Full vs. Short Predicate Adjectives in Russian Spiritual Verses: Stylistic and Grammatical Perspectives
https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-10-123-144
Abstract
This article investigates the use of short and full predicate adjectives in Russian spiritual verses. The study presents comparative analysis results from three collections of Russian spiritual poetry: V. Varentsov's Collection of Russian Spiritual Verses; “The Dove Book: Russian Folk Spiritual Verses of the Eleventh to Nineteenth Centuries”; and “Spiritual Verses of Northern Russia.” It examines the quantitative distribution between short and full predicative adjective forms as well as their stylistic distinctiveness. Drawing on grammatical criteria for distinguishing between predicative short and truncated adjective forms — namely, their syntactic function that determines an important feature such as case inflection — the authors explore morphological and syntactic factors influencing the predicativity of full adjectives: subject expression mode, position relative to the subject, presence or absence of a copula verb. A grammatical pattern is identified: when an adjective and noun are distant from each other, the degree of predicativity increases for full adjectives, whereas it decreases with close proximity. Special attention is given to describing unique syntactic constructions involving possessive relationships with full predicative adjectives, emphasizing the syntactic status of these adjectives within communicatively organized utterances.
About the Authors
A. A. Kotov
Petrozavodsk State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Andrey A. Kotov, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics
Petrozavodsk
E. A. Mukhina
Petrozavodsk State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena A. Mukhina, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics
Petrozavodsk
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Review
For citations:
Kotov A.A., Mukhina E.A. Full vs. Short Predicate Adjectives in Russian Spiritual Verses: Stylistic and Grammatical Perspectives. Nauchnyi dialog. 2025;14(10):123-144. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-10-123-144
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