Erofeeva I.V. Lexical Categorization of the Concept of Time in the Old Russian Chronicle Text
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.2.9
Irina V. Erofeeva
Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Department of the Russian Language and Methods of Its Teaching, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6702-9129
Abstract. The most important feature of the ancient Russian chronicles is the time parameters of the historical events described, therefore, a special place in them is occupied by a lexical-semantic group of words with temporal meaning. The aim of this study is to examine the semantic-cognitive, pragmatic, and derivational features of nouns with temporal meaning in Old Russian chronicle texts. Nouns with temporal semantics were a significant mechanism for representing the binary world framework of the Russian Middle Ages. Most of them possessed a set of interre- lated meanings, allowing us to identify events both in earthly, mundane life and in the eternal, otherworldly realm. The opposition between the divine and the earthly was most clearly expressed by the lexemes врѣмя (time) and вѣкъ (century) and their derivative adjectives врѣменьныи (temporal) and вѣчьныи (eternal). The most frequent lexeme with temporal semantics was the word лѣто (summer), which had the ancient meaning of 'year' and was used to implement the basic principle of describing events in chronicles – by years (by summers). The lexemes дьнь (day) and мѣсяць (month), used to indicate specific dates or the duration of military or historical events, were also highly frequent. The nouns дьнь (day) and недѣля (week) were used in compound names of religious holidays. Constructions with temporal lexemes in chronicles were distinguished by schematism, conventional semantics, and duplication of grammatical forms.
Key words: temporality, chronicle, Middle Ages, etymology, world framework, lexical-semantic group of words.
Citation. Erofeeva I.V. Lexical Categorization of the Concept of Time in the Old Russian Chronicle Text. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2026, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 105-117. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.2.9
Lexical Categorization of the Concept of Time in the Old Russian Chronicle Text © 2026 by Erofeeva I.V. is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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