impact on the development of the modern Slavonic standard languages. The book offers in-depth analyses of the impact of Latin on pre-Standard Slavonic varieties, the influence of Greek on (Old) Church Slavonic and the role of Church Slavonic as a source language for Old and Modern Russian. The contributions discuss (morpho)syntactic phenomena such as non-finite clauses, relative clauses, word order, the use and function of case and tense forms. The volume addresses Slavists, General linguists and scholars of Classical Philology interested in language contact and syntactic issues. Preface Contents Glossing Introduction Part I: The influence of Latin on Slavonic vernaculars The paths of grammaticalization of North Slavonic connectors. An interface point of Slavonic, Greek and Latin The influence of Latin on the syntax of Old Polish numerals The influence of the Latin Vulgate on the word order of pronominal enclitics in the 1st edition of the Old Czech Bible The accusativus cum infinitivo in 16th–19th century Croatian texts. Contact-induced and internally motivated syntactic change Relative coordination. Kateri-/koteri-relatives in 18th century Slovene and Kajkavian Part II: The influence of Greek on Church Slavonic Blocking of syntactic constructions without Greek counterparts in Church Slavonic The article-like usage of the relative pronoun iže as an indicator of early Slavonic grammatical thinking Past tense usage in Old Russian performative formulae. A case study into the development of a written language of distance Part III: The influence of Latin on Church Slavonic When Church Slavonic meets Latin. Tradition vs. innovation Non-strict negative concord proper and languages in contact. Translating Latin into Croatian Church Slavonic and Greek into Old Church Slavonic Part IV: In lieu of a conclusion First attestations. An Old Church Slavonic sampler Index