FUTURE TENSE OF VERBS IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORICAL GRAMMAR, OLD SLAVIC AND MODERN UKRAINIAN LITERARY LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive philological study of the future tense of verbs in diachronic and synchronic perspectives. The object of analysis is the system of future tense forms in historical grammar, Old Church Slavonic, and Modern Standard Ukrainian. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to integrate historical grammatical analysis with a normative approach to describing tense forms, particularly simple, complex, and compound future tense forms. In Proto-Slavic, the future tense had no distinct morphological expression and was conveyed by present tense forms of perfective verbs and contextual markers. Old Church Slavonic developed analytical constructions with auxiliary verbs byti, khotěti, iměti, which later became the basis for compound future forms in Old Ukrainian. In Old Ukrainian, both simple (synthetic) and compound (analytical) future forms emerged, forming the foundation for the modern system. In Modern Ukrainian, the simple future tense is formed from perfective verbs, the complex future tense – via the particle -йму- (a transformation of няти), and the compound future tense – via the infinitive plus auxiliary бути. Choice of form depends on verbal aspect, stylistic context, and semantic content. The scientific novelty lies in the integrated comparison of historical and modern models of the future tense, including mechanisms of word-formation of future tense verbs, providing deeper insights into the development of the Ukrainian verbal system. Practical significance includes applications in historical grammar, Old Church Slavonic, Modern Ukrainian courses, and linguistic didactics.