Patterns of dative case with meanings of ‘give’ and ‘do someone good’ in the Bulgarian dialects

Abstract

In Bulgarian dialects across the linguistic continuum, relict (residual) forms of the nominal declension continue to function, which is one of the most essential features of the Old Bulgarian morphosyntax. Nowadays, grammatical cases allow us to assume that there are a number of Bulgarian dialects that have preserved fragments of old grammatical systems. The methodology of the study was chosen at the model level and limited to one particular pattern of the dative case. This is the pattern of the dative case for purpose as an indirect object in verbs meaning 'give' and 'do good to someone'. The patterns are mainly two types: adverbial and adnominal. They are found primarily in the southeastern and southwestern Bulgarian dialects, which are the most archaic, but examples of their spread to the northwest are also given.

Keywords

• cases
• dative case
• Bulgarian dialects