The development of aspectual semantics in Yiddish passive voice markers.

The paper analyses the aspectual and temporal semantics of the two Yiddish passive constructions in past forms: vern. PRF + V.PCTP и zajn.PRF+ V.PTCP. The tendency to apply the markers gevorn and geven outside passive voice is revealed for the first time. Their functioning in Yiddish is described. Gevorn is used in Yiddish as a marker of perfectivity, while geven tends to be a marker of retrospective shift and starts to take part in building the active forms of irrealis at later stages of the developments of Yiddish. The nature of these phenomena is discussed apart: they are interpreted as an influence of language contacts on Yiddish or as a intrastructural innovation.