Infinitive complement clauses in Old Russian

The paper describes how infinitive clauses attached by subordinating conjunctions functioned as sentential complements in Old Russian. Semantic and syntactic properties of predicates which governed this peculiar Old Russian construction as well as means of its connection to the matrix clause are discussed. It is shown that in Old Russian, infinitive clauses attached by subordinating conjunctions as sentential complements were more or less regularly governed by mental purpose predicates and commissives. The subject of the matrix predicate expressed by a verb of purpose or a commissive was referentially identical to the subject of the infinitive clause. Purpose predicates and commissives governed the same construction because they are semantically close: commissives serve to express purpose verbally through a speech act. In the late 13th century, the earliest examples are attested of demonstrative pronouns used as correlatives in matrix clauses that governed infinitive clauses attached by subordinating conjunctions. The use of correlatives allowed matrix predicates of different lexical- semantic classes to combine with infinitive clauses attached by subordinating conjunctions.