Voprosy Jazykoznanija

Modern Circassian languages (Adyghe and Kabardian) have a threefold vocalic system based on the degree of openness: open /а/, close /e/, and mid /ə/. The article analyzes the distribution and phonotactics of Circassian vowels in CVCV syllabic chains. The disyllabic words of structure #CVCV# have the following options of vowel distribution: СaСa, СaСe, СeCa, СaСə, СеСе, СеСə, СəСа, СəСе, СəСə. In the sequence /V+V/, the vowel /e/ is always assimilated to /a/, and /ə/ is always assimilated to /a/ or /e/. As in Abkhaz, but unlike in Ubykh, in Circassian languages combinations of vowels are always realized as one vocalic sound (/V+V/ = [V]). Most authors do not question the existence of at least two phonemic vowels in Proto-Circassian. As for the late stage of Proto-Circassian, which can be called Common Circassian, in contrast to the two-term vocalism of the early language, a threefold system *a ~ *e ~ *ə appears to have developed at that point. The contrast *a ~ *e, thus, does not go deeper than the late Proto-Circassian (i.e., Common Circassian) period and is the result of phonologization of the positional allophonic contrast *[a] ~ *[e]. The so-called “rule of two open syllables” is discussed. On the basis of vocalic correspondences between Circassian languages, a three-term vocalic system of Common Circassian is reconstructed. The author also discusses exceptions and irregular vocalic correspondences.

The article analyzes the functioning of past passive participles (PPPs) in the preterit meaning used without auxiliary in seventeenth-century Russian on the data of private letters and the first Russian handwritten newspaper Kuranty. A grammatical interpretation of this use is proposed in the paper. In the course of the evolution of the old temporal system, the PPP started grammaticalizing and became a specialized form with preterit meaning and no obligatory expression of the subject. Different types of constructions with a PPP in this function (the PPP agrees with the subject or appears in the neuter form, the direct object being nominative or accusative) reflect different stages of the grammaticalization process, which was not accomplished in the history of Russian, but didreach the final phase in Polish.

The poetic works of Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin (1743–1816) published from 1777 to 1790 demonstrate a rather limited set of meters — mostly iambic (iambic tetrameters, аlexandrines, free iambic verse); the presence of trochees (exclusively tetrameters) is modest, and ternary meters are completely absent. The year 1791 was a turning point. In that year, Derzhavin published his polymetric cantata “To a Patron of the Arts”, which, although predominantly iambic, contains two dactylic passages. After that year, the poet often used iambic trimeter as well as trochaic tetrameter, which was inspired by his sudden interest in anacreontics. A year later, Derzhavin published his first version of “The Swallow” in The Moscow Journal, written in ternary trimeters with variable anacrusis, which was apparently the first experiment of this kind in Russian poetry. Soon afterwards, Derzhavin began to experiment with the dactylic tetrameter, resembling similar work by N. P. Nikolev, I. I. Dmitriev and N. M. Karamzin beginning in the late 1780s. Like those poets, he initially omitted one syllable in the second foot, and then two syllables, which led to the emergence of logoaedic structures in his poems. He uses these meters in their pure form (“Snowbird”), and also combined them in stanzas with syllabo-tonic meters (“Spring”, “On Atheists”, “To the Publisher of My Songs”, “The Rainbow”). He also created “logoaedized dolniks”, irregularly combining logoaedic lines with syllabo-tonic ones (“On the capture of Warsaw”, the sixth stanza of “The Encounter of Orpheus with the Sun”, “Autumn”). In the poems “On G. Ozerov, Who Dedicated ʻOedipus’ to Me” and “To Polyhymnia”, Derzhavin loosened the principle of isometric stanzas. One of the sources of inspiration for these experiments was Derzhavin’s enthusiastic and rather vague conception of the great rhythmic diversity of ancient poetry (primarily of Sappho’s and Horace’s poems) compared to modern European lyric poetry.

This paper presents the text of a 1941 work by Roman Jakobson, which has never been fully published, — his description of Vladimir (Waldemar) Jochelson’s Aleut materials (the materials, as well as Jakobson’s description, are stored at the New York Public Library). The publication is provided with a detailed commentary.

The concluding book by an eminent American linguist Wallace Chafe Thought-Based Linguistics: How Languages Turn Thoughts into Sounds presents an introduction to the central agenda of linguistics in the context of neighboring sciences. The present survey briefly explains the ideas presented in the six parts of the book. Chafe offers an original theory of the structure of thought and its step-bystep conversion, via semantics and grammar, to sound. Apart from basic issues in linguistic theory, Chafe also addresses adjacent questions, such as translation processes, peculiarities of literature, emotional components of thought, etc. The survey mentions several linguistic notions that are insufficiently covered in Chafe’s book. The final part of the survey offers general conclusions regarding Chafe’s contribution to linguistics.