ON NOMINAL FORMS IN TOLSTOVSKY SBORNIK FROM THE 13th CENTURY (NLR, F. P. I.39)

This paper focuses on nominal forms found in the 13th-century Old Russian manuscriptTolstovsky Sbornik. The author examines the correlation between archaic and newer forms with respect to the following grammatical categories: gender, animacy, and case. There is a peculiar competition of archaic and new features in the category of gender, namely the full agreement of the nouns starěišina and vojevoda and their adjectives in the feminine plural, even though these nouns refer to males. In the category of animacy, there is an archaic homonymy of nominative and accusative forms in masculine nouns which sometimes refer to a male person. In general, the usage of case forms reflects the Church Slavonic literary standard. Some innovations are, however, present: the acceptance of the *ā-type ending by *jā-type feminine nouns; a Loc. Sg. masculine form with the -u end- ing; and certain others. The variations in Cyril of Turov’s works in this collection can be explained either by syntactic or rhetorical factors. More thorough analysis and more precise results will be possible after the manuscript is published digitally on the “Manuscript” portal (http://manuscripts.ru/mns/portal.main?p1=73).