Word formative structure of words with the root lěp- in Old Russian written records

Abstract

System of derivational morphology of the Old Russian language has its own characteristics based on the origin of the book vocabulary, which consisted mainly of Proto-Slavic words and calques from Greek words. The main morphological way of word formation was the heritage of the Proto-Slavic language, which developed together with the formation of morphemes as a language unit. Active derivation took place during the formation of the Old Russian book vocabulary. During this period an uninterrupted process began the creation of book translations from the Greek into Church Slavonic. The ancient scribes made extensive use of Greek words calquing, which especially intensified the creation of compound words. Compound words were formed according to the models of Greek composites, but using Russian morphemes. As a result of this process, the lexical fund of the literary language was created, which included words with the root *lěp-. Such words are contained in ancient Russian written records (“Life of St. Sava the Sanctified”, composed by St. Cyril Skifopolsky, “The Life of St. Andrew the Fool”, “The Chronicle” by John Malalas, “The Chronicle” by George Amartol, “History of the Jewish War” by Josephus Flavius, Christianopolis (Acts and Epistles of the Apostles), Uspensky Сollection of XII–XIII centuries etc.). In the article will be considered the word formative structure of words with the root lěp-.