The spelling of adverbs formed from ordinal numbers in the 18th-19th centuries

The subject of the study is the writing of adverbs formed from ordinal numerals in the Russian language during the 18th–19th centuries, focusing on their hyphenated, linked, and separate forms. The object of the research is Russian orthography of the 18th–19th centuries in its historical development, as represented in dictionaries, grammars, and texts from the subcorpus of the National Corpus of the Russian Language. Special attention is paid to identifying the factors that influenced changes in spelling norms, primarily addressing the question of why the hyphenated form of the studied adverbs became established. A detailed analysis is provided of the first rule for the spelling of adverbs formed from ordinal numerals in the 18th–19th centuries, as formulated in N.I. Grech's grammar of 1827. Compliance with this rule has been checked in the usage represented in texts from the 18th–19th-century subcorpus of the National Corpus of the Russian Language. The study was conducted using the following methods and approaches: semantic and contextual analysis methods, an inductive method of material analysis, a linguistic and cultural analysis method, as well as methods of targeted sampling from lexicographic sources and illustrative materials, extralinguistic interpretation of language facts, and frequency-statistical characterization. The novelty of the study lies in the investigation of the establishment of the hyphenated form of adverbs formed from ordinal numerals over time during the 18th–19th centuries. A significant contribution by the authors to the development of the topic is a diachronic description of the main stages of the formation of the orthographic norm for these words. Based on the materials from the texts of the subcorpus of the National Corpus of the Russian Language and dictionaries, it was concluded that the number of hyphenated spellings of the specified group of adverbs gradually increases. After a prolonged period of variability in the second half of the 19th century, a fairly stable usage emerged, implying a semi-linked form for adverbs formed from ordinal numerals. The increase in hyphenated spellings, alongside a noticeable decrease in linked forms, cannot be explained by the grammatical process of adverbialization, as many adverbs were already being written as linked at that time. The choice of a semi-linked form is evidently determined by the significant degree of semantic separation of the base in such formations.