MODAL COPULAR VERB WITH THE MEANING OF DISCOVERING IN THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

The article reviews the history of Russian copular verbs obrestis', najtis', javit's'a and okazat's'a with the common meaning of discovering. Their formation followed two basic models: verbs obrestis' and najtis' formed on the basis of the passive form meaning 'to be found, revealed' and verbs javit's'a and okazat's'a - on the basis of the reflexive form meaning of self-manifestation ('to show, to reveal himself '). All these copular verbs with the meaning of discovering exhibit a number of common features. They are characterized by a broad distribution in two-part nominal sentences: they are able to combine with short and long forms of adjectives and participles, comparative grade, with several forms of the noun. Unlike other copular verbs, they generally do not tend to narrow their distribution. Moreover, they develop the ability to be used as predicates of propositional attitudes (javilos' / nashlos' / okazalos', chto), locative, possessive predicates, etc. The article assumes that in developing the meaning of discovering, these copular verbs semantically get closer to the verb byt', which influences the expansion of their distribution properties.