Converbs from Speech Verbs in Narrative Perspective: the Case of Russian-Polish Translation

Abstract

The article discusses ways to translate сonverbs from Russian into Polish from the basic verbs of speech. The article is based on the Russian classical literature translations (novels by Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Mikhail Bulgakov) from the parallel Russian-Polish subcorpus of the National Corpus of Russian Language. The purpose of the study is to analyze the functional profile of converbs from verbs of speech and their semantic, pragmatic, and discursive functions in both the original text and the translation. The frequency of imperfect and perfect converbs (Rus. говоря – сказав and Pol. mówiąc – powiedziawszy) demonstrates the specific features of speech verbs in comparison with the other action predicates. In particular, we have noted a high percentage of non–finite forms, as well as a significant predominance of the imperfect converbs (Rus. говоря – Pol. mówiąc), which is especially characteristic of the Polish language. This may be due to the fact that predicates of speech have a background (including modus) function in literary texts. The corpus material additionally demonstrates the increased activity of the imperfect converb mówiąc (denoting simultaneity) in translations into Polish, which can replace the Russian perfect one сказав (denoting precedence). A comparative analysis of the textual functions of converbs in the original text and its translation allowed us to note a particular stability of such predicate indicator as finiteness, associated with its backgrounding function, while its aspectuality and the taxis sequence of events may vary. The loss of finiteness (even if the aspect is saved) always leads to certain changes in the narrative perspective, but the most notable effect of foregrounding occurs when the aspect changes simultaneously with the infinite status. This is the cases when the Russian imperfect converb говоря is replaced by the Polish personal perfect verb in the past tense powiedział. 

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation № 23-18-00260 «The discursive and pragmatic potential of the verb grammar in Russian in comparison with other Slavic languages and English», https://rscf.ru/project/23-18-00260/.

Received 16 August 2025

Revised 15 September 2025

Accepted 9 November 2025

For citation: Ostapchuk, O. A., 2025. Converbs from Speech Verbs in Narrative Perspective: the Case of Russian-Polish Translation. Slavic World in the Third Millennium, 20 (3–4), pp. 195–214. https://doi.org/10.31168/2412-6446.2025.20.3-4.09