Parameters of meaning governing the use of short participles in the Russian chronicle for verbs of motion

The article describes the results of an investigation of the parameters governing the choice between finite verb forms and short participles of the motion verbs in the Novgorod I chronicle (the younger redaction). The use of short participles in the chronicle is shown to be conditioned in many cases by discourse features typical of backgrounded predicative units. However, there is no absolute correspondence between the criteria for choosing a participle construction and the criteria for the backgroundness of the predicative unit. It is also suggested that the peculiarities of the use of motion verbs in this chronicle reflect the interaction between the tradition of exemplary texts and the spoken language.