Development of the Conjunctions of Purpose in the Bulgarian Language: From Old Bulgarian to Contemporary Bulgarian

Abstract

The article focuses on a range of the conjunctions of purpose in the Bulgarian language throughout its history: in Old Church Slavonical / Old Bulgarian, Middle and Modern Bulgarian and Bulgarian language today. The system of conjunctions in Bulgarian has dramatically changed. Old Bulgarian conjunctions with a polysemantic meaning are not presented in the modern language. They were replaced by the conjunctions which were formed much later — in the Modern Bulgarian period. Among them are conjunctions of purpose. One of the most frequently used conjunctions in modern Bulgarian is a conjunction da, which, if compared to its Old Bulgarian variant, has widened its range of usage as a subordinate conjunction as a result of a gradual displacement of the infinitive forms by the so-called da-construction: a syntactically connected combination of da and the verb in the Present Tense. All the modern conjunctions of purpose in the Bulgarian language have been formed on the basis of da: a conjunction of purpose za da and conjuctions che da, ta da, (za) da ne bi da, which contribute additional meanings to the sentence. Based on the literary texts, the article reveals semantic and structural features of the sentences of purpose in modern Bulgarian, especially those with the da-constructions. It is shown that in the clauses of purpose — even in those that are joint by the complex conjunctions — da-construction imposes modal and temporal restrictions on the form of the predicate of the subordinate clause. As a rule, the verb is in the Present Tense and Indicative Mood. The forms of the Imperfect or Narrative mood can be seen rarely. Conjunction-particle da, even as a part of complex conjunctions, retains some structural features typical for da-construction in the contemporary language. Da tends to accompany the verb, which results in the position of some elements of the subordinate clause in front of da and thus in the separation of the complex conjunctions, except za da. Refs 28.