Theoretical Linguistics

Создание и использование исторических корпусов славянских письменных памятников

Creation and Using of Historical Corpora of Slavonic Manuscripts

  • Summary/Abstract
    The requirements for historical corpora of medieval texts 1) are determined by properties of the data and the historical-linguistic, textological and linguo-textological tasks to be solved; 2) and should be realized with the help of special tagging, processing procedures, query parameters and retrieval demonstrations. The corpus should a) have metadata concerning both texts and manuscripts, and involving both linguistic and analytical tagging; b) support the rendering of documents (facsimile and transcription), concordances, lists, and comparison of subcorpora data; c) simplify graphic-orthographic variation during data search and visualization; d) provide tools both for processing and searching linguistic material and its further analysis according to traditional methods; and e) support problem description and resolution by applying corpus methods that engage with the quantity, distribution, co-occurrence, and variation of linguistic units in big data arrays. The realization of these requirements is demonstrated on a subcorpus of three copies of chronicles (Laurentian, Hypatian, Radzivilovsky) from the historical corpus project “Manuscript” (manuscripts.ru).

Axiological Aspects of Concept “Justice” in the History of Bulgarian Language and Culture

  • Summary/Abstract
    The paper examines the semantic realizations and verbalizations of the concept of justice in the history of Bulgarian language and culture. It studies linguistic facts from 9th-11th century Old Bulgarian manuscripts and 17th century Modern Bulgarian damascenes. The system of words and phrases that present the concept of justice and its distribution in different cultural contexts are analyzed in relation to Christian ideas in the Middle Ages, the cultural situation in the 17th century and new ideas of the period before the National Revival. The most important feature of the concept of justice is the precept that God is always a fair judge. However, human behavior is dualistic: one can be just and righteous and abide by Christian requirements and another can be unjust and act against God according to his own interest.

New Developments in Tagging Pre-modern Orthodox Slavic Texts

  • Summary/Abstract

    Pre-modern Orthodox Slavic texts pose certain difficulties when it comes to part-of-speech and full morphological tagging. Orthographic and morphological heterogeneity makes it hard to apply resources that rely on normalized data, which is why previous attempts to train part-of-speech (POS) taggers for pre-modern Slavic often apply normalization routines. In the current paper, we further explore the normalization path; at the same time, we use the statistical CRF-tagger MarMoT and a newly developed neural network tagger that cope better with variation than previously applied rule-based or statistical taggers. Furthermore, we conduct transfer experiments to apply Modern Russian resources to pre-modern data. Our experiments show that while transfer experiments could not improve tagging performance significantly, state-of-the-art taggers reach between 90% and more than 95% tagging accuracy and thus approach the tagging accuracy of modern standard languages with rich morphology. Remarkably, these results are achieved without the need for normalization, which makes our research of practical relevance to the Paleoslavistic community.


Electronic Edition and Linguistic Annotation of Slavic Fragments


Терминология в палеославистике и создание сети между существующими цифровыми корпусами

Terminology in Palaeoslavistics and Set up Networking between Existing Digital Corpora


Text or Paratext? The Synopsis Apostolorum of Dorotheus of Tyre

  • Summary/Abstract

    The article discusses the Synopsis Apostolorum attributed to Dorotheus of Tyre, which purports to be a list of the Seventy Apostles. It gives a brief overview of the history of the text in Greek and Slavonic. In contrast to the Greek tradition, where it may be found in miscellanies of various types and also in manuscripts of the Apostolos which are provided with relatively extensive apparatus, in Slavonic it is found exclusively in Apostolos manuscripts. The redaction of the Synopsis, moreover, corresponds to the redaction of the Apostolos; there are discernible differences between the texts in each of the three Slavonic redactions in which it is represented. This indicates that it was translated as part of the accompanying text each time that the Apostolos itself was translated. This means that the Slavonic version (unlike the Greek) exists exclusively as paratext, but that this paratextual status, being dependent on the version, is not intrinsic to the work but a function of its history. This in turn points to the necessity of taking the paratext into account in any study of the text of the Bible.


Translating the Subtleties. The Philosophical Categories in the Symeon Collection (Symeon’s Miscellany

  • Summary/Abstract

    When we study translations from classical or Byzantine Greek into Old Bulgarian, we usually encounter two aspects of the question how: firstly, the how of the linguistic rendering, the how of the translation techniques used for one term or another. The second aspect is that of evaluating the how: shall we praise or, on the contrary, express regrets in respect of the translator’s work. Besides these two inherent aspects of the question how, a third one has arisen in the last three decades in Bulgaria. We have a long tradition of translating Old Greek and Byzantine texts into Old Bulgarian, but with respect to the philosophical and theological terminology used nowadays, are we obliged to follow the patterns of the past, the forms of the language, suggested by this millennium long tradition? With respect to the formation of the Bulgarian philosophical and theological language, the Symeon’s Miscellany is an extremely important source because from f. 222 to f. 237 a range of issues is discussed as answers to questions 29 and 30. This section of the writing includes clarification of terms, categories and concepts from the classical Greek and/or the Christian philosophy and demands profound interdisciplinary research.


Указатели названий и инципитов разделов и глав славянских списков Откровения Иоанна Богослова как поисковый аппарат и основа для изучения редакций текста 

Indexes of Names and Incipita of Sections and Chapters of the Slavonic Witnesses of the Revelation of John the Theologian as a Search Tool and a Basis for Studying Versions of the Text


Иерархическая модель гимнографической терминологии: дигитальное приложение

A Hierarchical Model of the Hymnographic Terminology: Digital Application


Название и самоназвание в номинативных комплексах рукописных книг XIV–XIX веков (на материале Отдела рукописей Российской государственной библиотеки)

Title and Self-title in Nominative Complexes of Manuscripts 14th–19th Centuries (Based on the Material of the Manuscript Department of the Russian State Library)


Проложные жития в средневековой южнославянской книжности

The Prologue Vitae in the Medieval South-Slavonic Literature


Textological Notes on De Christo et Antichristo by Hippolytus of Rome in the Greek and Slavonic Manuscript Tradition


Linguistics vs. Digital Editions: The Tromsø Old Russian and OCS Treebank

  • Summary/Abstract

    This article provides a description of the Tromsø Old Russian and OCS Treebank (TOROT), which, along with its parent treebank, the PROIEL corpus (built by members of the project Pragmatic Resources in Old Indo-European Languages), is the only existing treebank of Old Church Slavonic, Old East Slavic and Middle Russian texts. The TOROT is a part of a larger family of treebanks of ancient languages which all use the PROIEL open-source annotion web tool and annotation schemes. In this article we present principles and selected problems at several levels of analysis in the TOROT, and then briefly discuss ways that corpus linguists and edition philologists can fruitfully collaborate and complement each other.


Recycling the Metropolitan: Building an Electronic Corpus on the Basis of the Edition of the Velikie Minei Čet’i


Исторический корпус как цель и инструмент корпусной палеославистик

Diachronic OCS Corpus as an Object and an Instrument of Corpus Palaeoslavitic


Copies of Filip Stanislavov’s Abagar (Rome, 1651)

  • Summary/Abstract

    The article discusses the currently available information on the extant copies of Filip Stanislavov’s Abagar, printed in Rome by the Propaganda Fide in 1651. Starting from Božidar Rajkov’s 1979 edition, which lists fifteen known copies and their presumed location, the article offers information on several copies that are not reported by Rajkov. These include copies in London, Paris, and Uppsala, the latter in the form of a scroll. In addition, the current location of most of the earlier known copies has been verified, and new information on a number of copies is presented: for example, the copy formerly located in Brussels is currently preserved at the Bibliothèque Diderot in Lyon, whereas the two German copies seem to have been lost.


Re-Reading the Vita Constantini: the Philosopher in Constantinople


Scholia from Gregory of Nyssa’s Apologia in Hexaemeron in the Fourteenth-Century Slavonic Hexaemeron Collection


The Kievan Manuscript of Synopsis Basilicorum major


The Neapolitan Wall Calendar From a Medieval Slavic Perspective


The Fourteenth-Century Slavonic Version of the Longer and Shorter Rules of Saint Basil: Text of the Questions and Remarks

  • Summary/Abstract

    In this paper the text of the questions in the Longer Rules (Ὅροι κατὰ πλάτος, Regulae fusius tractatae, PG 31, 901–1052) and the text Shorter Rules (Ὅρoι κατ᾿ ἐπιτομήν, Regulae brevius tractatae, PG 31, 1052–1305, CPG II 2875 Asceticon magnum sive quaestiones) of St. Basil in their medieval Slavonic version are presented according to Zografou 3, a manuscript, dating from the 14th century. Some observations are made about the text of the questions on the basis of comparison on orthographical and lexical level between Zografou 3 and three other manuscripts: British Library Additional MS 27442, National Library in Sofia 1045 (Slepčenskij sbornik) and Zografou 126, dating from the same period. The quotations from the Scripture in the text of the questions are an object of special interest. The results of the comparative analysis give a good reason to suppose that Zografou 3 preserves the oldest text in comparison to the other three witnesses.


Motifs of Bulgarian History in Chronologia Magna and Satyrica Historia by Paulinus of Venice

  • Summary/Abstract

    This paper contains the first publication of printed excerpts related to Bulgarian history from two historical compilations by Paulinus of Venice. Chronologia Magna sive Compendium is presented according to lat. 4939, National library, Paris (14th c.) and Satyrica historia – according to Ms 445, Jagiellonian library, Cracow (15th c.). As the study and analysis of these manuscripts demonstrate, the compendia contain many accounts related to Bulgarian history – from the formation of the Bulgarian state in 681 up to the dynastic marriage of the Latin emperor of Constantinople Henry in 1213. All of the motifs from Bulgarian history, which Paulinus selected and included, are significant and fully aligned with the aims, which he had set himself in the prologue to Satyrica historia. These motifs are not merely a compilation of successes and failures, but are to form a body of well researched information, which will serve to edify posterity, based on the historical experience of the Roman and other kingdoms. Interpreting the evidence in Paulinus’ accounts in light of his stated approach, it appears that after their appearance on the European stage (681) the Bulgarians played the role of the defenders of Christian Europe (717) and the armament of God (811 г., 1205 г.). Their joining the Christian family of the European people is also recounted (865) through the example of the determination and beatitude of the Bulgarian ruler who defended the new faith even against his own son. Additionally, the Bulgarians are described as participants in events related to Byzantine history (705), as well as being adversely affected by the expansion of the unconverted Hungarians (907, 970, 1003). The accounts related by Paulinus are re-workings of earlier sources he was apparently well acquainted with. It can be argued that the present publication identified those sources with significant accuracy. The mistakes in the dating that occur in Paulinus’ compilations are often attributable to him connecting events to significant historical episodes or historical personalities, around which he builds a whole chapter or rubric of the narration. Sometimes the anachronisms are due to the sources he used. The study of the context, in which motifs related to Bulgarian history are placed allowed me to identify the sources of the material and the method of compilation employed by Paulinus of Venice. Last but not least, the analysis of the content of the motifs allowed me to establish that Dandolo mainly used information from Historia satyrica, but perhaps also consulted with Chronologia magna. He included in his chronicle almost all the motifs from the works of Paulinus, with the exception of the chronological note on the death of Nicephorus I Genik and the episode on Walter Senzavohir. Thus, the publication of the fragments from Historia satyrica and Chronologia magna clarified the origin of those passages in the chronicle of Andrea Dandolo about which D. Angelov wrote that they are connected to earlier historiographical sources but their origins are in need of further investigation.


Text and Context: Story about the Handsome Joseph in the Miscellanies with Mixed Content


A Short Note on the Glagolitic Ornament in Pamvo Berynda’s Triod Cvetnaya (Kiev 1631)

  • Summary/Abstract

    The article draws attention to two lesser known lines written in Glagolitic which are part of the Epilogue to Pamvo Berynda’s Triod Cvetnaja, printed in Kiev in 1631. Thanks to their typographic realisation, these two lines seem to have been mainly considered „an ornament“ or a „cryptographic“ element of the text in older literature. The article presents the Glagolitic text in standard Unicode encoding, so it becomes electronically searchable as such, along with a transliteration and a translation. It turns out that the Glagolitic text is nearly identical to the self-descriptions famout printer Pamvo Berynda had used before (although in Cyrillic). Another question put forth in the paper is the provenience of the actual printing types used in Kiev in 1631. A comparision shows that the letters look similar – but not identical – to printing type used around the same time Italy (Rome, Venice) or by Primož Trubar in the century before. The typographic quality of the Kievan types is, however, inferior.


Употребление причастий в Енинском апостоле

Use of Participles in the Eninski Apostol


Divine Chrysostom Liturgy from Manuscript D. Gr. 143 (AD 1368) in the Ivan Dujčev Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies


Hellenophilism in Georgian Literature as Cultural Orientation towards Byzantine Thought: Ephrem Mtsire‘s Cultural Orientation. Part I

  • Summary/Abstract

    This paper is part of a more extensive study on the medieval Georgian writer and translator Ephrem Mtsire who continued the traditions with his works that gradually acquired clearly Hellenophile character, thus beginning the formation of Hellenophilism as a trend in Georgian literature. Hellenophilism is not considered in this paper only in its narrower linguo-literary aspect which meant attaining the formal equivalence to the original. Hellenophilism is regarded here in its wider sense of special interest of non-Greek scholars towards the thinking processes of Byzantine culture of different periods. The study of both aspects reveals the positive influence of Hellenophilism on Georgian literature. Hellenophilism as cultural orientation begins with Ephrem Mtsire‘s literary activities.


Illuminated Manuscripts from the Family of the Hippiatrika Codex (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Phillipps 1538)

  • Summary/Abstract

    Two manuscripts discussed in this paper – the Homilies of Gregory the Theologian GIM Syn. gr. 63 (Vlad. 144) and the Four Gospels ÖNB Theol. gr. 240 – were examined for a special study, the results of which were published in 2009 and 2013. They both are unique examples of tenth-century Byzantine book illustration, remarkable for their unusual ornamental style. The study revealed the decoration, datable to the 940s, as a work of one and the same artist, conditionally referred to as the ‘Master of the Arabesque Style’. His ornamental style is unique in the history of the Byzantine manuscript book, only existing for a short period and evidently corresponding to the activity of this one illuminator. The manuscript Berlin, Phillipps 1538, which contains a Treatise on Horse Medicine, has appeared in many publications. However, its artistic decoration has not yet received the elucidation it merits. After a new research using colour reproductions it transpired that many of the Berlin codex folios were actually decorated by the same artist as the Vienna and Synodal manuscripts. The assumption that one artist devised the three manuscripts under scrutiny brings to the conclusion that the Vienna Gospels should be classed among manuscripts from the Imperial scriptorium and dated to the period from 945 to 959. With regard to the development of minuscule script, the scribe responsible for the Hippiatrika obviously was regarded as a distinguished calligrapher, whose earliest activities should be sought in the first quarter of the century. The archaic characteristics found in the codex are in accordance with the illumination. Therefore the Berlin manuscript should be used as a reference for the attribution of manuscripts from the second half of the tenth century.


Jan Stradomski. Rękopisy i teksty. Studia nad cerkiewnosłowiańską kulturą literacką Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego i Korony Polskiej do końca XVI wieku. [Krakowsko-Wileńskie studia slawistyczne. T. 10.] Kraków 2014

Jan Stradomski. Manuscripts and texts. Church Slavonic studies of the literary culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish crown to the end of the sixteenth century. [Cracow-Vilnius Slavic studies. T. 10.] Krakow 2014


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