On demonstrative pronouns and the question of the article in 17th century Russian

This paper addresses the question of the definite article in 17th century Russian from the perspective of grammaticalization theory. Using two different chains of grammaticalization, I analyze the anaphoric and exophoric functions of demonstrative pronouns in the works of Avvakum, in the autobiography of Epiphany, in Opisanie tureckoj imperii and-for heuristic reasons-in Zitie i xozdenie igumena Daniila iz Russkoj zemli. My analysis shows that Epiphany's autobiography, Opisanie tureckoj imperii and Xozdenie igumena Daniila do not have anaphoric or exophoric articles. Avvakum's language, however, is different. While there is no evidence for anaphoric articles, there are indeed traces of exophoric articles ('article of definiteness') in some of his works.