РАЗВОЈ ПРЕТЕРИТСКОГ ВОЛИТИВА У СРПСКОМ ЈЕЗИКУ (ИМПЕРФЕКАТ ГЛАГОЛА ХТЕТИ С ИНФИНИТИВОМ)
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRETERITE VOLITIVE IN SERBIAN (IMPERFECT OF THE VERB HTETI WITH INFINITIVE)
Author(s): Slobodan J. PavlovićSubject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, South Slavic Languages
Published by: Матица српска
Keywords: preterit future; habituality; counterfactuality; irrealis; avertive; Old Church Slavonic; Old Russian; Old Czech; Old Bulgarian; Balkan Sprachbund
Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the development of the periphrastic construction of the imperfect of the verb hteti (‘to want’) with the infinitive in the Serbian language from the earliest written records to contemporary dialects. As a result of the interplay between inherited Slavic tendencies and Balkan linguistic interferences, this expression of past volition gradually acquires secondary meanings in the domains of temporality (preterit future), aspectuality (habitual), and modality (counterfactual, irrealis, avertive). In the process of grammaticalization, the originally volitional verb undergoes desemanticization and subsequently phonetic erosion, until, on the periphery of the Serbian linguistic area, it is reduced through decategorization to a petrified marker of new non-volitional meanings.
Journal: Зборник Матице српске за филологију и лингвистику
- Issue Year: 68/2025
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 47-71
- Page Count: 25
- Language: Serbian
