“Esli chto” and “chto esli” as facts of modern Russian speech: usage, semantics, and syntactic status

The paper describes two semi-formed fragments of language system - esli chto (if what) and chto esli (what if) - that can be analytically divided into components but function as ready-to-use units (phrasemes). Their conventionality results from the dialogic nature of the speech situation and regular reproducibility. These proved to acquire new meanings following grammarization and idiomatization. Esli chto has been found to have the following meanings: 1) conditional (dictum information): the pronoun chto replaces the part of a sentence referring to the condition upon which the thing stated in the sentence has to be or may be done; 2) in asymmetric complex sentences, esli chto is transformed from an informationally reduced substitute for dictum information into an informationally reduced substitute for a condition with a non-verbalized modus predicate of an explanatory construction = uchti (take into account); 3) a complete loss of dictum content and the acquisition of only modus meaning = uchti / imey v vidu (take into account/bear in mind); 4) semantic devastation. What if has been observed to have the following meanings: 1) a dictum meaning, with a reduction in dictum content with a verbally expressed question; 2) the synonym for a modus introductory phrase mozhet byt’ (maybe); 3) the synonym for adverb vdrug (suddenly). Observing the functioning of the constructions in question has revealed their evolution coinciding with general grammaticalization and idiomatization processes, affecting entire syntactic structures, with idiomatization transferring the sentences from polypredicative and polypropositive to monopredicative and monopropositive ones and the semantic conjunction esli losing the semantic and grammatical properties of the subordinate conjunction.

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