On Old Russian verb iměti, possessive constructions and complex future with imamь / imu in early East Slavic texts

The paper examines the use of the verb iměti in connection with other possessive constructions and future with auxiliaries imamь / imu in early Old Russian chronicles and non-literary texts. It is shown that in colloquial Old Russian iměti wasnʼt common, possession was expressed by byti-construction with combination u + Gen. in the role of possessor. In the 11th–12th centuries chronicles, the use in combination with abstract nouns (periphrastic expressions such as ljubъvь iměti, gněvъ iměti etc.) is the most frequent. It may be supposed that the meaning of concrete possession ‘habere’ of iměti wasnʼt developed in East Slavic dialect area of early period. The modal constructions “imamь + infinitive” based on possessive semantics of iměti ‘habere’ werenʼt developed in Old Russian dialects either — they are specifi cally bookish (of South Slavic origin). The constructions “imu + infi nitive”,
which were later grammaticized to future tense in some East Slavic dialects, were developed from the meaning of the verb jati ‘take’, ‘get’.