Modal and temporal characteristics of treaty genre in synchrony and diachrony

The article develops the ideas of K. A. Timofeev about the transposition of aspectual and temporal verb forms and the ideas of V. M. Zhivov about the interpretation modes in legal codes. It was shown in the article how the interpretation mode typical for the legal acts of different chronological periods influence the temporal forms transposition. To make the analysis we chose the texts of modern treaties as well as the fragments of «Russkaya Pravda» and other legal acts of the agreement type dated back to XIV-XVII centuries. We define the specific features of modern treaty genre that has particular grammar «skeleton» with real (potential) mode, temporal sphere referring to the future (no matter what verb forms are being used - the both contracting parties are sure about the fulfillment of the treaty terms). The treaty has the specific reference point for the action mentioned that is the time of its signing. All actions listed in the treaty are to be carried out after that time. The reference point of the treaty interacts with the prototypical reference point of the temporal category, the moment of speech. The special interpretation mode predetermines the selection, dominance and modification of the deictic means of language that include tense and mode. The current paper outlines the features of forming of such interpretation modes typical for the ancient legal codes and agreement charters of later period. These texts give witness not only to the stability and clichéd character of the business documentation preserved until later time the forms lost in the other types of texts. The texts show building the specific grammar skeleton that enables us to argue about the transposition of aspectual and temporal forms without special lexical markers. The typical semantic sphere being the environment for expressing the potential mode of real condition in treaty is the sphere of future tense. The modern treaties use the compound and simple forms of future tense, but the usage of present tense forms with the meaning referring to future is the most typical. The other possible forms are the past tense forms with the meaning referring to future and future interpretation of non-finite verb forms. It’s noted that the ancient forms of compound future tenses considered as lost keep living and functioning in the genre of treaty. The modern treaties give evidence that the past tense forms have both temporal and taxis functions. The interpretation mode predetermines the selection of verb forms, their semantic interpretation, transposition as well as the limitations in form usage.