“Cyclic” time in the history of Russian: Culture and language internal factors

is article o ers a diachronic analysis of the concept of “cyclic” time in Russian, more speci cally of temporal adverbials such as utrom ‘in the morning’ and vesnoj ‘in the spring’ that refer to the diurnal and annual temporal cycles in nature. It is argued that evidence from diachrony bears on important theoretical questions: Is the sensitivity to “cyclic” time in language due to cultural factors? How does the external factor of culture interact with language internal factors in the formation of temporal concepts? e proposed analysis indicates that the lin- guistic development in Russian does not mirror changes in cultural practices and values. Instead, the main burden of explanation is placed on a language internal factor, namely the general dri towards more analytic constructions in Russian, which I argue paved the way for the concept of “cyclic” time as re ected in the grammar of the Russian language today.