On Perfect Tense Forms in Old Slavic Apostolos (on Material of 12-14th Centuries Manuscripts)

The article presents some results of the research project on evolution and functions of Old Russian verb, offering data on perfect tense forms in Old Russian Apostolos manuscripts of the 12-14th cen. Relevance and originality of the topic are determined by present debates on semantic and functional status of Slavic perfect tense and by the lack of sufficient knowledge about this category representation in Old Slavic Apostolos interpretations. Apostopos Christinopolitanus of the 12th cen., Tolstovskiy Apostolos of the 14th cen., and Chudov New Testament of the 14th cen. are in the focus of attention. Several methods of analysis were applied by the author: overall excerpting, statistical, collation of manuscripts referring to different time periods and their comparison with the Greek origin. The following tendencies were revealed: frequent usage of the 3 Sg. perfect forms without link verbs that points to 'russification' in manuscripts; widely used variations in the forms of perfect and aorist, which indicates to semantic generalization of perfect tense category; possibility to deliver Greek present with the Slavic perfect form and Greek perfect forms with the Slavic present ones, and possibility of Slavic present forms deliver the meaning of Greek perfect ones, that are aimed at showing logical links between past and present in the semantic meaning of the perfect tense form; participation of perfect forms in grammatical transformation of the context determined by some occasional factors