Dolgopolova L. Formation and Evolution of Infinitive in German (8th – 20th centuries)

This research focuses on the study of structural and functional properties of German infinitive viewed from the historical perspective. The nature of this grammar form has been elucidated and the vectors of its evolution in the German language have been determined. By means of comparative historical analysis the cyclic character of gram-matical changes of German infinitive has been revealed and it has been explained by the expansion of its substantive features during Old and Middle High German periods, succeeded by their reduction and gradual acquisition of the verbal ones. New High German period witnessed the re-activation of the infinitive substantive features, which manifested itself in its ombinability with substantive prepositions while its verbal characteristics were gaining further prominence.The infinitive’s grammatical evolution is proved to reflect the direction of grammatical meanings’ development in Modern German: expansion of the duration and the resulting paradigm of the category of tense as well as ramification of modal operators.