Unifikacja form czasu przeszłego w języku staroruskim na przykładzie „Kroniki Supraskiej”

Abstract

This article is to analyze the changes taking place in the past tense forms exemplified by one of 16th-century written texts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As the result of the process, the complex system of the Old Russian past tenses underwent simplification and reduction to one universal past tense. In the Suprasl Chronicle, parallel with substantial presence of imperfectum, aorist and plusqam-perfectum, the analytical form of perfectum is gradually taking over the function of universal past tense. In the original part of the text it is becoming the dominant form. The chronicle demonstrates the regression of the aforementioned tenses by using the wrong number and some instances of incorrect conjugation forms. These facts prove a growing tendency influencing the written language.