Khrapko-Magala Mariia

Particle де in the Russian clerical language of the late 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

The paper examines the usage of the particle де in the history of the Russian clerical (business) language of the late 17th and 18th centuries. The study draws on the material of documents which belong to the spheres of state record-keeping (legal, investigatory and regulatory) and private business correspondence. Differences in the usage of this particle depend on the type of the record as well as on the time of its drawing up. The particle де was widespread at the end of the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th century. In this period it is used in legal and regulatory records to mark another person’s speech. This phenomenon is registered alongside frequent introduction of another person’s utterance by means of an asyndetic clause. However, by the end of the 18th century the situation changes signifi cantly and the frequency of this particle in legal record-keeping decreases sharply. In private business correspondence, a different situation is observed. Both at the beginning and the end of the 18th century, subordinate clauses are prevalent in introducing another person’s speech, and the occurrence of де is not particularly prominent. This may be due to the fact that in this period the particle де functions as an element of specifically clerical language. Its occurrence in private correspondence in the function of a renarrative marker might have been caused by this particular sphere of the language. Considerable changes that took place in keeping records affected the usage of де as well. Its function of a renarrative marker lost its significance in the course of the development of the clerical language. Its occurrence gradually decreases, though this particle has not vanished without a trace and continues to be used in written language, but to a lesser extent.

Keywords

history of the Russian language, clerical language, particle де, another person’s speech, evidentiality.

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Khrapko-Magala Mariia