One of the grammaticalization paths for past passive participles in Slavic: Evidence from Polish and Russian

The article examines the evolution of the past passive participle (PPP) into an impersonal finite past-tense form in Polish and (Old) Russian. It analyzes the types of PPP contexts attested in the history of Russian and Polish PPP constructions associated with the emergence of the impersonal form in -no/-to. The comparative analysis of data from the two languages leads to the conclusion that PPPs in Polish and Russian underwent the same stages of grammaticalization. The diachronic evidence from Polish helps clarify several issues concerning the historical development of PPPs in Russian, while the Old Russian material, in turn, contributes to our understanding of the corresponding developments in Polish.Three major stages can be identified in the grammaticalization of PPPs in both languages. The first stage involved the loss of the past-tense auxiliary, whereby the PPP ceased to function as a participle and became a finite past-tense form. Subsequently, as it continued to lose its nominal properties, the PPP ceased to agree with the semantic object and became fixed in the neuter singular form. At this stage, the semantic object occurred in the nominative case. Although this stage is attested in the Old Russian material, it is not found in the Old Polish data. The final stage of grammaticalization was characterized by the complete loss of the PPP’s nominal characteristics. As a result, the semantic object came to be expressed in the accusative case. In other words, the PPP began to govern the object rather than agree with it. Examples illustrating this final stage are extremely rare in Old Russian, in contrast to Polish, since the process leading to the emergence of the new impersonal form was never fully completed in Russian.