THE SET EXPRESSION POSVATAT’ NEVESTY IN ONEGO EPICS

The study tested the set expression posvatat’ nevesty ‘to woo the bride’, noted in the records of Onega epics of the XIX-XX centuries as a dialect variant of a phrase posvatat’ nevestu. The author considers the formulas of matchmaking against the background of the functioning of the object genitive in the Onega epics of the last centuries and in the Onega dialects of this period; he sees the reasons for the dialect use of the genitive case as the direct object in the conservation of the old variable government of the genitive/accusative case in verbs of thought, speech, specific physical action and others, and in the presence of reflexes of the ancient supin (poiti lovit ryby), wich is more obvious in epics and less noticeable in dialects. The dependence of the object case on the structure of the verbal component is a feature of Onega dialects and epic syntax. In the history of the language the verb posvatat’ is not noticed with genitive object, and in the epic texts it is regularly depended on the verb of movement, thus the form of verb component determines the object case. The study takes into account the peculiarity of the territory of dialects bordering on foreign dialects. It is suggested that the influence of Finnish dialects, which are characterized by the variability of the control of the object cases — the only grammatical means of expressing the completeness/incompleteness of the action (accusative/ partitive), contributes to the conservation of the variable verb government in Onega dialects. The previously expressed assumption about the calque of the folklore idiom kosia tytärtä ‘to woo the bride’ is daubtful. The author comes to the conclusion about the decisive role of the structure of the verbal component in the choice of the genitive case of complete object in the folklore construction prishol svatat’ nevesty.