"The lives of Constantine and Methodim" and expressing possibility

Abstract

The article examines the means of expressing modality in the Old Church Slavonic Lives of Constantine and Methodius. The purpose of the study is to analyze linguistic constructions expressing possibility, intention, wish, and purpose in these hagiographic texts. The author employs a linguistic analysis of material drawn from editions of the Lives of Constantine and Methodius, supplemented by comparisons with Greek and modern Bulgarian. The study demonstrates that modality in Old Church Slavonic was expressed through morphological, lexical, and syntactic devices, primarily by means of the infinitive, constructions of the dativus cum infinitivo type, and structures involving the particle da. Particular attention is devoted to the functions of the infinitive and the supine as equivalents of Greek infinitival constructions of purpose, as well as to the gradual replacement of these forms by da-constructions. The author emphasizes that the development of these structures reflects both the influence of Greek and internal developments within the Slavic languages. The modal constructions found in the Lives constitute important evidence for the evolution of Slavic syntax and the formation of distinctive features characteristic of the Balkan linguistic area.