Diachronic evolution of Russian standard markers kako and aky

Abstract

Modern Russian uses the same marker kak ‘how’ to introduce the standard in equative and similative constructions. Historical grammars claim that the same polysemy is found in Old Russian, where three markers, kako, aky and jako, are used interchangeably. Based on the analysis of chronicles and documents of the 11^th–15^th centuries and queries in the Russian National Corpus, we show that it is not the case: the markers kako and aky are distributed functionally. In the 11^th–15^th centuries kako is predominantly used in specific contexts which we propose to call “implicit parameter equative” (IPE), while aky is the main standard marker in similatives. In the 16^th and 17^thcenturies kako expands onto similative and equative constructions. The 18^th century sees the complete loss of akyand the fossilization of the equative construction including the correlative pairs such as tak(oj)… kak, stol’… kak and others. As for the marker jako, it is a general subordinator that can be used in all the relevant contexts.