Periphrasen mit Futurreferenz in den Vesti-Kuranty

The development of imperfective future constructions in the Russian language is a complex
topic. Based on the findings of Moser and Penkova, this article examines periphrastic
constructions with (possible) future time reference such as učʹnu + infinitive, budu + infinitve,
stanu+ infinitve, imu + infinitve, imamʹ + infinitve and iměju + infinitve in the Vesti-Kuranty,
an important corpus for research on the Russian grammar of the 17th century. A quantitative
approach with focus on syntactic contexts and qualitative remarks regarding on modal and inchoative
connotations reveal help to shed a new light on this topic in Late Middle Russian
grammar. Attention is paid to the special nature of Vesti-Kuranty texts as translations. The
study shows that budu + infinitve is among the most frequent periphrases expressing future
reference in the Vesti-Kuranty, while other constructions are either in decline or have no perspective
as a grammaticalized future reference for other reasons.