ADVERBS IN -МА (-МYA) IN RUSSIAN: SEARCH FOR A DERIVATIVE WORD

Abstract

In modern Russian there is a group of adverbs ending in -ma (-mya), which are found in classical and modern prose, dialects and colloquial use (stoimya, sidmya, lezhmya, etc.). The authors note a number of features of their use. Firstly, there may be variations in their formalization (in -ma, -mya, -mi, -my, -me) and accent, and there are also cognate adverbs that coincide in meaning. Secondly, when it combined with verbs, they often repeat the verbal root and form stable phrases, the so-called etymological fi gures (fi gura etimologica) – a traditional technique for the Old Russian language. Thirdly, these adverbs act as adverbial modifi ers in the function of in tensifying the action designated by the verb. Indeed, the majority of verbs with which these adverbs interact denote actions capable of exhibiting varying degrees of intensity. In the article, the authors examine the various points of view of linguists of the past and present on the problem of the formation of these adverbs, since their origin still remains unclear. The authors collected and analyzed scientifi c literature devoted to these adverbs, their frequency characteristics, established the time of the fi rst fi xation in texts and off ered a systematic view of the formation of forms ending in -ma (-mya). In the article the authors restore the initial forms of names, as well as the original meaning of comparison and similarity of the instrumental case forms. The point of view on the ad verbialization of the forms of the instrumental case of the dual number of the name as a way of forming adverbs ending in -ma (-mya), expressed at one time by A. A. Shakhmatov, noted by V. V. Vinogradov and refl ected (but not always consistently) in the “Russian Etymological Dictionary” by A. E. Anikin is supported and argued.