The relationship between l-forms and -ъš-/-vъš-participles in Old Russian

L-form used without auxiliary in the non-perfect meaning is traditionally regarded as a former form of the perfect tense, which had changed into the only past tense form in the live speech. However, the analysis of Russian chronicles has shown that contexts with such use of l-forms can be divided in several types. This article discusses one of these types, where the use of l-forms can be explained if we interpret them as used in the function of -ъš-/-vъš-participles. This hypothesis is confi rmed by several linguistic facts from the history of the Russian language, as well as the material of other Slavic languages. It will be shown that, apparently, we can talk about the functional synonymy of two participial formations: l-forms and -ъš-/-vъš-forms.