Словообразувателни тенденции в развитието на българския книжовен език през Средновексвието. (Кирило-Методиевите традиции в паметници от XIV в.) (= Кирило-Методиевски студии. Кн. 24)
Word Formation Tendencies in Bulgarian Language Development Through the Middle Ages. (Cyrillo-Methodian Traditions in Fourteenth-Century Manuscripts) (= Cyrillo-Methodian Studies. 24)

Author(s): Tatyana Mostrova
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, South Slavic Languages, Philology, Translation Studies
ISSN: 0205-2253
Published by: Кирило-Методиевски научен център при Българска академия на науките
Keywords: Deverbative nouns; Bulgarian literary language of the 14th-century; Word-formation;
Summary/Abstract: The monograph treats for the first time the problems of the deverbative nouns in translated and non-translated (original) fourteenth-century texts of medieval Bulgarian literature. The book consists of an introduction, three chapters and three appendices. The Introduction sketches briefly the transformations concerning the normalization and codification of the Bulgarian literary language of the 14th-century, including the problems of word formation as one of the most productive methods of its enrichment. The Introduction also makes a survey of other scholars’ findings about the language of the writers of Tãrnovo, about the compound words in the works of Patriarch Euthimius, as well as particular about word-formational types in his works and in translations from the 14th century. The study takes notice of the existing text critical researches on the Athonite redaction of the liturgical books: Evangelion, Apostolos (Acts and Epistles), Psalter, Triodion and Octoechos. On this basis are marked the perspectives that require a) a thorough systematic study of the word-formational categories and types in original (non-translated) and translated works of the 14th-century; b) a separate study of calquing Greek composita, and c) systematization of the most important word-formational tendencies in works that differ in theme, genre and style and reflect the language phenomena within the context of the codification and normalization of Bulgarian literary language of the 14th-century. The object of this work are the deverbative nouns, which represent one of the most important and well registered word-formational categories and types in the derivative system of the 14th-century Bulgarian literary language. The word-formational units (approximately 2000) are excerpted from seven voluminous translations characteristic for the fourteenth century literary activities: the Service Book (Liturgies) of Patriarch Euthimius, the Vita of St. Gregory Sinaites, the Collective Patericon, the Ladder of Divine Ascent of John Climacus, the Dioptra of Philip Monotropos, the Dialectica of John of Damascus, the Chronicle of Constantine Manasses, as well as from all the works of Patriarch Euthimius: Vitae, Encomia, Epistles, Service to Empress Theophano, the translation of the Liturgy of St. Jacob. In theme and style these works belong to different genres and represent a substantial part of the official liturgical and non-liturgical literature, relevant for Bulgarian medieval heritage of the 14th century. The translated works pertain to the corpus of texts, which were newly translated, or revised, replenished and renovated by the bookmen of Tãrnovo and Mount Athos. Methodologically the work follows the basic principles of functional and structural understanding of the word-formational analysis that were theoretically developed by M. Dokulil and elaborated in Czech linguistics. The author emphasizes on the fact that the basic theoretical ideas, used here, are particularly appropriate for the definition of the word-formational types and categories in the study of the works from the 14th-century. The study combines the synchronic functional and structural analysis with diachronic comparisons between the derivational categories and types in the sources from the Old Bulgarian period (9–11th centuries) and in the 14th-century literary language. The results are presented in tables. The deverbative nouns are distributed in four categories according to the onomastological and morphological motivation of their bases: Nomina agentis, Nomina actionis et resultativa, Nomina instrumenti, and Nomina loci. These categories are valid both for the monoradical and the compound formations. Composita are analyzed separately because of their specifics (in Chapter II) together with their Greek equivalents. Chapter I “Monoradical derivatives” and Chapter II “Composita” are constructed according to the same compositional scheme. The data is analyzed by derivational categories and within each category a classification is made of the word-formational types belonging to it. Within each group the productive types are displayed first, and then the less productive and the nonproductive ones. The conversional formations are given separately at the end. The data analysis takes into consideration the fact that a large number of the lexical and derivational units were coined in the process of translation. That is why Greek equivalents are given, if necessary, as well as variant readings from other copies of the translated works are provided. In these cases, aside from the individual word-formational meaning of the derivatives, some metaphorical uses are studied, which are related to certain context or to the translation of names. Attention is paid also to terminologically distinct derivatives, as well as to lexemes with specialized meaning. For the compound words a modified and specified scheme is proposed for the classification of the calqued compound nouns in order to better reflect the specifics of this class of lexemes. For all word-formational categories and types, a comparison is made with the data in the manuscripts from the Old Bulgarian period. Nineteen comparative tables are given, based on the data of the existing in scholarship reverse dictionaries. Comparative material is given from the original and translated works that emerged in Preslav, as well as from the works of Clement of Ohrid; the material is extracted for this purpose from 56 dictionaries and indexes. For each word-formational type the study specifies the derivatives that are not registered in the lexicographical repertories. Chapter III “Functional characteristic of the word-formational categories and word-formational types in the 14th-century sources examined” includes a characteristic of the word-formational types in works from the14th-century, which are different in theme, genre and style. This aspect was missing until now from studies of word formation, dedicated to separate periods in the history of Bulgarian literary language. The original and the translated works from the 14th-century are presented in a classification scheme with two major categories: official liturgical literature and official non-liturgical literature, with their specific subsections. The functional characteristic is related to the genre. It reflects the connection and the mutual dependence between pure word-formational processes and the stylistic peculiarities of the literary monuments, belonging to a certain genre category. It is of great importance, when defining the significance of particular word-formational types as elements of style for a given work, that one should take into consideration the extent of their productivity. The word-formational types with highest quantitative indicators receive additional stylistic marking and become characteristics of the literary style and the literary norm at the word-formational level. The Conclusion emphasizes the fact that the basic word-formational categories, which are characteristic for the Old Bulgarian literary language from the time of creation of the first Cyrillo-Methodian translations, are also kept during the14th-century, no matter of the genre and thematic diversity of the texts studied. A continuity is testified between the older tradition and the Middle Bulgarian literary language, in the matter of the word-formational level as well as on other levels. The study ascertains that, in regard to the composita, the degree of calquing and the use and distribution of the Slavonic types is directly related to the bookmen’s attitude to the original Greek text. The redistribution of the word-formational types is shown by genre and thematic marking, and not at the last place, by a stylistic one. The results of the research done give us the reason to make the following conclusions: 1. The Middle Bulgarian texts examined here manifest unity regarding the word-formational categories and the basic word-formational types. The word-formational type with highest productivity is the one with the suffix -ние. This type includes the half (1005 cases) of the excerpted over 2000 derivatives within the four word-formational categories. 2. Compared to the classical Old Bulgarian literary monuments, considerably increases the derivative potential of the word-formational type with suffix -тель both for the simplexes and for the compound nouns. Within the type most productive is the extended variant -итель. Also increases the activity of the extended variant -атель (-ятель). For both word-formational subtypes increases the number of derivatives, motivated by prefixed verbs, which are excerpted from literary works from the 14th-century and are not attested in the “canonical” Old Bulgarian manuscripts. 3. The word-formational type with suffix -тель absorbs some of the functions of suffix -ьникъ; the latter decreases its productivity more than twice. 4. In compound words, likewise in Old Bulgarian manuscripts, continues to dominate the word-formational type with suffix -ьць (it appears in 88 lexemes) while it is rarer in simplexes (28); for the compounds this type takes the third place for productivity after those with the suffixes -тель and -ьникъ. 5. The high frequency of the derivatives with suffixes -ние and -тель in the literary production of the fourteenth century can be interpreted as an indicator for their appurtenance to the word-formational norm of the Bulgarian literary language of the 14th-century. These most frequently used suffixes are connected with the literary style of the epoch – плетение словесъ, “word-weaving”, and therefore are stylistically marked. The Appendices include: 1. Alphabetical list of the excerpted deverbative nouns and their distribution by literary monuments; 2. Slavic-Greek and Greek-Slavic register of the composita; 3. Reverse dictionary (Index a tergo).

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