The participle constructions with dative case in Contra Legem Sarracenorum

The usual set of meanings of the dative absolute in Slavonic literary culture is traditionally restricted to adverbial, however, as it was shown by I. M. Belorussov, D. Worth and A. R. Corin, in some cases this syntactic device could indicate the complement of verbs of thinking, speaking and perceiving information. This unusual syntactic device was found, along with other peculiar dative absolutes, in sources of East Slavic origin. Nevertheless, these observations went almost unnoticed by scholars due to the fact of their extreme rarity, and some of these examples’ dubious nature. This article provides cases of similar usage of such DA in other texts, describes its nature and places it within the grammar system of the language. The main source for these examples is a work translated from Greek presumably around the middle of the 15th century — “Skazanije o sracinskoj vere” where such device is used actively.