(NE) STAT’+ INFINITIVE IN RUSSIAN: CORPUS EVIDENCE FOR MICRODIACHRONIC SEMANTIC CHANGES

The paper deals with the uses of «stat’ + infinitive» (≈ 'to begin to do') under negation in the language of the XVIII–XXI cent. The data of Russian National Corpus shows that this construction undergoes some notable semantic evolution within this short period. It seems to be the result of both the late expansion of the construction and semantic reasons. These semantic reasons are the following: 1) the general problem of the interaction of negation and inchoative, 2) the semantic features of the verb stat’ itself. The construction «stat’ + infinitive» is unexpectedly frequent under negation: it develops the meaning of «deliberate choice». This development is not uniform for the past tense and for the future tense. In early texts there are also interesting uses of «ne + stat’ + infinitive» with the meaning ‘to finish V’.