Russian annalistic text as object of the historical and stylistic analysis

The article considers some stylistic peculiarities of the Russian annals evidence due to interpration of the Tale of Bygone Years (the lists of Laurentian and Hypatian Chronicles). Being heterogeneous in terms of both content and structure the Russian annals reflect the process of shaping of the Russian language stylistic system. The research undertaken has revealed some lexical and stylistic phenomena attributed to the annals. Following the analysis of the semantics of lexical units and their application it has been stated that the fragments of the annals under research point to development of the figurativeness of the Russian language and synonymic ties between lexical units. The choice of a word out of synonyms as well as their use within the limited context of semantically similar units indicate the annalist’s intention to cover the required shades of meaning and his attitude to the documented events. Pursuing the same aim the author uses appraisive linguistic units. The use of formulae comparable to modern phraseological units is considered as a remarkable stylistic peculiarity. Pleonasm, repetition, antithesis, creeping of precedent names and quotations are reckoned among the most common stylistic devices attributed to the annals. Pleonasm and repetition are used in order to emphasize the emotional tone of a statement, to underline items of particular importance. As for antithesis it could have both common structure (in case when semantically opposing linguistic units are used in a row) and complicated structure (if extensive statements prove to be opposed to each other). The appeal to precedent texts and names enabled the annalist to cite authority, while supporting his judgement.