The pragmatics of -no, -to predicates in the Ukrainian translations of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”

Margarita Khazanova
Russian State University for the Humanities

Abstract: This article analyzes the use of impersonal predicates ending with -no, -to in two Ukrainian translations of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. The -no, -to forms are characterized by a relatively low frequency of use and tend to be used in literary language. In the two texts that are being compared, -no, -to predicates most often correspond in the original to passive participial forms, less often to indefinite-personal constructions. They typically focus on the result of a completed action, which brings them closer to the perfect tense. The -no, -to forms allow to avoid naming the actor, which can show the status distance between the speaker and the actor.

Keywords: Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”, impersonality, translation, the Ukrainian language

For citation: Khazanova M. The pragmatics of -no, -to predicates in the Ukrainian translations of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2024. Vol. 7, iss. 2. Pp. 121–132. (In Rus.). doi:10.37632/PI.2024.70.40.007