The article deals with the range of the purpose conjunctions in the Bulgarian language on different stages of its history: in Old Church Slavonical / Old Bulgarian, in the Middle and Modern Bulgarian stages and in the modern language. The system of conjunctions in Bulgarian has dramatically changed. Old Bulgarian conjunctions, marked with polysemantic meaning, are not presented in the modern language. Their place has been taken by the conjunctions, which were formed much later – in the Modern Bulgarian period. Among them we see conjunctions, specialized for the expression of purpose meaning. One of the most frequently used conjunctions in modern Bulgarian is conjunction da, which, if compared to its Old Bulgarian state, has widened its range of usage as a subordinate conjunction as a result of a gradual displacement of the infinitive foms by the so-called da-condtruction – a syntactically connected combination of da and the verb in Present tense. All the modern conjunctions of purpose in the Bulgarian language have been formed on the basis of da: conjunction za da, specialized for the expression of purpose, as well as conjuctions che da, ta da, (za) da ne bi da, that contribute additional semantic traits into the sentence. On the basis of literary texts semantic and structural features of the purpose sentences in modern Bulgarian are briefly represented, most of all the very characteristics that are specified by the presence of da-construction. It is shown that in the purpose clauses – even in those that are joint by the complex conjunctions – da-construction imposes modal and temporal restrictions on the form of the predicate of the subordinate clause. As a rule, the verb is in the Present tense and Indicative mood. Rarely forms of Imperfect or Narrative mood can be seen. Conjunction-particle da, even as a part of complex conjunctions, preserves in the modern language structural features, typical for da-construction. Da tends to be by the verb which results in the position of certain elements of the subordinate clause in front of da and thus in the separation of the parts of most of the complex conjunctions, except za da.
Translated title of the contributionDevelopment of the conjunctions of purpose in the Bulgarian language: from Old Bulgarian to the modern state
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)407-419
Journal ВЕСТНИК САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА. ЯЗЫК И ЛИТЕРАТУРА
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

    Research areas

  • Bulgarian language, Old Bulgarian, conjunctions of purpose, clauses of purpose, da-constructions

ID: 40568990