Verbal Series as a Method of Semantic Actualisation (The Case of the “Life of Stephen of Perm”)

The material for the study is a well-known text created in the style of “word weaving” at the end of the 14th century by the Russian hagiographer Epiphanius the Wise. The object of the study is text series consisting of verbal formulas with key semantically similar words; the subject is intra-row semantic relations between key words, as well as formulas as components of series. The use of the term “verbal series” is substantiated. A structural and semantic analysis of verbal series with key words characterising pagan deities from a Christian point of view is carried out. Lexical-semantic, grammatical, word-formation features of component relations within verbal series are described. A conclusion is made about the gradation “genus” — “kind” as the basic principle of constructing the considered verbal series. Formal and substantive methods of concretisation of the actual semantic feature are revealed.