The specifics of the use of the pronoun pair sei — onyi in the works of M. V. Lomonosov

Abstract

Based on the National corpus data of the Russian language and especially on Mikhail Lomonosov’s texts, the article focuses on a pronoun pair sei — onyi. In the Church Slavonic and in the Middle Russian language these pronouns were used in the deictic and substitution (anaphoric) function. The pronoun pair sei and onyi in a phrase or period indicates a juxtaposition or opposition of objects and these pronouns are used in a substitution function. Closer attention to these pronouns in Lomonosov’s works and translations makes it possible to notice one feature that is not fixed in dictionaries and grammars, the peculiarity of using this pair of pronouns in anaphoric function: sei replaces the last (nearest) mentioned object and onyi replaces the first mentioned one. Rare examples of such use are also found in the translated texts of the Church Slavonic and Middle Russian corpus. Similar examples are found in the body of Lomonosov’s texts not only in his translated texts, but also in his self-translations and own Russian works (in prose and poetry). As the examples illustrate, the use of the pronominal pair sei — onyi in Lomonosov’s texts was influenced by the pronominal pair hic — ille in the classical Latin. By borrowing and developing the Latin model of pronouns Lomonosov sought to combine the Russian language with the Latin element in order to show the relationship of the Russian language with the ancient one and their cultural equality.