Combination of Russian verb inflectional categories in spoken and written texts

The article aims to determine the frequency of meanings of inflectional categories of personal verb forms (tense, person, number and gender) in oral and written texts, as well as the compatibility of these grammatical meanings. The material for the study comprised 48 oral and 48 written textsdescriptions of plot and nonplot images. 2133 verbal word forms were selected using continuous sampling and further distributed into inflectional categories using the information system “Semograph” (tools – Field analysis, Semantic Map). As a result, it was found that the form of the text affects the manifestation of personal verb form categories. Firstly, there were more past tense, 3d person and the feminine forms in written texts compared to oral texts while present tense, 1st person and the masculine forms were more frequent in oral texts. Secondly, personal verb forms were most often combined within the same word form. Combinations of (i) the present or past tense with the singular and (ii) the present tense and the singular with the 3d person were most frequently observed in both forms.