ON INSTRUMENTAL SINGULAR CASE ENDINGS IN LERMONTOV’S PROSE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PREVIOUS TRADITION

The paper deals with the distribution of monosyllabic and two-syllable endings of Instrumental case -ой (-ей) // -ою (-ею) and -ью/-ию in Lermontov’s prose (A Hero of Our Time) compared to the previous tradition — A. Pushkin’s prose, A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky’s and N. Karamsin’s prose. Both the overall growth of frequency of monosyllabic endings as well as the individual peculiarities of Pushkin’s fiction, that distinguish it from the previous and subsequent traditions, and the individual features of Lermontov’s prose are examined. In Karamsin’s and BestuzhevMarlinsky’s prose two-syllable endings predominate with sporadic penetration of monosyllabic variants without their special distribution. A similar picture with a slight increase in frequency of monosyllabic forms is observed in Pushkin’s nonfiction prose, but in his fiction monosyllabic endings are introduced into constructions with several forms of Instrumental case to achieve a certain quantitative balance of syntagma, make it “lighter”. In Lermontov’s p rose monosyllabic endings of Ins sg are generally more common than in the previous tradition, although the parts of the novel are heterogeneous: “Bela” and “Taman”, close to the traditions of romantic prose, are more conservative, while in “Princess Mary” monosyllabic endings strongly dominate — as it can be assumed, Lermontov’s realistic prose is oriented towards the real language usage.