NOTES ON SYNTAX - De Gruyter

CHAPTER FIVE

NOTES ON SYNTAX

17.0 On adjectives

The use of the long and short forms of the adjectives does not have anyexact equivalent in English. The juxtaposition of a short-form adjectiveand a substantive denotes that the combination is presented as a new one:vb pestb ognjbng (Mt 13:50) "into a furnace, a fiery one', i.e. 'a fieryfurnace'. The long-form adjective presents the quality as one alreadyknown and specifically known to belong to the particular substantivewhich it modifies: vb geong ognjwQJg (Mk 9:47) 'into hell the fiery', i.e.'the fiery hell'.

Adjectives used as substantives contrast the indefinite short-form withthe long-form, which specifies that the substantive has previously beenmentioned or is generally known: e.g. Mk 8:22-3 prives? kt njemu slepa... i irm> slepaego za rqkq 'they brought a blind man to him, and taking theblind man by the hand'; compare J 9:32 oti. veka nestt slysano jako kttootvrtze oci slepu rozdenu 'since the world began it was not heard of thatany man opened the eyes of one born blind1, and J 11:37 ne mozaase li SBotvrbzyi o i slepuemu s-btvoriti da i SB ne urm>retT> 'could not this man,which opened the eyes of the blind man, have caused that even this manshould not have died?'17.1 An adjective in vocative function normally has the long form(B-bcbH-hiH nbee, KpteonHBi»! ^Λ\ΗΚ> Su 115.27 Ό mad dog, blood-thirsty ser-pent!') unless it follows a substantive in the vocative or is itself used as asubstantive: fariseju slepe (Mt 23:25) Ό blind Pharisee!'; bezumme (L12:20) 'senseless one!'

17.2 In a series of coordinated substantivized participles (rarely otheradjectives also) the long form usually occurs for the first only: (L 6:47,49) slysei slovesa moja i tvorg ja ... slysavyi i ne tvorjb 'he who hears mywords and does them ... he who has been hearing and has not been doing'.

18.0-18.2 NOTES ON SYNTAX 143

18.0 On the use of the cases (not with prepositions)1

18.1 The nominative is a "zero-case", specifying only that the speak-er's attention is directed to the thing or person represented by it. It is usedin naming: both absolute (e.g. in headings; evangelic ofb luky 'the Gospelof Luke'; or in exclamations: ο veleztdoba neprijaznina Oh the greatwickedness of the devil!') and with verbs of naming, sb velii narecefb sg(Mt 5:19) 'he shall be called great'; as the subject of the sentence; andsometimes in the predicate after verbs signifying being or becoming, e.g.bSasete bo rybarja (Mt 4:18) 'for they [two] were fishermen'; rpHropHHnocTABhKirh BucTii πΑτρΗΛρχΈ (Su 119.17) 'Gregory was appointed patri-arch', vbsekt ize se, tvoritT> cesarjb protivitb s$ kesarevi (J 19:12) 'whoso-ever maketh himself a king Speakern against Caesar'. See also §18.6d,below.18.11 The vocative specifies direct address. For example: rabe Igkavyi(Mt 18:32) Ό thou wicked servant'; iosife synu davydovb (Mt 1:20)'Joseph, son of David!'; rekg emu otb e si.gres'ix'b (L 15:18) Ί will say tohim, father, I have sinned'; ne ostavi mene boze stpasitelju moi (Ps 26:9)'do not leave me, ο God, my saviour!'; izidi duse necistyi otbcloveka (Mk5:8) 'come out of the man, thou unclean spirit!'; idi za rm>noJQ, sotono'Get thee behind me, Satan!'; zeno, se syn-b tvoi! (J 19:26) 'woman, be-hold thy son!'; ne boi se. Marie (L 1:30) Tear not, Mary!'. See also §17.1.

The vocative form is explicit only in singular masculine and feminine nouns; otherwisethe nominative form is used. OCS nominative forms in places where a vocative is possibleare by no means rare.

18.2 The accusative functions as the direct object of transitive verbs(unless negated, see §18.3b). Some verbs may take a double accusative("make, believe, perceive someone [as] something"); e.g. si>tvorJQ valovbca clovekorm» (Mt 4:19) Ί will make you [two] fishers of men';simona egoze imenova petra (L 6:14) 'Simon, whom he named Peter';obrete otrokovicq lefyStQ na odre" i besz isbd&ib (Mk 7:30) '(she) found thegirl lying on the bed and the devil gone out'; m-bnevLsa ze i vi> druzinesostb (L 2:44) 'supposing him to be in the company'.

Verbal substantives formed from transitive verbs sometimes may gov-ern an accusative: no ΠΡΗΑΤΗΗ Λ\Η ότι» ... BWA BeAHKtiH AApi» (Su 525.15)'after my receiving the great gift from God'.

1 More detail in Mccjiedoeanuii no cuwnaitcucy cmapocjiaefincicozo H3hiica,(ed. J. Kurz), Prague, 1963.

144 NOTES ON SYNTAX 18.2-18.21

The accusative may express extent of time or space: e.g. be iona V-Bcreve kitove tri dwi i tri noSti (Mt 12:40) 'Jonah was in the whale's bellyfor three days and three nights'; aSte ki>to poimetTb t? po sile... popwiSteedino, idi st njimb dwe (Mt 5:41) 'if anyone compels thee to go a mile,go with him twain'. In a few expressions it denotes a point in time: ubtJQtti, i tretbi dwb vbstanetfa (Mt 7:23) 'they shall kill him, and the third dayhe shall rise again'; npHiiihA'huiovf κ/wwf eevep' (Su 275.29) 'when he came[cf. §18.5e] in the evening'.

The accusative is sometimes used with oaths: ΤΛΚΟ NM BCAHKA ΒΦΓΜΝΚΑρτεμη/κ (Su 231.1) '[I swear it] by the great goddess Artemis'.

18.21 The use of the genitive form for an expected accusative withmasculine substantives referring to male persons was mentioned in §4.13.The texts are not uniform in their usage, and it is clear that during the OCSperiod the tendency to develop a new "personal" accusative was spread-ing even to animals and thus to form an "animate" category. Isolatedexamples have the regular accusative even for male humans (e.g. prizovimqib tvoi J 4:16 Mar [~ moza tvoego Zo, As] 'call your husband'), andothers where normally inanimate nouns are presented as personified (e.g.cero χΛ-kB* ivupHra ΡΦΑΜ Su 396.3 'Mary bore this Bread [= Christ]).' Per-sonal names tend to keep the accusative form.2

Pronouns, adjectives, and participles referring to male persons regu-larly (but with numerous exceptions) use the genitive form in accusativefunction. The personal pronouns mp, t%, sg and i (*jb), however, are nor-mal accusatives, with mene, tebe, sehe, and ego used for emphasis.

In most cases, however, no clear distinction can be drawn between the older emphatic useand the newer animate reference (cf. §4.64). Examples: δίονδδβ, ktto me postavi SQdijg lidelitelja nad-b vami (L 12:14) 'man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?'; meneedinogo ostaviste (J 16:32) 'you left me alone'; ne prostwSste [§9.3] rgki na me (L 22:53)'ye stretched forth no hands against me'; tbgda prizivavb i [Mar ~ Sav ego] gospodb ego,glagola...azi. te [Mar ~ Sav tebe] pomilovaxi> (Mt 18:32) 'then having called him, hismaster said ... I had pity on thee.'

In Sav and Su, anomalous feminines (§4.413) also use gen. forms foraccusative (matere 'mother', d stere 'daughter', neplodwe 'barrenwoman'); exceptionally, non-animates appear in this form (ljubwe 'love',crbk'bve 'church, temple').

The genitive form for accusative in the masculine plural is exceptional, but examples arefound, pronouns and adjectives as well as substantives, chiefly in Sav and Su. E.g., Mt 8:16Sav Η Βοΐχτ. ΒΟΛΑψΗχτ, κιν&ΛΗ (~ Zo Mar As vbse nedpZbnye) 'and he healed all that weresick'; e-feA* TA c-wHii H/VWKIUTA (Su 235.17) Ί know that you have sons'.

2 Textual disagreement hampers attempts to define usage; e.g., J 16:33, az-b pobidix-bmira M (- ZoAs vbsego mira) but «Hpi» Sav. The verb otherwise takes only accu-sative.

18.3 NOTES ON SYNTAX 145

18.3 The genitive case has a wide range of functions.

a. It is used as the complement of a number of verbs.

1. Verbs of perception: bljudqfb Observe', zbreti 'see', slusaJQfb andposluSaJQt'b 'hear', and swnotriti 'look at, see'. Videti 'see' may take ei-ther ace. or gen.; slyfati 'listen' normally takes ace., rarely gen. Razumeti'understand' normally takes ace., rarely gen. or dat.

2. Verbs denoting striving or attainment: alkati 'hunger for', zeleJQfb'desire', zbdati 'await', Zedati 'thirst for', iskati 'seek, look for', prositiand vbsprositi 'ask, beg', pytajqfb 'question, examine', posetiti andprisetiti 'visit', trebovati 'demand', cajati 'expect', and verbs with theprefix do—doiti doidgtz 'reach', dotekQtt 'run up to', dovedqfb 'lead upto', dozbreti 'perceive', and doibdati 'achieve'. Xoteti 'want' may takeeither genitive or dative (or, rarely, ace.). Vzprositi 'ask' takes the ace. ofperson asked and genitive of thing asked for.

3. Verbs denoting sufficiency: isplbniti and naplbniti 'fill (with)',napoiti 'give to drink', nasejati 'sow', nasytiti 'satisfy, satiate', natrutinatrovQfb 'feed'.

4. Certain verbs that normally take the accusative are occasionallyfound with a genitive that perhaps denotes "part of, some of: e.g. vikusiti'taste' jako ze vtkusi arxitriklin'b vina byvzsaego ott vody (J 2:9) 'whenthe ruler of the feast tasted the wine made from water'. Attestation is farfrom uniform for imeti 'have', *jbmQfb 'take, receive' (cf. group 2 above):pri?tT» xleba Mar (J 21:13) 'he took (?some) bread' (but Zo As ace. xlebv,Greek 'the bread'); da zivota imate Zo As (J 5:40; Mar zivofb) 'that youmight have life'; imatT>zivota vecwaego Zo Mar (J 6:47; As zivofb vecnyi)'(he) has everlasting life'.

5. Verbs denoting deprivation and the like: bojati sg 'be afraid of,izbaviti and izbavljati 'rid', izbyti izbgdgtb 'escape, be freed of, lisiti'deprive', svoboditi 'free', stradati 'suffer loss of, plakati (sej) 'mourn(loss of)', sramljaJQt'b sg and postydeti sg 'be ashamed of; bezati andbegaJQfb 'flee from' and the compounds izbelati, izbegnqti, ofbbezati andotibegnQti\ and several other verbs with the prefix otv. ofdgciti 'sepa-rate', ot'bvrbgQt'b s% 'throw off, ottmetaJQfb s% 'reject', ostanqfb ostati'leave, let', oslusaJQfb s$ 'disobey'. OfKrekQfb sg 'renounce, disclaim'takes gen. or dat. Some verbs take either a genitive or the preposition ofb+ gen.: ofbpadQfb 'fall away from', o(t7>)stQpiti and o{fb}stQpa]Qfb 're-treat', ofbstojati 'be distant from', otbmQfb 'take away from'. RazlQciti

146 NOTES ON SYNTAX 18.3

'separate' takes ace. of things separated and gen. or ot-b + gen. or na + ace.to express 'from'. Prostiti andprastajqfb 'forgive' take ace. of person andgen. of thing. Preobideti 'insult' takes gen. or ace. Mbstiti 'avenge' takesa genitive to express cause and a dative to express the object of venge-ance.

6. With impersonal ne byti the genitive is normal: e.g. boga nesti» (ps13:1; 52:2) 'there is no god'; zanje ne be ima mesta ντ> obiteli (L 2:7) 'forthere was no room for [the two of] them in the inn'. (Contrast L 14:22: ie§te mesto estB 'and there is still room'). See also §23.11.

b. The genitive normally serves as the complement of a negated tran-sitive verb, corresponding to the accusative direct object of a positiveverb. For example (see also §23.22):

Niki>toze ne vblivaet vina nova vi m£xy vettxy (L 5:37) 'no one pours new wine into oldskins'; ne umyesi nogu moeju ντ> vSki (J 13:8) 'you shall never wash my feet'; blgdite nev6dQ§te kwigi> ni sily boiig (Mt 22:21) 'ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the powerof God'.

With a dependent infinitive: Ne"smb dostoim> otT>r6§iti remene sapogu ego (L 3:16) Ί amnot worthy to unloose the strap of his shoes'; btdeTb ubo bi i ne dali> bi podtkopati domusvoego (L 12:39) 'he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into'.

Replacing a double accusative: Ne tvorite domu otbca moego domu kupljbnaego (J 2:16)'make not my father's house a house of trading'; jako ne mozesi vlasa edinogo bela li £rwasttvoriti (Mt 5:36) 'for you cannot make one hair white or black.'

c. It is regularly the complement of a supine (cf. §21.5); pride ...vidett groba (Mt 28:1) "(she) came to see the tomb'; izide seej sejattsemene svoego (L 8:5) 'a sower went out to sow his seed'. In Su, the ace.is sometimes found in this function.

d. The genitive is often the complement to a substantive, usuallyindicating possession, quality, or quantity: duxt otbca vasego; 'the spiritof your father'; godpodintxrama 'the master of the house'; clovekt etertdobra roda 'a man of good family'; sedrm, koswicb 'seven baskets' (cf.§20); dtsti dwoju na des^te letu 'a daughter 12 years old', Aec<vrop<j EPATHA(Su 279.15) '10 brothers'; nrLnozLStvo rybt> 'a great quantity of fish',caseJQ studeny vody 'with a cup of cold water'. Observe that the posses-sive genitive is replaced by possessive adjectives if the possessor is rep-resented by a substantive which denotes a person or animal and which isnot otherwise modified: tektonovb synt 'son of the carpenter' (tektom>);ucenici ioanovi 'the disciples of John' (ioant). In J 1.11 otT> gradbcamariina i marty sestry e? 'from the city of Mary and (of) her sister Martha',the adjective for 'Mary's' is used as is normal, but since Martha is furtherdefined, the adjective cannot be used and the substantival genitive re-


mains. Compare CHAOHK ^PHCTOCOBOI* H apxafreAA ρΑφΑΗΛΑ (Su 231.7) 'by thepower of Christ (adj.) and the archangel Raphael (gen.)'.

The dative is in competition with the genitive in this usage, e.g. $1έππ> svpasenya 'thehelmet of salvation' (Eu 97a5) vs. stpasenbju (Eu 94a9, 99alO); see also §18.5h.

e. As complement to pronominal and adverbial expressions denotingor implying quantity or number: ktto άδ 'who of them', ktzLdo vast'each one of you', koliko xlebz 'how many loaves of bread', VLSI elikozeίχ-b pride 'all of them who came', malo ix* estb 'there are few of them'.Isolated examples like diva ucenik-b svoixt 'two /his disciples' are foundfor the more usual type with of δ + genitive.

f. As complement to the adjectives plbnz and isplbnb (indecl.) 'full' :s-Lsgdi. ... plBm> ocbta (J 19:29) 'a vessel full of vinegar', ΓΝ^ΒΑ HcrmhHh(Su 566.13) 'full of anger'. Dostoim 'worthy (of)' takes the genitive(dostoim> . . . mbzdy svoeg Mt 10: 10 'worthy of his pay') or dative (dostoinypokaaniju L 3:8 Zo Mar Sav [~ pokaanie As] 'worthy of repentance').

g. With certain expressions of time: c-hspAUJA «e CA <wkc<Mv* ΛΛΑΗΑ (Su201.22) 'they met in May' ; KAMNOHK Λ^ΤΑ (Su 227.29) Onceayear';sedrm>kraty dbne (PsSin 118.164; Sluck AHh/vvh) 'seven times a day'.

h. With comparatives: este luctsi p-nticb (L 12:24) 'you are betterthan birds'; boljL·s'a.s^JCδuzL·ris'i (J 1:51) 'thou shalt see greater things thanthese'; tece skoree/?efra (J 20:4) '(he) ran faster than Peter'.

i. The genitive is normal in exclamations: w ΒβΑκι (Su 56.25) Ohmisfortune!'; w BesAKOHbHAAro Bh^e-kuieNHia (Su 217.7) Oh lawless frenzy!'

18.4 The locative without preposition is very limited.3 A few expres-sions of time or place may be interpreted as independent locatives, thoughthey may also be classed as fixed adverbial expressions, for example, zime'in winter', po/w dbne 'at noon', andpolu nosti 'at midnight', torn b case 'atthat moment' (e.g. Mt 17:18).

The locative regularly serves as complement to the verbs kosngti s£andprikosngti s% touch' (e.g. kbto prikosnq βς ήζαχτ, moixz Mk 5:3 1 'whotouched my garments?');4 to several other verbs with the prefix pri-:priloziti 'add' (also takes dat. or na + ace.), prilezati 'take care ofpristangti pristafi 'take part in', and perhaps others; to nalezati 'press

3 Early East Slavic regularly used place-names in the locative case without preposi-tion, and it is highly probable that all 9th-century Slavic shared this usage. OCSoffers only a couple of uncertain examples.

4 Under Greek influence, the gen. appears for loc. wilhprikosnpti sf twice, while theloc. after kosngti sg is less common than ace.


upon' (also takes dat. or na + ace.), napadaJQti> 'attack' (more often takesna + ace), and perhaps a few others.

18.5 The dative case signifies the goal towards which something isdirected either in a literal sense or in the more abstract meanings of "in-tended for" or "for the benefit of, or even "with relation to".

a. Specifically directional examples: se cesarJB tvoi gr^dett tebe (Mt21:5) 'behold thy King cometh unto thee'; i nese materi svoei (Mt 14:11)'she took (it) to her mother'. The directional meaning is more often ex-pressed by using fa plus dative.

b. Less specifically directional verbs taking a dative complement arenumerous. They include various verbs of giving, saying, promising, com-manding, scolding, rebuking, annoying, pleasing, liking, believing, serv-ing, helping. A partial list: obestaJQfb 'promise', (po)veleti 'command',SQdin 'judge', odoleJQtz/udolejgfb/udeleJQtb 'conquer', (vt>z)braniti 'for-bid, hinder', pretiti 'warn, threaten, rebuke\prerekQtδ 'rebuke',ponositi'upbraid',dosaditi 'annoy', (po)rQgaJQt'bsg 'make fun of',zavide'ti 'envy',rbvbnovati 'be jealous', vrazbdovati 'hate', (u)podobiti 'compare', ugoditi'please' (and gode byti 'be pleasing'), prijaJQfb 'be friendly', vbnbmQfb'heed', verovati (and verq gti) 'believe', posledovati 'follow', pomagaj-Qt'blpomogQt'b 'help', (po)sluiiti 'serve', rabotaJQfb 'work for', diviti s%and cuditi sg 'wonder at', povinovati sg Obey', radovati s$ 'rejoice at',smijati se 'laugh at'. (Xoteti 'wish', cf. §18.3a2.)

c. Two verbs are found only with the reflexive short dative si: szzalitisi 'pity' and pozaliti si 'be displeased' (ne pasrN-kBA CA, He ΠΟΪΚΑΛΗ CM Su364.2 'he did not become angry, he did not become displeased').STaQzaJQl-bi'sMQziti 'afflict' may take si in the meaning 'despair, be dis-couraged' (podobaatB vtsegda moliti s$ i ne svtgiati si L 18:1 [Zo has s$]One ought always to pray and not be discouraged').

d. Dative with infinitive (cf. 21.4): dastb imL· vlastB cgdomb boziembbyti (L 1:12) 'to them he gave power to become the children of God';MdizKuiTe κΜογ Μίΐβογ Βτ»ιτΗ (Su 80.14) 'thinking him to be alive'; glagoljqStevbskreSenbju ne byti (L 20:27) 'denying that there is any resurrection';MUH-kAT» AH KCH €τρ*χτ»ι ογΒοπντΗ CA ΜΑΛΛΊ» (Su 176.16) 'did you think that wewould become afraid because of threats?'; azi> ze glagoljq vaml· ne kl^tis$ varnz (Mt 5:34) 'but I say unto you, swear not at all (you are not toswear)'; ο%τΒορΜ Λ\Η χτ»ι^ΗΗΛ c-kcTM ΜΗ h HCH (Su 204.2) 'he will make ahut for me to sit in (it)'; ΜΟΛΗΤΒΧ Η6Λ\^ οτ»τΒορΜ πρΗΑΤογ BT TH ΦΤΊ» nero (Su547.20) 'he begged him to be received by him'.


e. The "dative absolute"—a participial subordinate clause express-ing various types of attendant circumstance. For example: mbnogu sqstunarodu i ne imgstemz ceso esti ... isusi> glagola ... (Mk 8:1) 'the multi-tude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus said ...'; ucestuemu ljudi vb crbk-bve ... ststas"? s? arxierei (L 20:1) 'as he taught thepeople in the temple ... the chief priests gathered'; po VLS$ di>ni sqstu ST>vami VB crtkive ne prosttreste rgki> na m? (L 22:53) 'when I was dailywith you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me'; i abbe esteglagolJQStu emu vtzglasi kun> (L 22:60) 'and immediately, while he yetspake, the cock crew'; more ze vetru veliju dyxajqstu vbstaase (J 6:18)'And the sea, since a great wind was blowing, was rising.' Normally thedative participle does not refer to the same person or thing as the subjectof the main verb, but this rule is occasionally violated.

f. The dative denoting "for the benefit of, with respect to" occasion-ally presents difficulties in translating into English, for it sometimes vergeson the idea of possession and sometimes is so weak as to be superfluousin English. For example, cloveku eteru bogatu ugobi>3i se. njiva (L 12:16)'the field of (lit. for) a rich man brought forth rich harvest'; c-h/worpM ate MM^AOA^HCTBO Μχτ» (Su 443.7) 'consider [forme] their crime!' ;κΐιΑ€ CH trhiH-fcKCH (Su 242.9) 'where are you now [for yourself]?' Cf. the idiom cbtombne i tebe (Mk 5:7) 'what is for me and thee' (i.e., what do we have incommon?).

g. The dative serves as the complement of certain adjectives: po-dobwb and fbcwb 'similar', ravbnz 'equal', ugodbnz 'pleasing',povinwb'guilty', dostoim> 'worthy of (also with gen.).

h. The dative complement of substantives is semantically close to theadnominal genitive (§ 18.3d); dHibe mzstenbju (L 21:22) 'the days ofvengeance', xrarm> molitve ... νπ>1τ>ρτ> raiboinikom-b (Mt 21:13) 'houseof prayer ... den of thieves', stare'is'iny Ijudbmz (L 19:47) 'elders of thepeople'; otBpustenie grexomz (L 3:3 MarVat ~ grexov&Zo) 'the forgive-ness of sins'; syni svetu (J 12:36 Zo ~ chwoee ce-kxA Sav) 'the sons oflight'. The possessive meaning is particularly common with the shortdative personal pronouns mi, ti and si: e.g. drugi. mi pride (L 6:6) 'myfriend has come', ΛΜμβ οτκμιο MM (Mt 18:10 Sav ~ otbca moego Mar).

Adjectives compete with the genitive or dative adnominal comple-ment. For usual skrbZbti» ZQbonfb 'gnashing of teeth', Su has οκρ-πίκετ-ΐι^KBbNiiiH. In Mt 8:28, Sav has κι» ^ΜΛ/Κ rep-hrecHNOM-h 'into the land of theGergesenes' vs. Asgergesinbskg. (Cf.domukupljenaago, §18.3b, above.)


i. The dative of price: ne p^tt li piticfc venitb s? ρέη^βπια divSma(L 12:6) 'are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?'

18.6 The instrumental case signifies tool, agent, means, and manner—various types of attendant circumstance.

a. Some examples: idQ ... korabljemb (Mk 6:32) 'they went by boat',BHTH M JKMAAMH coifpoBAMi (Su 100.30) 'to beat him with raw thongs';ΒΛίιωΐιΒΑΛΛΗ οΑθΛ-kRAKiijH (Su 159.20) 'you will conquer by magic'; bQdetenenavidimi vbsZmi (Mt 10:22) 'you will be hated by all'; iskusaerm>sotonoJQ (Mk 1:13) 'being tempted by Satan'; prittcami glagolati (Mk12:1) 'to speak by parables'; i tacemi prifbcami mzno^emi glagolaaSe ϊιητ>slovo (Mk 5:33) 'and with many such parables he spake the word untothem'; javi s$ inemb obrazomb (Mk 16:12) 'he appeared in another form';neumwenama rgkama ede^t (Mk 7:5) 'they eat with unwashed hands';ντ>ζτ>ρί velbemb glasomb (L 1:42) 'he cried out in a loud voice'; sii ljudieustmami cbt?tL· ηις (Mk 7:6) 'these people honor me with their lips"Kp-hBb revAAiiie P-KKAMM (Su 103.27) 'blood flowed in rivers'; be poganynji... rodomb (Mt 7:25) 'she was a pagan by birth'; ΟΛΛΗΘΗΤ» CT»I nAe<\\eNert\b,E-WCOKT» >K€ CANOMI» (Su 63.8) 'being famous by descent and high in rank';sixozdaaSe pQtemb temb (L 10:31) 'came down (by) that road'; vinideteQZiJcymi vraty (Mt 7:13) 'enter ye in at the strait gate'; cetyrbmi desgty isestiJQ leti> sizbdana cn>ky si (J 2:20) 'forty and six years was this templein building'.

The adnominal instrumental ilov6ki neiistomb duxomb (Mk 1:23, Zo Mar) 'a man withan unclean spirit' seems out of place. Similarly, ΛΛχκογ πρΑβι>ΑΗΒογ Η ΑοεροΜΐ, »KHTHHAVII (Su294.11) '(to) a man [who is] just and virtuous, έναρέτω" seems to function, incongrously, asan adjective in the dative case.

b. The adjectives dovolbnz» (dovblbn'b) 'satisfied with' and dli>zbm>Owing, in debt' regularly take the instrumental.

c. A number of verbs normally take the instrumental: vladqfb 'rule'(and others with similar meaning) ty vlade§i drbzavoJQ morbskoJQ (Ps88:10) Thou rulest the power of the sea'; ti obladaJQtrb zemljeJQ (Ps 36:9)'they rule the earth' (cf. ΗΜΚΙΙΙΤΑΑΓΦ BAACTL ... Αφγωεικ Η Τ^ΛΟΜΉ Su 157.11'having power over soul and body'); pekgtt> sg 'worry about' ne ptcete s?dusejg vasejg (Mt 6:25) 'take no thought for your soul'; klgti sg (andzaklinaJQtj» sg) 'swear' ni glavoJQ svoeJQ klLni s? (Mt 5:36) 'neither' shallthou swear by thy head'; zeniti 'marry' zen?i s^ pufoenojp (L 16:18) 'hewho marries a divorced woman'; isplbniti Till' (usually takes gen.) isplwiis$ duxomt sv^tyimb (L 1:14) 'she was filled with the Holy Spirit';(u)pwajgti> 'trust' (also takes na + ace.; or dat., sometimes withfcs); ΒΟΗΝΈ


CBOKW. CHA0HR (Su 105.11) 'a soldier trusting in his own strength';pokyvajgt'b 'shake' pokyvas? glavami svoimi (Ps 108:25) 'they shook theirheads'; skrbzbtati zqby 'gnash one's teeth' (e.g. Mk 9:18).

d. The instrumental sometimes occurs in the predicate with verbsdenoting being or becoming. Beside normal nominatives such as edt zeego be akridi i med-b (Mt 3:4) 'his food was locusts and honey',B-hicT-h BOA* ΤΟΠΛΛ (Su 78.1) 'the ice became warm water', we find ABO B-k ey* (Su 489.9) 'for Eve was a virgin'; Me B/KAH ΝΗκτο>κβ ΗΙΟΑΟΗΚ (Su420.10) 'let no one be a Judas'.

19.0 On the use of the prepositions.

19.11 Prepositions taking the accusative only are νΐ>ζ 'in exchange for'(cf. VLskojQ 'why?', vtskrai On the edge [of Y),skvoze orskoze 'through',and the compound podlbgb 'along'.

19.12 With the genitive only: bei 'without' (cf. §3.31 1), do 'to, till', iz'from, out of (cf. §3.311), ofb Of, from, since, by' (may express agent;e.g. por<jgam> bystt ofb vh>xvb (Mt 2:16) 'he was mocked by the wisemen'), u 'near, by, from' (u groba 'near the tomb' ; prositi £eso ulofb kogo'ask for something [gen.] from someone'). Words which function both asadverbs and as prepositions with genitive are: bliz'b 'near', vrwcu On top(of)', krome Outside', okrbsfb 'around', prei.de 'before, prior to', razve'except for', svenje Outside of, and ede 'near'.

The words radilradwna and delja/deljbma On account of, for the sakeof are postpositions: sego radi 'for this reason' , /wewe Α^ΛΙΛ 'for my sake' .

The expression νδ ...mesto 'instead of includes the genitive betweenits members: ντ> iroda mesto 'instead of Herod'.

19.13 With the locative only: pri 'near, in the time of.

19.14 With the dative only: ki> 'to, toward', and the adverbs protivg(protivolprotivu) Opposite, according to' and premo Opposite'.5

The use of kz + dat. after verbs of saying is a clear case of Greek influence: almostinvariably when the Greek has the dative alone, so does OCS, but when Greek hasπρος + ace. (a normal construction), OCS has kz + dat. There is no evidence thatthis usage was ever part of a spoken Slavic dialect.

Greek interference is obvious or probable in a number of case-usages and inselection of prepositions as well; often the evidence is too slim to allow a cleardecision as to what native usage OCS might have preferred. The precise choice anduse of prepositions varies with time and place; it is not surprising that OCS manu-scripts constantly disagree in details.


19.15 With the instrumental only: mezdu 'between'.

19.21 With the accusative and locative cases:

19.211 Vb + accusative means 'into, to', vb + locative means 'in, in-side'. Vb is used with the accusative in many time expressions and fixedlocutions of varying meaning.

19.212 Na + locative means On', also 'concerning'. Na + accusativemeans Onto, to, toward, against' (ize nestb ST> mi>noJQ na mg estt Mt12:30 'he who is not with me is against me'); it occurs in a number of fixedexpressions.

19.213 O (ob) with locative normally means 'around, about, concern-ing', but the relationship it expresses is often tenuous and can be renderedby various other English prepositions, e.g. sily dejQtt s$ o njemb (Mt14:2) 'mighty works do show forth themselves in him'. O (ob) + accusa-tive means 'against', but also 'concerning'. Note the fixed expressions οdesngJQ 'at the right (hand)', ο sujgjg 'at the left', ob onpolb On the otherside (of)', ob nostb 'during the night', o seb$ Of oneself, by oneself.

19.22 With the accusative and instrumental case—the preposition de-fines a position; the accusative case signals motion directed to the posi-tion, while the instrumental case implies rest: nadb 'above, over'; pod*,'under, beneath'; pred-b 'in front of or 'prior to'.

19.23 Sb takes either genitive or instrumental. Sb + genitive means'from, down from, from the surface of and 'since'; sb + instrumentalmeans 'with, accompanying'.

19.31 Za takes accusative, genitive, or instrumental. Za + instrumentalmeans 'behind, after' (no motion implied), while za + accusative specifiesmotion to a position behind. Za + ace. frequently means 'because of; butit has other meanings too, e.g., oko za oko 'an eye for an eye'; eti> JQ zarokg (Mt 9:25) 'he took her by the hand'. In expressions meaning 'strikeon the cheek' za lanito is found beside vb lanito and/70 lanitama. With thegenitive, za expresses cause: ραζΒ-kroujA CA Ί,Α CTP&\A HIOACHCKA Su 483.11'they scattered for fear of the Jews.'

19.32 Po takes the accusative, locative, or dative. It is rare with theaccusative: po cbto 'why?' (cf. ponje[le\ 'because'); po mesta 'in diversplaces', po vbs$ dbni 'daily', po vbse leta 'every year'; po imena 'by theirnames' (Euch 67bl4). Po + locative means 'after': po tomb 'after this,afterward, then' (cf. also ΠΛΑΚΑ no ΗΗχΐι Su 38:5 'he wept for them', i.e. at


losing them); and occasionally 'in favor of, for', e.g. ize bo nesti> na vy povas7> esti» (L 9:50) 'for he that is not against you is for you.' Po + dativehas varied meanings: po zemlji, po morju, po aeru Over the/by land, onthe/by sea, by air', po vbsemu gradu L 8:39 'throughout the whole city',popQti On the road', po srede 'in the middle; amid, among'; po delonib'according to deeds', po vine 'according to guilt', po predanbju 'accord-ing to tradition', po sile 'by force', po redu 'in order'.

20 On the syntax of the numerals

Edim edino edina (§4.321) One' is a pronoun, and agrees with itssingular headword in case and gender. (In Su the stem is also KA^N-.)

Dwa awe 'two' andoba obe 'both, the two' are likewise pronouns (cf.§4.201) and agree with their dual headwords in gender and case.

Trbe tri 'three' (§4.402) and cetyre cetyri 'four' (§4.4114) are plurals,and agree with their plural headwords in gender and case.

The numerals from five to ten (§4.4) as well as svto 'hundred' andtysQsti/tysesti 'thousand' are substantives which are followed by the geni-tive plural (cf. § 18.3d).

The teens are expressed by the units + na desete: edint na desgte Ί Γ,dzva (d'bve) na desgte '12', etc. (Note oba na des?te 'the twelve'.) The tensare expressed by the units followed by the proper form of desetb: dtvadeseti (dual), trbe desete (nom. pi.), petb desetb (gen. pi.), etc. The hun-dreds similarly use units plus the proper form of svto: dzve stee, tri szta,petb sztz, etc.

In principle, the na desete of the teens and the deset- of the tens do notaffect the counted substantive: obema ζέ na desete apostoloma (§18.5h)imena sQtb si (Mt 10:2) 'and the names of the twelve apostles are these'.In a number of examples, however, the whole numeral behaves as a sub-stantive requiring the genitive plural: L 9:7 '12 baskets' Zo kosa dwa nadesete ~ Mar kosv, A* ··· CTiivfeNATii τρι»Λ\τ» AecATeMh (§18.5i) Μ^Α^ΝΗ^(Su 331.29) 'so they might appraise [him] at thirty coins'.

Units are added by means of i (or TH in Su); stto i petb desetz i tri (sc.rybt>, J 21:11); instr. etyruni desety i sestbjq lefb (J 2:20) 'in the course of46 years'. For further details, see Vaillant 157ff.

21.0 On the use of the verbal forms

21.1 The present tense, as opposed to aorist and imperfect, does notspecify time. Imperfective presents most usually denote an action viewedas simultaneous with the moment of speech or with a moment in past or


future which is defined by the context; they may also denote actions whichare repeated or of general validity. Since the perfective aspect specifiesthat the completion of the action is envisaged, the present perfective formscannot denote action in progress. They signify rather action viewed ascompleted in the future or at any other moment defined by the context. Instatements of general validity, the perfective present shows that the actionis viewed as completed whenever the situation is suitable. For example,cAbNtivMf ΒΉοχοΑΑίιιτογ ci»KpiiiKTt CA cT-fcfib (Su 417.28) 'when the sunrises (cf. §18.5e), the shadow hides itself; a§te k'to b£doJQ ukradetts'&nedbno CBto, 40 dem> da pokaefb s$ (Euch 103bl) 'if anyone stealssomething to eat because of need, let him do penance for 40 days (cf.§22.11); aste li vedel-B ... ντ> kyi oast tetbpridet* (Mi 24:43) 'if [he] hadknown in what watch the thief would come'; 2ena egda razdaetb pecalbimatT> ..., egda ze rodifb otroc? kttomu ne pomtnitb skn>bi (J 16:21) 'awoman when she is in travail [= is giving birth] hath sorrow ... but as soonas she is delivered of [= has given birth to] the child she remembereth nomore the anguish'.

21.11 On the expression of future time.6 There is no specific set offorms denoting the future. The most frequent means of expressing futureaction is the present tense (especially of perfective verbs). The future of'to be' is expressed by bcjdgfb. Often the present forms of the verb xoteti'want' (§15.233)—and rarely the presents of nacwQfb and vbibngt'b 'be-gin'—are used with an infinitive in a sense close to the English future.Rather more common are quasi-futures consisting of the present of imam 6(§16.24). This construction occasionally means literally "have to", butnormally indicates "is to, is destined to"; e.g. azi> braswio imamt estiegoze vy ne ve"ste (J 4:32) Ί have meat to eat that ye know not of; uze neimarm> piti oti> ploda lozBnaego (Mk 14:25) Ί will drink no more of thefruit of the vine'; ize aste ne prunier^ c&sarbstvbja. boztja jako otroo? neimatt vbniti vt nje (L 18:17) 'whosoever shall not receive the kingdom ofGod as a little child shall in no wise enter therein'; koe bgdeti» znamenteegda irngtL· sikonBcati s$ νΒβέ si (Mk 13:4) 'what shall be the sign whenall these things shall be fulfilled?'

Past-tense forms of xoteti and imati express a relative future—an eventregarded as future from the point of view of a past moment: e.g. se ze

More examples and discussion in Radoslav Ve erka, Altkirlchensl. Syntax, II174-185 (=Monumenta linguae slavicae dialecti veteris, Tom XXIV [XXVII, 2],Freilburg i. Br., 1993).


glagolase kleplj? koejq ST>mn>tbJQ xotSaSe umreti (J 12:33) This he said,signifying what death he would die.'

21.2 The past tensesWhile the present tense is indifferent as to time, the aorist and imper-

fect both specify action presented as taking place prior to the moment ofutterance. The imperfect specifies an action coordinated with a fact or actin the past: this point of reference may or may not be present in the con-text. The aorist has no such specification - it is merely an event in thepast. The aorist thus functions as the story-telling device which presentsa chain of events, while the imperfect gives the background events orstops to concentrate on an action being performed at a certain moment.

The majority of aorists are of perfective aspect, but imperfective aoristsare not uncommon: the action is presented as past, but there is no speci-fication that it was completed. Imperfects are nearly always of imperfec-tive aspect, but perfective imperfects appear when the need arises; a coor-dinated yet completed action is specified, and this usually means a repeatedaction.7 For example... auixe CA ο»Λ«(·ΜΛ4ΐυ€ He ΗΛΛ^ΤΗ κ<ν\ογ NHMhcome ΑΛΤΗκΛΛογ, το KOThir*.. .ΑΛΑ^Λΐυβ ΗκοιτογογΛ\ογ (Su 207.14) 'if it happened thathe had nothing to give him, he would...give his (own) dress to the poorman.'

A few examples of aorist-imperfect usage:Mk 5:24 ... ide (1) ST> njitnb i, po njemb id6a§e (2) narodt mtnogi i ugndtaaxQ i (3)

'[Jesus] went with him and after him went a great crowd and they pressed on him'. Thedetermined aorist (1) defines a past moment to which further actions (imperfects, 2, 3) arecoordinated.

Mt 26:57ff. (in the story of the arrest and trial of Jesus) poinvtse isusa νέδς i (1) ... petn.2e idgaSe (2) po njemi. izdaleoe i sSdease (3) ST> slugami vidSti kontCinQ ... [arxierei]

7 Dost l (Studie, pp. 599-600) notes that over 40% of the attested OCS aorists areimperfective, while the 23 perfective imperfects constitute only about 1% of at-tested imperfects. It is worth emphasizing these figures, for many investigatorshave assumed that any verb which has an aorist is necessarily perfective, andsimilarly that an imperfect tense form is proof of the imperfective aspect of theverb in question. It is now clear that in OCS—as well as in Rusian (Early EastSlavic) and Old Czech and modern Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian—tenseand aspect are two independent systems. One should not lose sight of the fact thatcertain forms (like perfective imperfects) are statistically infrequent because thesituations requiring them are uncommon. It is only in a narration of complexevents in the past that one can expect to find the full range of the possible past tenseforms, including the various combinations of participles; virtually no passages ofthis type happen to be attested in OCS.


iskaaxQ (4) h>za ST>v6d£telja na isusa ... i ne obretQ (5) ... isusi ze mlbc'aaSe (6) ... petrb zeντ>ηέ s d a§e (7)... i pristopi (8) ki. njemu edina rabynji. 'Having seized Jesus, they led him... And Peter followed at a distance and sat with the servants to see the end... [the chiefpriests etc.] sought false witness ... but found none ... [they ask questions] ... but Jesus wassilent ... [The trial goes on, and the scene shifts:] Now Peter was sitting outside ... and aslave-woman came up to him.' The narration has started with a series of aorists, of which(1) is the last. Two imperfects (2,3) show the actions of Peter, coordinated to the main flowof action which is centered around Jesus. The third imperfect (4) refocuses on the court andthe officials' non-coordinated, unfinished act of searching; the lack of success is summed upby a negated perfective aorist (5). More aorists (not cited) carry on the narration, but throughthese completed acts by others Jesus, in a coordinated negative action (specified by theimperfect, 6), remains silent. Peter, in the meanwhile, is sitting (coordinated act, imperfect;7), when another actor appears and completes an action (P aor. 8)

L 1:80 οίΓοδς Ze rastSase (1) i kripljaaSe se. (2) duxomt, i b£ (3) vt pustynji do di>neavljenbja svoego k-b izdrailju 'And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in thedesert till the day of his showing unto Israel'. The two imperfects (1,2) denote actionscoordinated with the imperfective aorist (3) which states a fact rather than an event.

21.21 The perfective aorist bysfb in principle denotes an event, the ap-pearance of something not present before. The imperfective be ordinarilyreports a new fact, without specifically coordinating it to other events.The imperfect bSase specifies coordination to some point in past time.The three-way distinction is sometimes blurred, however. Some exam-ples:

I bysfb burja vStrbna velija (Mk 4:37) 'and a great wind-storm came up'; egda bysfb dbni>,priglasi u eniky svo§ (L 6:12) 'when day broke, he called his disciples'. On 2e slySavb seprislcrbbbnt bystt, be bo bogatb 3610 (L 18:23) 'and when he heard this he became verysorrowful, for he was very rich.'

ντΛδζτ» ze ντ> edim> oti> korabljicu, iie be simonovb, moli i otb zemlje. otbstgpiti malo,i s£di> uoaaSe is korablja narody (L 5:3) 'and having entered into one of the ships, which was[as a general fact not yet mentioned] Simon's, he prayed (aor.) him that he would thrust outa little from the land, and having sat down, he taught the crowds out of the ship.'

I pomanos"? priofstbnikorm. i2e beaxg ντ. dru3e"emb korablji (L 5:7) 'and they beckonedto their partners, which were [precisely at that time; impf.] in the other boat'.

21.211 Incidents in the Gospels are frequently introduced by a redun-dant bystz that corresponds to the typically biblical phrase "it came to passthat". The construction is originally Hebrew, literally translated in theGreek Bible. For example:

Bystz ze idoStenrb po poti, refe edint kt njemu, id$ po tebg jamoze koliibdo ideSi,gospodi (L 9:57) 'and it came to pass, that, as they went (§18.5e) along the way, a certainman said to him, I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest, Lord'; i bysfb egda vinide isusi»ντ> dorm, edinogo kwie^a fariseiska ντ> sgbotQ xlgba 6stb (§21.5) ... (L 14:1) 'and it cameto pass, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on thesabbath day ...'


21.3 On participlesThe present and past active participles (of both aspects) are freely used inall cases and numbers.8 In cases other than nominative and accusative, thelong-forms are found more often than the short-forms. The present andpast passive participles (of both aspects) are used mostly in the nomina-tive short-forms, but other cases occur as well. True participles are clearlyverbal in character; they denote an action which is subordinate to anotheraction that is expressed by a finite verb in the context. Often, however, theparticipial form functions purely as an adjective.

There are instances where variant readings of the same passage haveparticipial constructions equivalent to relative clauses, e.g. Mt 10:40 SavπρΗΗβΜΛΑΐ BACK Λ\6Ν6 πρΗ6ΛΛΛ6ττ» ~ Zo He vypnmefb m? priemljetL· 'he whoreceives you, receives me'. In translating into English, the participles areoften best rendered by finite verbs in dependent clauses of various types.

21.31 The present participles, like the present tense, are unmarked as totime, denoting either general verbal action or (most frequently) actioncoordinated with the time expressed by the context. For example, activeparticiples: rm>no3i bo pridgtL· ντ> moe im? glagoljgste ... (Mk 13:6) 'formany shall come in my name, saying ...'; beaxg ze edini... glagolJQste ...(Mk 14:4) 'and there were some that said ...'; passive participles: se esti.te"lo moe davaemoe za vy (L 22:19) 'this is my body which is given foryou'; isust ze slysavb slovo glagoljemoe (Mk 5:36) 'Jesus, having heardthe word which was spoken, said ...'; ΚΓΑΛ RAAAUK/K CM BHA^ ντο/wd (Su425.17) 'when he saw his Lord being honored'. If the present participle isperfective, it signifies a completed subordinate action; the completionmost usually is repeated, or else is in the relative future, but the possibilityof a relative past is not excluded. For example: κβ ΒΚΑ^ΜΊ* ογεο He

(Su 494.14) 'let us not fail to praise such

These remarks do not apply to the resultative participles, which are found only inthe nominative short-forms either (regularly) accompanied by a form ofbyti in thecompound tenses defined in § 14, or else with omission of the auxiliary in forms ofthe perfect (§14.1).

In a single passage (Su 386.5-8) the 1-participles occur with KUU and rapwf'would that!; if only!', which also take the conditional (usually with da). Non-OCSevidence seems to indicate that the omission of the auxiliary was normal afterthese conjunctions.

For a detailed and illuminating discussion of the active participles, see RudolfRuzidka, Das syntaktische System der altslavischen Partizipien und sein Verh lt-nis zum Griechischen, Berlin, 1963.


a benefactor (lit. 'let us not be [repeatedly] not praising'); H erceΠθχΒΑΛΗΛ\Έ ΑρΤ^ΗΤΈ CA ΟΚΒρΈΝΛΒΤιΙΗΜΑ pffiKAMd (Su 506.19*, Cf. §22.4) 'and

he whom the angels praise [who is praised by the angels] is held by dirtyhands'.

The present passive participles, particularly if perfective, may denotethe possibility of an act: e.g. vidimb 'being seen; visible' ; merimb 'beingmeasured; measurable'; especially common with negation, nepobedim-b'invincible', nerazorimz 'indestructable', and others.

21.321 The past active participles present an action which started (andusually is completed) before the action of the main verb to which theparticiple is subordinated. For example, saddle sbde donbdeze sbd-bpomolJQ s? (Mk 14:23) 'Sit ye here while I go (lit. having gone) pray';sbdtpokazi s$ iereovi (L 5:14) 'go (lit. having gone) show yourself to thepriest' ; sbdzse ντ> gradi» vizvestisQ vbse (Mt 8:33) 'they went into the cityand told of everything'.

An example contrasting present and past active participles: (L 6:47-49) slysg i ( 1 ) slovesa moja i tvor$ (2) ja ... podobwrb estbcloveku iHd^stu(3) xraming ... na kamene; ...slysavyi (4) i ne tvorjb (5) podobtm> estbcloveku s'bZbdav'bSu (6) xraminQ bez osnovanbja ... 'He who heareth mysayings and doeth them ... is like a man who builds a house ... on a rock;. . . and he that heareth (=has been hearing) and doeth not (= has not beendoing) is like a man that without a foundation built a house'. Here 1 and2 are present actions, contemporaneous with the moment of utterance,while 3 is a statement of general validity. 4 and 5 show uncompleted(imperfective) actions which started before the principle action, while 6not only started before, but has been completed.

21.322 The past passive participle denotes a state produced by an out-side agent whose action started prior to the moment denoted by the con-text. In the vast majority of cases the short nominative forms are used withsome form of the verb byti; e.g. zwanb ze bystb i isus (J 2:2) 'and Jesuswas also invited'; νέηιςί ντ» njb ne bqdetb osQzdenb, a ne veru?i juzeosQzdem> esfb (J 3:18) 'he that believeth on him will not be condemned,but he that believeth not is condemned already'; mozaase bo si xrizmaprodana byti (Mk 14:5) 'for this ointment might have been sold'; ne u bobe vbsazden'b vt tbrmjiicQ ioam> (J 3:24) 'for John was not yet cast intoprison'. The other cases and also the long forms do occur, however, par-ticularly in the dative absolute construction (§18.5e) obrgcene byvbsimateri ego (Mt 1:18) 'when his mother was espoused . . . ' ; raci . . . prizbretina raba tvoego sego padtsa grexy, porazena bolezniJQ (Euch 30a22)


'deign to look on this Thy servant (who has) fallen because of sins, (whohas been) struck down by disease'; Ί,Λ ΠΡΗΑΤ/RHK οττ» pespt ΛΑΛΜΟΒ-Κ wen*(Su 482.15) 'for woman, taken from the ribs of Adam'; He cpa<\\biaKUJH ΛΗCA ... €Ί»τΒορ6ΜΐιΐΗχΊι ΤΟΒΟΒΚ ^hrtHH (Su 161.22) 'aren't you ashamed of theevils done by you (or, which you have done)?'

A number of words which are formally past passive participles are usedas non-verbal adjectives, e.g. prokazent 'leprous', oslabljent 'paralytic',s'bmerjen'b 'humble', ucenz 'learned', izbbranz 'elect, select'.21.33 On verbal adverbs. It has been suggested that certain forms spelled -ste representverbal adverbs (orgerunds), e.g. neze ατ·νέ nojS irnqSte vivnienu byti ντ> geonp (Mk 9:45)' [it is better for thee to enter halt into life] than having two feet to be cast into hell'; CAAA^KATH Ke-n. ΒΊ>κογιυΑΗκιιιτε NT» ropbKA no B-bKMfc« (Su 350.29) '[beware the pleasure of sin,] it issweet for you as you are tasting (it) but bitter after the tasting'. The examples are betterexplained as scribal errors, for dative -if«.9

21.4 The infinitive is used as the complement of a number of verbsdenoting command, desire, will, ability, or various expressions of pur-pose. The connotation of possibility or duty appears with estv. OTT» cero ...BttA'bTH KCTT» CHA* xpHCTocoB* (Su 413.16) 'from this is to be seen thepower of Christ'; M-kcT-u ΜΑΛ\ΊΙ OYBHTH (Su 433.12) 'we are (ought) not tokill'; by SUB ze (§21.211) umreti nistuemu i nesenu byti angely na lonoavraamlje (L 16:22) 'and it came to pass that the beggar died and wascarried by the angels into Abraham's bosom'. (Compare the use of infini-tive with imamb, §21.11.)

Occasionally an infinitive with the conjunction jako (cf. §22.3) ex-presses result: e.g. i ne oti>vesta emu ni ki> edinomu glagoluya&o diviti s$igemonu 3elo (Mt 27:14) 'and he answered him to never a word, so thatthe governor marvelled greatly'; isplLnis? oba korablja^'a^o pogrgzati sgima (L 5:7) 'they filled both the ships so that they began to sink'.10 Noticethe dative as "subject" of the infinitive (cf. §18.5d).

21.5 The supine is used after verbs of motion to specify purpose; e.g.idg lovifb rybt (J 21:3) Ί am going (in order) to fish'; ceso videtz izidete(Mt 11:7) 'What did you come out to see?'; i vtsta cistb (L 4:16) 'and hestood up to read'. However, the use of the specifically purposeful supinewas apparently not obligatory, and the semantically neutral infinitive couldconvey the same meaning in the proper context. Thus in Mt 26:55, As

For other examples see Vaillant §169, and Jacques Lepissier, in Studie palaeo-slovenica (Prague, 1971) 215-20.The OCS infinitive is imperfective; the act of sinking is not presented as com-pleted, and the context of the whole passage implies that it was never completed.


izidoste ST> orgziemt ... £ f b mene 'are ye come out ... to take me?' isequivalent to Mar Zo Sav §ti m?—with genitive object of the supine,accusative with infinitive. Cf. ΜΑ« ΒΓΟΤΟΒΑΤΊ» M-kcra ΒΛΜΊ» (J 14:2 Sav) ~ugotovati me"sto (Zo Mar As Vat) Ί go to prepare a place for you'.

It is possible that the supine was not part of the dialect of some scribes, and that someinfinitives replace an older supine. Thus Mar da ne vizvratitt s$ vbspetb vbZ£f&rizT> svoixt(Mk 13:16) 'let him not go back to get his garments' is "correct", but Zo's phrase vKftirizzsvoixz lacks clear motivation for the genitive.

21.6 On sf and "reflexive" verbs.

The form se has two functions; the two often overlap.

21.61 S$ may be the accusative of the reflexive pronoun (§4.6): javlJQsg emu sarm> (J 15:21) Ί [myself] will manifest myself to him'; si>pasi sgsamt i ny (L 23:55) 'save thyself and us [two].' In the presence of nega-tion (§18.3b), this accusative s$ is replaced by the genitive sehe: inystpase, ali sehe ne mozett sipasti (Mk 15:31) 'he saved others, but hecannot save himself.'

This true reflexive s% may be replaced by the emphatic or "personalaccusative" sebe: compare, ont 2e xot$ opravbditi sg sam' reoe ... (L10:29) 'he, wanting to justify himself, said ...'; vy este opravtdaJQSteisebe pr&h> cloveky (L 16:15) 'ye are they which justify yourselves beforeman'; vbzljubisi iskrwijaego svoego jako sambsebe (Mar ~ s$ Zo As) Mk12:31 'thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; sego obretomt ... gla-goljp.s'ta sehe xrista c sarja byti (L 23:2) 'we found this man ... sayinghimself to be Christ the King.'

21.62 Much more frequent is the sg which has lost the clear meaningand case of the reflexive pronoun and functions more like a particle whichimparts some general meaning of intransitivity to the verb. Sg may beenclitic and follow the first accented word in the clause, but it usuallyfollows the verb immediately.11 The sg remains unchanged even in thepresence of negation: aste s% bi ne rodih> (Mt 26:24 Zo Mar Sav; ~ As a§tebi ne rodih> sej) 'if he had not been born'; ne divi sg (J 3:6) 'do not besurprised'; un£e esti> ne zeniti sg (Mt 19:10) 'it is better not to marry'. Thisfact perhaps allows us to perceive simply intransitivity (and not specific

In East Slavic the particle en is written as part of the verb, and lexicographers treatCH-verbs as separate entries (poAHTb 'bear, give birth (to)' - po/wrbcs 'be born').Following this pattern, Russian and Ukrainian scholarly lists of OCS lexical itemsusually provide two entries. Other Slavs (as well as non-Slavs) include se-verbswith non-s? verbs; thus SJS puts POAHTH CA and pofKAem, BTUTH under P«AHTH.


reflexivity) in: VL rizg ne obla aa§e sg (L 8:27) 'he did not get dressed inclothing.'

In many verbs, the presence or absence of sg indicates intransitivityversus transitivity: azi umyxT> va§i nojg (J 13:14) Ί washed your feet',but umyxi sg (J 9:15) Ί washed' (with the context supplying 'my eyes';this could be taken as reflexive). Some verbs acquire a different meaningwith se: klLnQtb 'curse' but klbnQtB s? 'swear, take an oath'. Sometimesa semantic difference is not clear from the available evidence, e.g. plakati~ plakati s$ 'weep; (+ gen. or ο + loc.) mourn', although here perhaps the5£ adds a note 'for one's own benefit' similar to the dative si (§18.5c).Several verbs never occur without s$: e.g. bojati s? 'fear', postiti βς 'fast',rqgaJQtL· s? 'mock'.

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish an active reflexive from a pas-sive meaning; in some passages different manuscripts show variants. Forexample, sym> δ!ονέδι>8ΐα>ΐ predasfb s$ (Mt 26:2, Zo) but Mar and Asexplicitly passivepra/ana bqdefb 'the Son of Man will be betrayed'; asteti>kT>mo prikosnq s? rize ego si>pasena bgdQ (Mt 9:21, Mar As) but SavszpasQ $ξ 'if only I touch his garment, I will be saved'.

22.1 The conjunction da plus present (of either aspect) means 'in orderto', or simply 'to, that': e.g. izide se"?i da sZett (Mt 13:3) 'a sower wentforth to sow'; prinos? ... doti da TQCC vtzlozifL na nj? (Mt 19:13) 'theybrought children, that he should put his hands on them'; ne"sniL· bo dostoim>da pod-L· krovi. moi vnnidesi (L 7:8) Ί am not worthy that you shouldcome under my roof. The meaning of purpose is made more specific byadding jako, see below. The negative may be da ne or eda (or da ne kako,eda kako) 'in order not to, lest'; e.g. moljaaxg i da ne povelit'b irm> vi>bezdtnQ iti (L 8:31) 'they besought him that he should not command themto go out into the deep'; bljudi ubo eda svett ize vt tebe ttma estz (L11:35) 'take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness'.The conditional may be used instead of the present: moliS? i da hi presbltotb pred£h> ixi. (Mt 8:4; Sav has rano A* np-bHAefk) 'they besought himthat he would depart out of their coasts'; i drtzaaxg i, da ne bi o/sib/δ ofb

:42) 'and they stayed him, that he should not depart from them'.12

Complete data, with a historical and comparative study, in Herbert Br uer,Untersuchungen zum Konjunktiv im Altkirchenslavischen und Altrussischen. I. DieFinal- und abh ngigen Heisches lze (= Ver ffentlichungen d. Abteilung f. slav.Spr. u. Lit. des Osteuropa-Inst. a. d. Freien Universit t Berlin, Vol. 11), Wiesbaden,1957.


22.11 In an independent clause, da plus 3rd person present (rarely 1stsg./pl.) may represent an exhortation: dapridefb (J 7:37)'let him come';da svgtifb se im? tvoe (Mt 6:9) 'hallowed be Thy name'; sarm> o seb6 daglagoljefb (J 9:21) 'let him speak for himself; da ne postyzdg se ΥΊ> vekt(Ps 30:2) 'let me never be ashamed'.

22.12 With past tenses, and occasionally with a present, da means 'and,and then'.

22.2 Eda (§22.1) serves also to introduce a question which expects anegative answer: e.g. eda mozett sle"ptcL· sleptca voditi (L 6:39) 'can ablind man lead a blind man?'; eda imati» xvalg rabu tomu, jako STbtvoripovelenaja? ne rm>nJQ (L 17:9) 'Doth he thank that servant because he didthe things that were commanded him? I trow not.'

22.3 The conjunctionjfl/ro has a very wide range of meaning—'that, sothat, for, as, like, since, because'. It is used to introduce both direct andindirect quotations, and sometimes it is difficult to see which is meant. Forexample: vy glagoljetey'afco vlasvimljaes'i zanje rexTojako sym> bozbi esmt(J 10:36) 'Ye say, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God.'Here the 2nd sg. form shows clearly that the first jako introduces a directquotation, but the statement after the secondy'afco could be indirect: Ί saidthat I was ...' Or: OtBvesta zena i rece emu, ne imaim» mgza. Glagola eiIsus-L, dobre" rece jako rngza ne imarms (J 4:17) The woman answered andsaid to him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, Thou hast well said, Ihave no husband.'

22.4 Beside the normal use of the relative pronoun He in an explanatoryphrase with a form of byti 'to be' (e.g. ize estb otT> boga, glagolt boztiposlusaetB J 8:47 'he that is of God heareth God's words'), there are caseswhere the verb is omitted: e.g. sv£tT> ize vt tebe (Mk 6:23) 'the lightwithin you'; ννϊνυοΜφΐ Η>κε οτΐι ΑΡΗΛΛΑ««Α (Su 447.28) 'about Joseph ofArimathea'; glavy evangelija eze oti> luky 'chapters of the Gospel [whichis] of Luke'.13

The neuter eze may be used with an infinitive; e.g. cbto estb eze izmrttvyix-L· vT,skn>snQti (Mk 9:10) 'what is [the] rising from the dead?';eze neurm>venami rgkami e"sti ne skvrtnitb clovgka (Mt 15:20) 'to eat (i.e.the fact of eating) with unwashed hands defileth not a man' NT» !ζΐ»Λο κ>κε

^Τ»ΛΟ (Su 406.8) 'but doing evil [is] evil'.

Josef Kurz cites all the examples, Byzantinoslavica 7: 336ff.


Eze is also found as a conjunction'because, inasmuch as'.Occasionally He is found for eze, and vice versa.

23. On negation

23.1 Two morphemes express negation: ne and ni. Ne 'not' standsimmediately before the verb or other syntactical unit that it negates. Niexpresses denial (the antonym of ei 'yes'), or—usually in conjunctionwith ne—'neither, nor, and not, not even'. Ne ordinarily occurs only oncein a major clause; ni may be repeated. A clause containing a negativepronoun or adverb (such as nikztoze 'no one', nicbtoze 'nothing', nikyize'no sort of, niedinzze 'no, none', nikolize 'never', nikzdeze 'nowhere',nikakoie 'in no way') usually has ne before the verb; the double negationis presumably normal Slavic syntax. The ne is often omitted, however, ifni (ni-) stands earlier in the clause: this imitates Greek (where, as in Eng-lish, two negatives signify a positive).14 Thus i niktoze daease emu (L15:16, As) 'and no one gave him [anything], Mar t niktoze ne daese emu.Some examples:

Ne moja volja m> tvoja da bgdett (L 22:42) 'not my will, but thine, bedone.' Obace ne jakoze azi. xo§t<j, m> jakoze ty (Mt 26:39) 'nevertheless,notasl wish but as you [wish].' Vy cisti este nt ne VLSI (J 13:10) 'You areclean, but not all.' Ne ο νΒ8έχτ> vasi> glagolJQ (J 13:18) Ί speak not of youall.' vre"m£ moe ne u pride (J 7:5) "My time is not yet come.'

On ze rece, ni (Mt 13:29) 'And he said, 'Wo.'" M bratrtja bo egoverovaaxQ ντ> nJB (J 7:5) 'for not even his brothers believed in him.' Μazi> tebe osqzdaJQ; idi i otbsele ne stgresai ki> tomu (J 8:11) 'Neither doI condemn thee; go and sin no more.' Pride Ioam> ni pi? ni jady (Mt 11:18Zo ~ ne...ni Mar) 'John came, neither eating nor drinking.' Nesmb azi>xristos-b (J 1:27; §16.101) Ί am not the Christ.' Nesfb umn>la devica (L8:52) 'the maiden has not died.' Da ne vid?ti> ocima ni razumeJQfbsn>di>cemL· (J 12:40) 'that they should not see with their eyes nor under-stand with their heart.' Polozi e [Ιέΐο] ντ> grobe isecene ντ> nemBze ne benik'btoze nikogdaze polozeni (L 23:53) '[he] laid it in a hewn tomb whereno one had ever been laid.' Nikomuze ne rabotaxomt nikolize (J 8:33) 'wehave never been in bondage to anyone.'Ni ofb edinogoze ne moze isceleti

14 Variations in usage are extreme, and many examples are hard to interpret (see note16 below). Some of the fluctuation must be attributed to dialect variants, both intime and in region. Here only the most general statements are possible. For fullertreatment, see R. Ve erka, Altkirchensl. (altbulgarische) Syntax I (1989) 33-41, III(1996) 128-140.


(L 8:43 ZoMarSav; As omits ne) 'she could not be healed by any [one ofthe doctors].'

23.2 Negation affects case-usage in two types of construction: existen-tial, and transitive (cf. §18.3a6, 18.3b).

23.211 Existential negation combines the impersonal nest* (ne bqdefb,ne be) 'there is no[t] (will not be, was not)' with the genitive: nest'b inogoboga razve mene (Su 264.2) 'there is no other god except for me'; otBph>ti nest'b polbf nikakogle (J 6:63) 'from the flesh there is no profitwhatsoever'; nest'b dloveka ize ζΐντ» bgdetL· i ne s-BgresaetL· (Eu 57alO)'there is no man who will live and not sin'; Me B-k NHKorowe (Su 241.27)'there was no one there.' NSsfb with the nominative expresses a negativedefinition: e.g. N-kci-h ΒΘΛΗΚΟ v«fA» (Su 33.24) 'the miracle is not great';this construction is normally distinct from nest'b with genitive, existentialnegation: e.g. Sbde tebe" nest'b mesta (Eu 37a24) 'here for you there is noplace.'

23.212 The distinction is sometimes blurred. E.g. i nest'b svett razvStebe gospodi (IKi 2:2, Sin 2/N) 'there is none holy besides thee, Lord';nest'b bo nidbtoze taino eze ne aviti> s$ (Mk 4:22) 'for there is nothing hidwhich shall not be manifested'; M-kcT-h κτο ΜΗΛΜ{·Λ, Η uteri» κτοΜΗΛθΰρΊ»Α*γΛ (Su 57.9-10) 'there is no one who pities and there is no onewho shows mercy'; N-kcri» ΠΗΚΤΟΣ ΠΡΟΤΜΒΔΗ CA Tee-k (Su 232.5) 'there isno one resisting you.' Nikztoze estr. otL· rozdenija tvoego ize naricaett s?imenemL· lernt (L l :61) 'there is no one of your kin who is called by thisname.'—The fig-tree which has no fruit because it is not yet the season(cf. Mt 21:18-19) is cursed by Jesus, we BJRAH κτ» ο€Λ\ογ ΠΛΟΑΊ» »τΐι τβΒ6 (Su346.19) 'may there be henceforth no fruit from you';plodt> could be Gp,but normally it is collective in meaning, and it may be Ns here. CompareSu 350.12 3AM6 c/woK-ui ΠΛΟΑ* He CT»TB«PH 'because the fig-tree has not pro-duced fruit.' Su 345.26 has an unexpected genitive in Ne B*k KM Bp-kMene 'itwas not its time,' but 351.24 has nominative, Ne s-k KM ep-k/wA ΠΛΟΑΊ»cTiTBopHTM e-hMphThN-h 'it was not its time to produce deadly fruit.'

23.22 Transitive negation involves a transitive verb that normally takesan accusative direct object: when the verb is negated (or is subordinate toa negated verb) the object is in the genitive:15

15 Indirect objects are not affected by negation; e.g. sQdi+ takes dative, whetherpositive (po zakonu va§emu sqdite emu, J 18:31, 'judge him according to yourlaw') or negative (ottcL· bo ne sgditt nikomuie, J 5:22, 'for the father doesn't judgeanyone').


Ne £stT> nicesoze (L 4:2) 'he did not eat anything.' Jako ne veste dtneni casa (Mt 25:13) 'for you don't know the day or hour.' Ne prerecetb niVLZtpietb; ne uslySitL· nikfAoie na raspQtiixT> glasa ego (Mt 12:19) 'Heshall not wrangle nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in thestreets.' I pregre§ixomi> ο vbsemL· i zapovedei tvoixt ne poslu§axorm>, nistbljusonrb ni s-btvorixomL· koze zapov6d6 narm> (Daniel 3:29-30, Sin2/N 26a) 'and we have sinned in everything and not obeyed your com-mandments and not observed and not done as you commanded us.'16

Nicbtoze ΐχτ> ne vreditb (Mk 16:18) 'nothing will harm them.' I nikomuzenicesoze ne res? (Mk 16:8) 'and they said nothing to anyone.'^1 Nikogozeobidite ni okljevetaite (L 3:14 ZoMar ~ ne obidite AsSav) 'Do not disre-spect or slander anyone.'

Ne mogQ azi> ο sebe" tvoriti nicesoze (J 5:30) Ί can of myself do noth-ing.' Ne dostoitb tebe" ντ>ζ?1ί odra svoego (J 5:10) 'It is not proper for youto pick up your bed.' I ne imQtb oeso e"sti, i otbpustiti ixi> ne edT>sb nexo§tQ (Mt 15:32) 'and they do not have anything to eat, and I will not sendthem away hungry (lit. not having eaten).'1*

23.3 In rhetorical questions, ne serves to mark the item that is empha-sized: Ne azt li vast di>va na desete izbLrax-B (J 5:70) 'Was it not I whochose you twelve?' Ne SB li estb tektonovb sym> (Mt 13:55) 'Is not this thecarpenter's son?' Ne samt li SB otbCb tvoi ST>t?za t? (Deuteronomy 32:6,Sin 2/N 14b) 'did not he himself thy father purchase thee?' Ne i mytare litako tvor^tt (Mt 5:47) 'do not even the publicans do so?'

23.4 Ne serves as a lexical prefix in about 300 stems, bez in about 100.Editors and lexicographers often differ on when to write a space after ne.

16 There are ambiguous or contradictory phrases, e.g. ne stkryvaite seb6 ST>krovi§tbna zemlji (Mt 6:19 AsSav ~ stkroviSta ZoMar) 'Do not hide for yourselves treas-ures on earth'. The form szkroviSta can be taken as Gs 'a treasure' and explainedas a conscious or unconscious change of meaning, or else as an Ap that (probablyintentionally) imitates the Greek.

17 The nom. or ace. nitbtoze occasionally appears where gen. ni esoze is to be ex-pected: Zo nihomuie n&bloze ne n.ci (~ Mar nidesoze; Mk 1:44) 'say nothing toanyone.'

18 Note that B is genitive because the infinitive ottpustiti is governed by the negatedauxiliary (§21.11). Compare: i ne obrStbaa ego ... viziskaJQ§ta ego ... obr tetej'bsSdeStb ... iskaaxovg tebe (L 2:45-46, 48) 'and not having found him [G withnegation]... looking for him [G required by verb] the two of them found him sitting[A, direct obj.] ... we [two] sought you [G required by verb].' In L 23:2, segoobrStomt razvra$taJQ$ta ?zykT> na§b 'we found this [man] perverting our nation',the genitive form is dictated by the personal reference (§18.21), cf. obr&tefilipa (J1:42) 'he found Philip.'


23.41 The imperfective nenavideti 'hate' usually takes genitive, whilethe perfective vbznenavideti takes accusative.

23.42 Some examples: nestB nepravbdy VB njeim> (ps 91:16) 'there isno unrighteousness in him'; ne bQdi neveruiz ητ> νέπ>ητ> (J 20:27) 'Do notbe without belief but believing'; rabi nedostoini esrm> (L 17:10) 'We areunworthy servants.' (Compare nesmb dostoint, Mt 8:8, Ί am not wor-thy.'} Su 483.12 ΗΈ Me H€ ΜΛ\4 tc BOA"·»« 'but Jesus did not not-have water'is a comprehensible translation of a negated Greek verb 'be in want of,lack for'.

23.5 Idiomatic phraseology using ne:The negated imperative of mog- 'be able' + infinitive occasionally appears in the

Suprasliensis as a periphrastic prohibition: ne mozi mene ostaviti (Su 539.8) 'Do not leaveme' (~ ne ostavi mne, ps 37:22 [§4.61]).19

The imperative ned&Yfe,) means 'permit' :ned^ites\\-biu(i 18:8) 'let these go their way';HC A*' A* BHAMwii Sav (Mt 27:49: ostani da vidimt ZoMarAs) 'let us see.'

PrSide dale ne 'before [a particular moment comes]': si>nidi pr62de daze ne umbreti.otroo? moe (J 4:49) 'Come down ere my child die.'

Uie ne 'no longer': Τέιηέε uie nesta diva m> ph>u> edina (Mk 10:7) 'then they are nomore twain, but one flesh.'

Da ne 'in order that not, lest' (cf. §22.1): bljudfete s$ vraga, da ne nagy sitvoritt vy £koAdama (Eu 97b9) 'watch out for the enemy, lest he make you naked as Adam.'

Aste ne 'unless': Niktiole ne mozetb s-bsodi kr pikaago, vbSedt ντ> dornt ego, rasxytitiaste ne pr zde [pri>voe Zo] kropikaago sivezett (Mk 3:27 ZoMar) 'No one can steal thevessels of a strong man, having entered his house, unless beforehand he binds the strongman.'

24. Vocabulary and the structure of words

24.1 The vocabulary of the canonical OCS manuscripts approaches10,000 lexical items.20 Some 1500 lexemes are non-Slavic personal orgeographic names or derivatives. Foreign stems are adapted to fit OCSinflectional patterns.

19 Su 239.3 He «O^H He B-kpoBdTH 'do not disbelieve'.20 Scholars disagree on just how to write many items, and lexicographers then argue

about how to normalize. Thus no one doubts that vb and na and sui 'empty, mean-ingless' and r&fib 'empty' are separate, but are there three more "words", vbsue andnasue and vttwte 'in vain'? SJS allows the first two but "u-hr-biue" is merely across-reference to "r-hijib". Is mimo an independent adverb 'past, by', or is it aprefix to seven independent verb-stems meaning 'go (carry, run) past'? A differentkind of problem isxtybaje 'begging' (Mk 10:46) in Mar butxlgpaje in Z-xlppati(L 16:3) in both Zo and Mar. Are there two similar stems, or is one merely aspelling error? The rough statistics I provide can only be approximations.


24.11 The exact list is determined by the texts which happen to havesurvived. The gospels contain short narratives, mostly straightforward,but with cryptic sayings and occult allusions whose meaning depends ontraditional religious exegesis. The psalms are poetry, much of it esoteric;the Greek is often obscure, the OCS translation was not particularly good,and the scribes were careless. The prayer-book (Euchologium) is intendedfor monastic use. The homilies in the Clozianus and Suprasliensis aremostly concerned with explicating details of Christian doctrine, and thesaints' lives are placed in societies and geographical locations quite re-mote from the Slavic world of the ninth century. The OCS translatorsstruggled to reproduce the often elaborate Greek and its richly variedlexicon, but their success was limited — and subsequent copyists failed totransmit the texts accurately.

24.12 The words we know from this meager set of sources provide afair sample of basic lexemes and many special terms. Certain everydayitems are missing: e.g. nose, daughter-in-law, short, to cough (thoughpost-OCS information guarantees *nosz, *snzxa, *krattkt>, *ka$bljaj+).Some are not attested in their primary sense, e.g. skovrada 'grill, frying-pan' refers only to instruments of torture (18x). Others are merely impliedby derivatives: e.g. govezdina zila 'steer-tendon' (a kind of whip that iscontrasted to bicb, vosiaga,and χη>ζαηι>) must be based on *govedo 'steer' .Frequency of individual stems reflects subject-matter: bog* 'god' occursover 2100 times, bolbjb 'god's, divine' more than 800x, svet* 'holy' wellover lOOOx, moli+ 'pray' 500+, molitva 'prayer' 400n — and grexs 'sin'300+, best 'demon' 200+ and dijavol* 'devil' 100+.24.13 In order to distinguish between words actually attested in canonical OCS (as Idefine it, §0.32) and those I believe can safely be attributed to OCS because they are foundin specific later copies of certain texts, I will write *OCS (with the asterisk on the label, notthe word): *OCS

24.2 Meaning is deduced in part from the texts (chiefly Greek) on whichthe OCS translation is based, and in part from our knowledge of morerecent Slavic vocabulary. Problems of interpretation appear at every step.

24.21 Not infrequently a Slavic word apparently has a connotation thatthe Greek original lacks. Thus the bowl or dish shared by Jesus and hisbetrayer (Mt 26:23, Mk 14:20) is solilo, surely 'salt-container', cf. solb'salt'.

24.22 Occasionally the meaning that seems obvious for an OCS wordor phrase does not fit the Greek text from which it was apparently trans-lated.


A passage in Su, for example, retells an Old Testament parable (Greek II Kingdoms[Hebrew II Samuel] 12: Iff.) about a poor man whose pet ewe-lamb (άμνάς) is slaughteredby a rich man to make a feast for a visitor. The 'lamb' consistently becomes TCAHIIA (Su259.29,260.5,13), unquestionably the feminine counterpart of Tertbub 'calf. We may specu-late as to why the translator (or an editor) chose to change the species of the animal, butsurely lexicographers err if they define telica as 'lamb'.21

24.23 Sometimes we are faced with a flat error: a translator or scribehas mistakenly omitted, added, or transposed letters or syllables. We mustdeal with what the scribes wrote, but we should explicitly label any emen-dation that we have made.

24.24 A pervasive difficulty is alternate words in the "same" context.Most examples are from the gospels, but parallel texts in the Clozianusand Suprasliensis offer many instructive variants. Some differences surelyare stylistic, some are regional, some are historical, and many probablycombine these features. Similar variants occur in the translation of thesame Greek phrase in different passages. Proper treatment of the OCSmaterial should be in some sort of explanatory dictionary. Here there isroom only to sketch general principles.

24.25 Sometimes a Greek borrowing—usually taken as a sign of antiq-uity—is contrasted with one or more Slavic equivalents. Thus blasphemy(βλασφημία) may be BAACBHAWRI or χογΛΑ or χογΛΚΝΗε and the correspond-ing verb may be vlasvimis-a+ or vlasvimlj-aj+ or translated xul-i+, xul-ova+, or vzsxuljaj+. "Our daily bread" of the Lord's Prayer (Mt 6:11),with the controversial adjective έτποΰσιος, remains χΛ-fcBi» NAuih enHoycHHin Vat, but is interpreted as ΝΑΟΤΑΒΈΙΙΙΑΑΓΟ ΑΗ6 in MarSav, ΗΑΟ*ΨΚΗΤ»ΙΗ in A(and Sin 2/N), and a phrase beginning NACTOIAUIT- that was erased andoverwritten by a later Cyrillic scribe in Zo.

24.26 Often the contrast is a matter of Slavic derivation; e.g. pastyrjb'shepherd' MarAsVat ~ pastuxz Sav (Zo uses both); zivofb 'life' ~ ziznb,k'bnilbnik'b 'scribe' (usual) ~ kznigzdijb (rare); raspbnQt* 'crucify' ~propbnqfb. Different roots may supply semantically equivalent forms, e.g.rasxyti+ 'to plunder' ~ razgrabi+, xystenbje 'plundering' - grablenbje,xyStbnikz 'robber' ~ grabiteljb.

24.261 Sometimes a word whose origin is obscure competes with atransparent lexeme; e.g. 'fence' is xalgga in L 14:23, but oplofb in Mk12:1 (easily associated with ο 'around' + plet- 'weave' and the type of

SJS and SS do just that. SS often, but not always, alerts readers to discrepancies by"!" after the Greek word provided as the source.


fence made by weaving together young branches); odrz 'bed, litter' (wide-spread) ~ loie (of more restricted usage; cf. loiiti sg 'lie down').

24.262 Frequently, the competing words are built from native Slavicmorphemes, and often we can perceive differing semantic nuances. Thusthe 'lawyer' of Mk 22:35 is zakonwikt in AsSav, but 'teacher of law'zakono-uciteljb in Mar. The general verb 'will stand up' vkstajetb of Mt17:23 in MarSav corresponds to the explicit 'will be resurrected'vbskrbsnetb in As. In both of these case there are explanations based onGreek words, but it is important to note that within OCS many near-synonyms change meanings slightly and are redistributed in ways that arenot easy to predict. In the dramatic context of Mt 27:23, 'persuaded' isrendered nauZisg 'instructed' in As, naustisg 'urged, goaded' inZoMarVat, and navadify 'lured, enticed' in Sav. The 'flood' of Mt 24:38and 39 is potopz both times in As, but merely voda 'water' in v. 39 inZoMarSav. Yet different formations with apparently identical meaningsare not unusual. The noun vera 'faith' is opposed to neverbje, neverbstvo,neverbstvbje and bezvfrbje 'lack of faith'. Religious concepts do not al-ways have stable definitions; 'sin' is always grex- (grfx* 'sin', gresbnik*,grgStnica 'sinner [m, f]',gr£?wis'sinful', bezgresbnδ 'sinless',grexovbnz'pertaining to sin'), but the distinctions between the verbs pogresiti andpregr£$iti 'to sin, err' are hard to discern. The 'forgiveness (remission) ofsins' varies: in MarSavVat Mt 26:28 vbofbdanbje grexomz [Vat Γρ^χοβτ»]~ νδ otzpuSteribje grexomi> Zo -vb ostavljenbje grexom* As.22

24.3 The external history of OCS presumes ninth-century beginningsthat involve possible eastern Bulgarian Slavic dialects near Constantino-ple (perhaps also in Bythinia, in Asia Minor), the Macedonian dialectsnear Saloniki, and western dialects (Morava and Pannonia), followed bydevelopments more specifically tied to the Macedono-Bulgarian lands inthe tenth and eleventh centuries. In the process, some dialect words orforms became normal or even obligatory (e.g. abbje 'at once'; αζδ 'Γ

22 In Mk 4:1, L 1:77, 3:3, 24:47 otvpuStenie and ostavljenie appear with differentdistributions. The scribe of Zo put both in L 1:77, va ostavljenbe v» ofbpuStetibegrex'b naSixt. We may speculate that ottdanbe (which otherwise signifies 'repay-ment, retribution') in this expression is a reminiscence of Old High Germanvergebnis, while the other two imply sending away or leaving alone, both possiblefor άφεσις. This Gk noun occurs twice in L 4:18, "preach deliverance to the cap-tives" and "set at liberty them that are bruised"—OCS ottpusienbe, but otbpustitbstkruSeny? ντ> ofuradQ. Otwada is possibly a Moravism, but any classification hasto be guesswork.


[probably a local eastern Bulgarian shape, although jazz was surely uni-versal elsewhere]), while others were gradually replaced (e.g. asut-b 'invain' ~ v-bsuje, vbfbste; balbji 'doctor' ~ vracb), and still others survivedin specific contexts. Thus rgsnota 'truth' is well attested in the Psalter,along with its synonym, istina, but only the latter appears in gospels (al-though evidence from post-OCS gospel mss allows us to suspect thatresnota was present in early copies and eliminated by conscious scribalintervention).

24.31 Readers and scribes easily tolerated alternate expressions. Thus"Lo, the hour is coming" of J 16:32 in Sav is both ce τρΑΑ^ττ» VACT» (in thelection for the 7th Thursday after Easter, ed. p. 5) and ce HAex-h ΓΟΑΗΝΑ (forthe Thursday before Easter, ed. p. 98). ZoMarAs have se gr^defb godina.We can confidently surmise that rpAAe-π» represented a familiar everydayverb for Slavs from what is now western Croatia and Slovenia or fromMacedonia, but a bookish equivalent of ΜΑ€ΤΉ in eastern Bulgaria. Thenouns vAc-h and ΓΟΑΗΝΑ (and also ΓΟΑΤ»), on the other hand, probably hadvarying meanings in different regions.

24.32 The shifting distribution of competing lexemes shows that nosingle manuscript embodies a consistent redaction. The general usageseems to be Macedonian, partly—it is assumed—reflecting the originaltranslation of most of the texts, and partly reflecting the normalizing influ-ences presumably exercised by scribes and editors throughout the tenthcentury. Yet the major manuscripts have words deemed by modern schol-ars to be typical of eastern Bulgarian usage, the effect of a standard as-sumed to have been developed in Preslav and perhaps other culturalcenters. It is important to keep in mind that there is no OCS manuscriptthat exemplifies the hypothetical eastern or Preslav redaction of OCS. Thechief works that supposedly were translated in this Bulgarian culturalzone have survived only in post-OCS manuscripts, and to retrieve theiroriginal wording is a complex task fraught with difficulties.23 Much of thescholarship in this field is fragmentary and the assumptions and premisesof individual investigators are often so different that results cannot becompared. Here there is space only to remark that there are OCS wordsgenerally agreed to be ancient and/or "western" (from the Moravan Mis-

23 Parts of the Suprasliensis are believed to represent Preslav translations. Otherprobable examples are the izborniki of 1073 and 1076 (both copied in Rus') andthe Hexameron (LLIecTO/weB) by John the Exarch, known from a Serbian ms of1263 and later ESI copies.


sion), and others characterized as "eastern" or Preslavian. The majority ofOCS lexemes, including most synonyms, are neutral.

.*_

24.4 Most OCS words are complex (§3): stem + desinence. The stemmust contain a root; it may contain one or more affixes.

Stems with more than one root are called compounds.Canonical OCS includes about 2000 roots (some of which surely were

felt as foreign) and a store of affixes that can be called native Slavic.To the prefixes listed in §5.31 may be added ne 'not, un-', bez 'without', meZdu 'be-

tween', and protivb 'against'. Suffixes are more varied; here we will deal chiefly withmorphemes—numbering about 60—that seem to form relatively new words.

24.41 A stem must be verbal, substantival or adjectival. The meaning isarbitrary, although usually it is partly predictable from the sense of theroot as supplemented and/or limited by each affix. When a root serves asa stem, we may posit zero-affixes to specify gender and declension. Thus,the root \nsu-a+ 'send' serves as a substantive- stem s u- z 'envoy', whichpresumably is lexically marked as masculine, animate, and personal. Theroot ljub in ljubi+ 'love' functions as an adjective stem, ljubz ljubo ljuba'dear'. The roots»/ 'bad' can serve as an adjective (zützüo lud) or, witha change of declensional marking, a substantive, z&/b (i-stem fern., 'wick-edness, evil'). The root c$d underlies the neuter substantive cgdo 'child'and the feminine collective egdb 'servants, companions, household mem-bers, retinue'.24

24.42 Some 620 stems are compounds: e.g. cgd-o-ljub-l· 'child-loving'is an adjective—the root c$d joined by {o/e} to ljub?5 Vodonosz (m) andvodonosb (f., i-stem) 'water-pot, vessel for carrying water'; cf. the verbalroot in nos-i+ 'carry' and the substantive vod-a 'water'. Zero-affixes are

24 It is important to keep in mind the practical results of differing decisions aboutanalysis. Adjectives, including passive participles, may function as substantives

'blind; a blind man'; zs/o 'bad [neut.]; evil, a wicked act or intention';nT) 'sent; one sent, envoy'). Are such items to be entered in a dictionary as

separate entries, or as subheadings, or can they be assumed to be predictable fromthe Nsm or basic-stem information? Negated passive participles easily are inter-preted as having a sense of potentiality: e.g. ukrot-i+ 'to tame' ~ ukrosten* 'tamed,domesticated' ~ neukroSten* [or ne ukroSiemi] 'untamed; untamable, uncontrolla-ble'. Two words or one? Is a theoretical stem cesar-ova+ sufficient to identifyNpm necesarujemi as 'ungoverned, free from rule' (a sense obtained from theGreek text)?

25 If the first member is a numeral, it may itself consist of two roots: d-bvoj-e-na-luc-bn-oje slinbce 'the 12-rayed sun' Su 231.2 (cf. luia 'ray'; §20).


assumed to specify that the compound stem is adjectival or substantival(and provides the declension type). Either root, or both, may be affixed,e.g. cgdoljubivb 'child-loving', (za-kon)-o-(uc-itelj)-b 'law-teacher; law-yer', cf. zakon'b 'law' and uoiteljb 'teacher' (uc-i+ 'to teach').26 As a rule,the first root is semantically subordinate to the second.27

24.431 Most substantives and adjectives are stems that must be listed inthe lexicon even though many are made up of recognizable elements. Forinstance, danb 'tax, tribute' and dart 'gift' obviously share meaning withthe anomalous verb dati 'to give' and suggest a segmentation da-n-b(whereby the -n- is lexically marked for feminine gender and i-stem in-flection), and da-r--b (masculine o-stem). Within OCS, however, the mor-phemes must be dan- (simple decl., fern.) and dor- (hard masc. twofolddecl.) and the verbal root {da[d]J (see§16.21); they are part of the knowl-edge that was, so to speak, recorded in the memory of speakers of OCS.In terms of stem analysis, dar and dan are OCS roots.

24.432 The substantive darovanbje 'donation, donating', on the otherhand, is {(dar-ova+n)-bj+e}: the root dar is converted into a verb by theova classifier (§15.5), made a past passive participle by the suffix n, anda verbal substantive by the formant bj (cf. § 12). This process of formationis productive, given the basic morpheme dar, the meaning 'act(s) of do-nating' is expected for the formation. In grammatical terms, this verbalsubstantive is part of the morphology of the verb dar-ova+, and it ispredictable in terms of normal suffixes and productive rules. This kind ofderivative easily acquires a new meaning—here 'thing(s) donated'—andlexicographers must decide whether it deserves a separate entry in a dic-tionary.

24.44 Analysis of words rests on a knowledge of prefixes, desinences,and the major derivational suffixes. By removing the desinence, one findsthe stem. The premise that the root must be of the shape (C) VC (less oftenCVCVC), makes segmentation of morphemes easier. For example, navbzglavbnici On a pillow' (Mk 4:38, Mar) obviously is Ls of vKglavbnic-a, made up of a prefix νκζ-, a suffixal sequence -bnic- and a root glav,

26 The term compound here does not include prefixed stems like za-kon-, although itis obviously a lexical unit that enters into other complex stems, e.g. vtzakoni+'establish as law', bezakonova+ 'behave lawlessly'. Another kind of complexstem consists of root plus suffix, e.g. kon-bc-b 'end'; beskonb£bnt> 'endless',nedokonboaj+.'iail to complete'.

27 See also §24.4422 on caiques.


approximately "(alongside-head-substantive)-desinence"—a transparentparallel to the Gk (προσ- κεφάλ- αϊ)- ov. In contrast, Zo has na doxttore,surely Ls, but of indeterminable gender. We might take do as a prefix, butxtitor remains isolated; doxzior- is synchronically an indivisible unit.28

24.441 In Su both stuzdekrwimica and jatwculbnica stand for ξενοδο-χεΤον 'hospice, guest-house; guest refectory'. The first is transparentlystuzd- 'alien' + krwi- 'feed'+ vnic (suffix) + a (desinence), similar to Gkksen 'alien/guest' + dox 'receive' + ei (suffix) + on (desinence). The sec-ond clearly has suffixal -wie-, butyaiarw/ is a sequence that fits no Slavicpatterns. It may include two roots, or it may parallel another OCS word,gostinica 'inn', where the root gost 'guest' is followed by -in-ic, a com-plex suffix.29

24.4421 Many OCS compounds are simplistic caiques of Greek words. Roman Palestinehad regional officials called "quarter-rulers" in charge of one fourth of a larger region. Thetitle tetrarch (τετραάρχης) and the verb rule as tetrarch (in Gs participial form,τετραρχοϋντοξ) occur in the gospels. The adapted loan tetraarxi (Zo; tetrarx* Mar) re-mains in Mt 14:1, but is replaced by ietvrbtovlastbcb in L 9:7 and Setvrbtovlastbnik'b in L3:19; cf. cetvrbt-b Ί/4' and vlast-b 'power, dominion'. The verb is oetvrbtovlastbstv-uJQStu.Mt 23:23 has the verb "you tithe" άττο- δεκατ- οϋτε, rendered in Mar accurately as of&-desft-bstv-uete. (A more natural equivalent appears in L 11:42, desgtinQ daete, lit. 'you givea tenth'.)

24.4422 Caiques are usually subject to native constraints. Thus IjuboniStb 'loving thepoor' is a caique of φίλο- τττωχ- οξ, but has the dominant root first and is therefore peculiar;niSteljubbje converts φίλο- τττωχ- (α to the Slavic pattern. Gk miso- 'hate' has no singleequivalent; it caused trouble: nenavidgi ilovika dbjavoli, 'the devil who hates man' for όμισάνθρωττος διάβολος, nenavistbniki> ilovekomt> 'misanthrope', nenavistije bratbnje'brotherly hate' and bratoljubbstvije nenavistbnoe 'hateful brotherly-love' and bratijgneljubbstvo 'brothers' not-loving' for μισαδελφία.

24.5 The list of clearly productive nominal and adjectival formants ismodest. The dominant shape is VC. Front-vowel formants entail KI-palatalization of stem-final velars and c/j. Some important suffixes beginwithy and therefore trigger iotation (§3.6). A few begin with t and interactwith a preceding obstruent (§3.3131).

28 SS imprudently lists it sub Αίχττορτ, guessing at gender and phonology.29 Space precludes discussion of the hierarchies of cohesion or closeness of the mor-

phemes in various structures. Questions of the immediate constituents of stems andaffixes can only be hinted at. I suggest that gostin is base for gostin-ic-ρ (ZM L10:34) and gostin-bnic-ρ (As); the gospod-ρ of Sav represents a different lexeme,gospoda. The -in- is presumably possessive, as in zv£rim 'beast's', cf. 24.84. In L10:35, 'host, inkeeper' is Ds gostin-bnik-u in ZMA and gost-bnik-u in Sav. Seman-tically apart is another derivative, gostin- bc-b 'highway, main street'. There is alsoa verb, gost-i+ 'be host, receive guests'.

174 NOTES ON SYNTAX 24.501-24.521

24.501 Many stems combine adjectival and substantival suffixes: thustbm 'dark' underlies tuna 'darkness', the adjective tun-bn-z 'dark',tbmbnica 'prison', tbm-bnic-bn-'b 'pertaining to prison', tbmbn.bnicbnik-'b'prisoner'. The adjective in BT» oifBHTeAhNHVhCKK πειυτερκ 'into the killers'cave' is an extreme example. The base is u-bbj- 'kill' (§15.93), withagentive -telj- and a seemingly redundant -mik- (§24.524 below), plus thestem-defining adjectival suffix -bsk-}°

24.51 Suffixes may be simply a lexical component of the stems; theyseem to contribute nothing to the meaning: ot-bc-b 'father',slm-bc-e 'sun',ov-bc-a 'sheep', pes-zk-t» 'sand', bras-bn-o 'food'.

24.52 Stems denoting humans, male and female, often lack any mark-ing, but many contain special suffixes. Rob* m. and raba f. 'servant,slave' (and sluga m. 'servant'), for example, are minimal stems, whilerab-ynj-i (§4.18) has a suffix that, with a root indicating person, specifiesfemale. Female reference is often supplied by a suffix that is absent fromthe masculine equivalent: e.g. prorok'b 'prophet' ~ proroc-ic-a 'prophet-ess', sQsed-'b m. - sqsMynji 'neighbor', vladyka m. 'lord' ~ vladycica'lady, female ruler', otrok* 'boy, child, servant' ~ otrokovica 'girl',vratarjb m. ~ vratarjica f. 'gate-keeper' (cf. vrat-a [n. pi] 'gate, gate-way'). Sometimes a masculine suffix is replaced by a feminine one: e.g.star-BC-b Old man; monk' ~ star-ic-a Old woman'; avbrhiiikz m. ~avbrbitica f. 'door-keeper' (cf. dvbri [f. i-stem pi.] 'door'), mgcenik* m.~ mQcenica f. 'martyr'.

24.52 Many words denoting male agents are made with five suffixes:-telj-, -arj-, -cbj-, -btiik-, and -be-.

24.521 The suffix -telj- signifies human (or divine) actor (about 50examples). It is added directly to a basic verbal stem: vlad-0+ 'rule' >vlasteljb 'ruler, lord';prij-aj+ 'favor' >prijateljb 'friend'; swed-e+ 'wit-ness' > swedeteljb 'witness'; sluz-i+ 'serve' > sluliteljb 'server, servant'(idolosluziteljb 'servant of idols, one who serves idols').

An extended form -itelj- is used with some exceptional stems: svpas-0+ 'save' ~ svpasiteljb 'savior'; zbd-a+ (§15.643) 'build' ~ zizditeljb'creator'; po-da(d)- (§16.28) 'give' > podateljb and podaditeljb 'giver'.

30 The Gk has simply Gp Of murderers'. The translator chose not to use either of theavailable nouns, ubbjbca orubojbca 'murderer' m., a-stem. Pestera 'cave' is nearlysynonymous wiuipestb (f., i-stem), butpestb also means 'stove'. The suffix -er- ispeculiar to peStera; it therefore makes the sense of the stem more precise; see§24.51.

24.521-24.525 NOTES ON SYNTAX 175

Two feminine equivalents are attested: sluziteljbnica 'servant' (cf. raba,rabynji) and roditeljwica 'parent' (- rod-i+ 'beget, bear', roditeljb 'par-ent').31

24.522 The suffix -arj- (8 stems) also denotes a human actor: e.g.rybarjb 'fisherman' ~ ryba 'fish'; grwbcarjb 'potter' ~ *grwibcb 'pot'.(The loanwords cesarjb 'king' (L caesar 'Caesar') and oltarjb 'altar' aresimple stems in OCS; cesarjica 'queen' is obviously a new word.)

24.523 Masculine a-stems with the suffix -cbj- (§4.16) denote malepersons (and contain non-native roots): e.g. k'bnjig'bdiji 'scribe' (=kwjizbnik'b, cf. ktnjigy [pi tant] 'book'), sar^ciji 'painter' (= saropisateljb,cf. sari) 'color').

24.524 The suffix -enik-δ or - bnik-δ is found with over 165 stems denot-ing male persons (and about ten with other meanings, see 24.7 below).32

-enik- is generally associated with a past passive participial stem(§11.23), e.g.kr&nljenikb 'nurseling' (cf.krt>mi+ 'feed, nurture'),blazenikz'happy man' (cf. blaZi+ 'deem happy'), kazenikz 'eunuch' (cf. kazi+'spoil'). Note that Ijubljenikz 'lover, admirer' has an active sense, whilevzzljubljenikt 'beloved [man]' fits the typical pattern (cf.vtz-ljubi+ 'love').

-bnik- generally occurs with stems that are nominal rather than verbal,but the meaning often implies actor. Thus pobedbnikz 'victor' is based onpobeda 'victory', while its synonym pobediteljb is associated with theverbpobedi+ 'conquer, prevail' (cf. §24.52 above). Apengzbnikz 'money-changer' deals withpen^jb 'money'; apraStbnikz 'slinger' is presumablyproficient with a *prasta 'sling'.

24.525 The suffix -bc-b in about 25 stems based on verbal roots refersto persons: e.g. kupbcb 'merchant' (kupi+ 'buy'), tvorbcb 'maker' (tvori+'make, do'), zwbcb 'priest' (zbr-0- 'sacrifice'), skopbcb 'eunuch' (skopi+[sej 'castrate [self]'); cbtbcb 'reader', bogocbtbcb 'pious, god-honoringman' (cvt-0+ 'read; honor');pr/-ib/-fac-b 'immigrant; convert' (cf. parti-ciple prisbl- 'arrived', §11.222). Α-stems with -bc-a (e.g. secbca 'execu-tioner', cf. u-sek-(n$)+, §15.771) may well have been feminine as well as

31 Some synonyms: vladyka ~ vlasteljb, stpas* ~ stpasiteljb, zbdateljb ~ szzbdateljb~ zizditeljb, davbcb ~ dateljb, samodrblbcb ~ samodrbiiteljb. There were surelydifferences in meaning, but we can only speculate what they were.

32 The only evidence for an independent suffix -ik- is Adu zlatika '[two] gold-pieces'(Su 145.25). It is vitiated by the fact that zlatica occurs 11 times in the samemeaning in the same text. Compare sbrebrbnikz '(silver) coin, money' andmedbnica '(bronze) coin'.


masculine; some of them may have had a pejorative sense (as they dotoday).24.5251 Compounds are not always felicitous: Rod-o-tvor-bc-b 'creator [of generation,origin]' in Wisdom 13:5 (Su 534.4) mimics γενεσιουργός; English translators overlook thefirst root. Samodrbibcb (and samodrbZiteljb) 'autocrat' (cf. drbi-S+ 'hold, rule'—caiquesinvolving the Greek root krat) fit OCS patterns well, but samo-vlast-bc-b (likeZetvrbtovlastbcb) contains the substantive-stem vlast-b 'dominion'.

24.526 Stems with the suffix -en- or -jan- (usually in plural, Np -e)signify a group of human beings, see §4.53. The singulative -in- empha-sizes the individual: e.g. krbstbjaninz = krbstbjanz 'Christian': e.g. vojinz'soldier' ~ voji pi (rarely vojini) 'army'.

24.53 Female persons (or divinities) may be designated by suffixes thatalso occur with non-personal senses:

-ynj-i (§4.18): e.g. bogynji 'goddess' (cf. bog* 'god'), solunjanynjiThessalonian' (solunz'Saloniki', cf.solunjane Thessalonians'); magda-lynji 'Magdalene, woman of Magdala'.

-ic-a occurs in about 100 stems, only 24 of which denote female hu-mans. Eight in -n-ic- have corresponding masculines, e.g. ucenica 'pupil,disciple' ~ ucenikv, plenbnica 'captive' ~ plenbnikz. But while staricameans Old woman' (cf. above), junica means 'heifer, young cow' (cf.jun-b 'young', junbcb 'young bull') and crwica—transparently based onthe adjectival rootcrw- 'black'—is(l) 'monastery' or (2) 'mulberry tree'.See also §24.7 below.

24.6 Young males may be indicated by -iSt-b, : e.g. mladeniStb 'babyboy' (~ mladenbcb ~ mladgtbce neut.), kozbliStb 'kid' (= kozblg, cf. kozblz'goat'), pztistb 'baby bird' (cf. ptiica 'bird' [apparently without differen-tiation of sex]).33 Less specific is -ζί-, e.g. agng 'lamb' (~ agnbcb orjagnbcb), see §4.414—415.

24.7 The chief suffixes in nouns that denote objects, acts, and abstrac-tions are: with masculine gender, -bnik-, -be- (15), -&£-& (17); with femi-nine gender, -ynj-i, -ic-a, -bnic-a; -ost/-est-b(45), -otlet-a, -bb-a (14), -ίν-α (10), -in-a (30); with neuter gender, -bc-e (8), -bj-e (45 + 730 -nbj-e),-bstv-o, -iSt-e (30), -l-o (25). The suffix -j- (which entails KI or iotation,§3.6) is used in a few masculines and neuters and more than 30 feminines.Some examples:

- bnik-: svesthnikz 'candle-holder' (= sv£iii/o), cf. sv£fb 'light'; vvtorbnik'bTuesday' (vtion, 'second'); swebrbnikz 'coin' (swebro 'silver')

33 Su 513.2 MAAAeHku,H ratco Η ΠΤΗΙΙΙΤΗ corresponds to the Gk 'the young of sparrows'.


-bc-b: diminutive/hypocoristic: odrbcb (odrt 'bed, pallet'), kovbcezbcb(kovbceg'b 'box, ark'); other: studenbcb 'spring, source' (stud-en-s 'cold').

-•bk-: pribyt'bk'b 'profit, gain' (pri-by-ti 'arrive, be successful')-ynj-i pustynji 'desert' (pusfb 'empty'), grtdynji 'arrogance' (grid*

'proud')-ic-a: sujica 'left hand' (Sujb 'left'), mantijica 'cloak' (*mantija 'man-

tle')-bnic-a:kosbnica 'basket' (=kosbm.); dvbrvnic^ [plur tantum] 'door'-ost-b: jarostb 'fury' (jar* 'furious'), dobrostb 'goodness' (= dobrota, cf.

dobr-b 'good'), bujestb 'stupidity' (= bujbstvo, cf. bujb 'foolish'),-ot-a: pravota 'justness, justice' (= pravostb = pravynji = pravbda),

sujeta 'emptiness, vanity' (sujb 'vain')-bb-a: svgtbba 'consecration' (sv$ti+ 'consecrate'), alcbba 'hunger, fast-

ing' (alk-a+ 'hunger'), tatbba 'theft' (= tatbbina, cf. tatb m.'thief')

-tv-a: zgtva 'harvest' (zbnj-0+ 'harvest' §15.83), molitva 'prayer' (cf.molbba 'petition'; moli+ 'pray, request')

-in-a: desgtina Ί/10' (desgtb 'ten'), konbcina 'end' (= konbcb,konbcanbje, szkonboanbje), maslina Olive' (maslo '[olive] oil'),xramina 'house, building, dwelling' (=xramz), udavljenina 'meatof strangled animal' (u-dav-i+ 'strangle')34

-bc-e: diminutive/hypocoristic, e.g. cgdbce - cgdo 'child', imenijbce ~imenbe 'property'; shifted meaning,plesno 'sole' -plesnbce 'san-dal'

-bj-e: abstracts; veselbje 'joy' (vesel* 'joyful'), obilbje 'abundance'(obil'b 'abundant'), mil-o-srbd-'b 'merciful' (milosrbdbje 'mercy');noun from phrase,podzgorbje 'foothills' (cf.podzgorami 'belowthe mountains'), bezumbje 'foolishness' (cf. bez uma 'withoutmind'); collectives trupbje 'ΰοφβββ' (trup-b, see §4.1022).

- bstv- bj-e is semantically equivalent to - bstv-o, e.g.velicbstvo = velicbstvbje'greatness' (=velicbje,cf.velik7>'great'),cesarbstvo=cesarbstvbje'kingdom' (cesarjb 'king'), otbcbstvo 'fatherland' = otbcbstvbje(= otbiina, cf. otbcb 'father').

34 This word is part of the religious code inherited from the Old Testament. AlthoughOCS has no other example, we can be certain that -ina 'meat of could be used withthe name of any animal, e.g. tel^tina 'veal', konjina 'horse meat'; it is a productivesuffix in most modern Slavic dialects. The hbornik of 1073 has k-dpina probably'swan meat'.


-bstv-o: svetblbstvo 'brightness' = svfrblostz = svetblota (svetblz 'bright';svet'b 'light'); beswnrbtbstvo 'immortality' (= beswnrbtbje, cf. bezwithout', swnrbtb 'death'); episkupbstvo 'bishopric, office ofbishop' (episkup-b 'bishop')

-ist-e: place, swbmiste 'synagogue, sanhedrin' (sw-bm-0+ 'gather to-gether *),pristani$te 'harbor, haven' (pri-sta\n\- 'arrive' §15.712),blgdiliste 'brothel'(cf. blgdbnica 'prostitute')

-j-b: voidb 'leader, guide' (= vod-i- 'lead'), placb 'weeping' (plak-a-'weep'),

-j-e: gze 'rope, bond' (ρζα 'bond, fetter'; ρζ-δ&-& 'tighty, narrow')-j-a: volja 'wish' (vol-i+ 'wish'; vel-e+ 'command', Ιτ>ζα 'lie' (lbga+

'lie'), dusa 'soul' (duxz 'spirit, breath'), svesia 'candle, lamp',mezda 'boundary' (see §26.21, n. 8).pred-bteca 'forerunner' (tek-0+ 'run')

-l-o: podrbpalo 'dipper' (= pocrbpalbnikv,{cirp} §15.643); svgtilo'sanctuary'(= svgiiliste; svgfb 'holy'); svetilo 'lamp, light' (sveti+'illuminate'); kadilo 'incense' (kadi+ 'burn incense')

24.8 Adjectival root-stems (e.g.pustt 'empty', sujb 'left', vesel* 'glad')number about 130. Most stems end in one often suffixes: - bn- (about 750),-bsk- (80+), -en- (about 12), -ίν- (170+), -it- (about 15), -αν- (5); -bnj-(with adverbial bases, 35+); and possessives with -in- (about 12), -j-, -ov-(25+) and -wj- (with proper names).

24.81 The suffix -bsk- in principle means 'characteristic of as opposedto the very general -bn- 'pertaining to': gradbscii mqii 'the men of/fromthe town' - gradbnyg steny 'the walls [that are part] of the town'. Inpractice, the two may become synonymous. Thus nebesbskz, referring tonebesa 'heavens', is exclusive in Zo and Mar, but only nebesbnz is in As,while Sav has both.35 Both formants are used with borrowed stems, e.g.aer'b ~ aerbnz 'air'(cf. vkzauxz ~ vzzdusbnz 'air), mznixz 'monk' ~m'bnisbsk'b (cf. crbnbcb 'monk' ~ crwibcskz).36 A compound suffix -ovbn-l-evbn- seems to have about the same meaning, e.g. dusa 'soul' ~ dusevbnz,dux?) 'spirit' ~ duxovbn'b, vera 'faith' ~ verovbnt Of faith' and verbnz'faithful'. Similarly, adovbskz, adovbnr>, and adbsk* all mean Of hell' (cf.ad'b 'hell, Hades'). In many instances, Bsk-forms function as possessives.

35 SS defines both OCS words as "He6ecHbiR, nebesky", that is -bn- has survived inR., -sk- in Cz.

36 A/wj/jca must represent an adaptation of a Germanic form *muriix-, cf. mod. M nch.


24.82 The suffix -en- means 'made of the material denoted by thebase; -it- usually signifies 'characterized by'; -iv- and -αν- may be some-what emphatic. Some examples:

-en-: Ibnenz 'linen' (*/wza 'linen'); meden-b 'bronze' (= medbnt: medb'bronze'); trwenz Of thorns' (= trbnow, trwb 'thorn'); mazdam»Of marrow' (*mozga 'marrow; brain')

-it-: mwogoocitz 'many-eyed' (m&iog- 'many', ok-o 'eye'), zname-nifb, imenifb 'famous' (znamenbje 'mark, sign, signal'; *jbmf'name'); plodovifb 'fruitful' (plod* 'fruit'; cf. also mwogo-plodbnt»)

-iv-: nedQzivb 'unwell, sick' = nedgzbm> (cf. nedQg'b 'ailment') pravb-divb 'just' = pravbdbnt, (cf. pravb 'straight, authentic, just')

-/iv-: mlbcaliv* 'silent, quiet' (= mlbcalbnl·, cf. mlbk-e+ 'be silent')-bliv-: nerazumblivz 'unintelligent' (= nerazumivb, nerazumicbn'b, nera-

zumbnicbnv, cf. razurwb 'understanding')-αν-: Iqkavb 'crooked, foul, deceitful' (= iQkavbnz, cf. fyka 'deceit,

trickery'); sedinavt 'grey-haired' (= sedi>, cf. sediny f pi 'greyhair')

24.83 The formant -(sb)nj- makes adverbs into adjectives; there areoften variants, presumably from regional dialects: iskrbnjbjb or blizwjbjb'nearby, closest (one's neighbor)' (iskrb 'close'; blize 'closer'), do-masbnjbjb and domastbnjbjb 'domestic' (doma 'at home'), nynjaSbnjbjband nynjastbnjbjb 'contemporary' (nynja 'now'). These adjectives areusually definite in form.

24.84 Possessive suffixes are widely used: -j- (-ij- with monosyllabicstems) and -ov- go with twofold o-stems, -in- with most other stems, and-nj- largely with kinship terms:

-ov- jugovb Of the south wind'(/wg& 'south, south wind'; juzbskz Ofthe south'), fcitovb (kit* 'whale'), ienixov* (zenix'b 'bridegroom'),svpasovb and szpasiteljevb (s-bpas*, szpasiteljb 'savior'), zmbjevb(zmbjb 'dragon'); cesarjevb 'royal, of kings; imperial, of emper-ors^ cesarjb = cesarjbskv,pilatovbandpilastb (pilastaja 'Pilate'swife';37ρι7αίδ'Pilate')

-ij- Ibvijb Of the lions', Ibvovt Of the lion', Ibvbsk'b 'leonine'; kra v bjb(*krava 'cow'); rabijb 'slavish, servile' (= rabbskz, rab-b 'slave')

37 The long femine possive adjective from a man's name denotes his wife; this is theonly example in OCS, but the usage is securely attested in early Rus'.


-j-: ovbnjb(ovbnz 'ram'),ovb£b(ovbca 'sheep'),aveljb(avel?> 'Abel'),igumenjb (igumen'b 'hegumen, abbot'), inorozb (inorogz 'uni-corn'), solomonjb= solomonovb (solomom> 'Solomon')

-Ay-: gospodbnjb, vladyZtnjb (gospodb, vladyka 'lord'), druzbnjbjb(drug* 'friend'), vetrwjb (yetr-b 'wind')

-in-: julijanin'b (julijana 'Juliana'), bogorodicim> (bogorodica 'theo-tokos, mother of god'), zmbjinz (zmbja 'serpent'), igblinz (igs/a'needle'), neprijaznint (neprijaznb 'enemy'), solonim* devil's(sotoninbsk'b 'devilish'; sotona 'Satan'); osbl$tini> (osblg 'kid')

24.9 A number of important nouns contain the unproductive suffix -t-b(fem. i-stem): vlastb 'rule, domain' (~ oblastb; vlad-0+ 'rule'); slastb'pleasure, luxury' (slad'bk'b 'sweet'); vestb 'news' (νέά-e-ti 'know');povestb 'story, tale' (poved-e-ti 'recount'); swirbtb 'death' (mbr-ρίδ'die')38, nenavistb 'hate' (= nenavistbje, nenavidenbje; nenavide+ 'tohate'), zavistb 'envy' (= zavida, zavistv, zavide+ 'envy'), cbstb 'honor'(cbt- 'to regard, honor'); pestb 'stove; cave'; nostb 'night'; pomostb 'help'(pomog-0+ 'to help'); zabytb Oblivion (= zabytbje; zaby-ti 'forget').

38 The prefix s δ here is not 'with; down from' (IE *sun, §29.815) but IE A/M- 'good'(cf. Gk *esu- > eu- ευ, e.g. in εύαγγέλιον 'good message, gospel'). It survives ina few SI stems, including *s*-dorw- 'healthy', OCS stidraw, *s6-rgt-j-a 'encoun-ter; fate', OCS strata 'meeting' (cf. §16.7, 45.11), *st>-£fst- 'good part', *OCS

'happiness'.

NOTES ON SYNTAX - De Gruyter

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