Konjunkte Partizipien in der Erzählung des Einsiedlers Abraham und seiner Nichte Maria — Ein Beitrag zur narrativen Syntax des Kirchenslavischen

Abstract This article argues that conjunct participles form along with the dative absolute the core strategies of Church Slavonic narrative syntax. It is meant to show that word order preferences in participial constructions, which have been observed by among others Zhivov (2011) are possibly determined by Gestalt psychological patterns that hold the middle ground between discourse organization and visual perception. Utilizing the Gestalt concepts of figure and ground and the derived concept of complex figure, it is argued that the larger part of conjunct participle constructions serve the representation of complex figures, with a margin of cases shading off into figure-ground relations. In addition, a liminal zone of participial usage where Gestalt principles seem not to apply on principled grounds is being identified.