Maria Ermolova (HSE University) On the grammaticalization of -no/-to-forms in the history of the Polish language in comparison with Middle Russian

I will examine the history of indefinite personal -no/-to-forms analyzing two Polish texts from different centuries (the Bible of Queen Sophia from the mid-15th century and “Roczne dzieje kościelne” from the early 17th century). I will analyze contexts with past passive participles (PPP) in a predicative position, where actions of the preterit type are described, as well as examples with PPP in the subjunctive mood – those in which contemporary Polish -no/-to-forms are used. Based on the conducted analysis, the following conclusions can be made about the stages of the formation of the -no/-to-form.The first stage in the evolution of PPP was the loss of the copula needed with the participial form: PPP begins to be used as a finite form of the past tense (on zabit instead of on był zabit). Concurrently, by grammaticizing and losing its participial properties, PPP gradually loses agreement with the semantic object, with which it originally agreed, and solidifies in the neuter gender form. Losing its nominal properties and retaining exclusively verbal ones, PPP in the form of -no/-to ceases to agree with the semantic object and begins to govern it (zabito go). The analyzed texts demonstrate how, throughout the 15th century and up to the early 17th century, there is a decrease in the frequency of contexts like on zabit due to an increase in the frequency of contexts like zabito go. During this period, in the paradigm of -no/-to-forms, intransitive verbs are also included, as the former PPP loses the characteristics of passive participles, which could only be formed from transitive verbs.