Старобългарските релативи в исторически аспект
Old Bulgarian Relative Pronouns a Historical Perspective

Summary/Abstract: The article studies the substitution of relative pronouns and adverbs of the anaphorical type (such as ёже, еже, яже) by relative pronouns of the interrogative *kw- type, and their further extension by adding the particles -то and -се. Following the records of classical old Bulgarian manuscripts and early Bulgarian translations (based on 11th–12th century copies), the article traces the beginning stage of this process in the context of the overall Indo-European tendency. It is argued that the reasons behind this transformation are the reduced function of -ёже as a relative pronoun as well as its development of an indeterminate meaning, which brought about the functional and semantic closeness between the two pronominal roots (relative and interrogative).

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