Overview
What this book is about
This is Volume 3 of the three-volume Grammar of Contemporary Standard Bulgarian, published by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (БАН). It is the most authoritative and comprehensive academic reference on Bulgarian syntax, co-authored by nine leading linguists of the 20th century under the editorship of Prof. Konstantin Popov. The volume covers the full syntactic system of standard written Bulgarian, from the definition and classification of the sentence to word order, punctuation, and direct/indirect speech.
The book approaches syntax as the science of connected speech, with the sentence as its central unit. It systematically examines how Bulgarian words combine into phrases and sentences, the structural relationships within the sentence, the typology of simple and complex sentences, and the rules governing correct usage, intonation, and word order. Each major section was written by a designated specialist, ensuring depth across all areas.
The treatment is scholarly but practical. Theoretical positions are argued and compared — including logical, psychological, and formal-grammatical theories of the sentence — before the descriptive analysis proceeds. Hundreds of examples from Bulgarian literature and everyday speech illustrate each rule. The paragraph numbering (§1–§809) makes cross-referencing precise and reliable.
This is the definitive reference for anyone writing in standard Bulgarian, analysing Bulgarian texts linguistically, teaching Bulgarian grammar, or researching Slavic syntax.
Key Ideas
The core frameworks and findings
1
Syntax studies the functions of words in the sentence
— distinct from morphology, which studies word forms; syntax is the science of connected speech and the sentence is its primary unit.
2
No universally accepted definition of the sentence exists
— the book surveys over 300 definitions across logical, psychological, and formal-grammatical traditions before establishing the working framework used throughout.
3
Bulgarian syntax is analytic
— unlike other Slavic languages with preserved case systems, Bulgarian expresses syntactic relations primarily through word order and prepositions, not inflections.
4
The sentence has basic defining features
— predicativity, modality, intonational completeness, and communicative purpose all contribute to what constitutes a sentence.
5
Simple sentences are classified by both purpose and structure
— by communicative purpose: declarative, interrogative, imperative, optative, exclamatory; by structural completeness: two-part vs. one-part, complete vs. elliptical.
6
One-part sentences are a key feature of Bulgarian
— definite-personal, indefinite-personal, generalised-personal, impersonal, and nominal sentences each have distinct syntactic and stylistic functions.
7
Secondary parts of the sentence are rigorously distinguished
— object (direct/indirect), adverbial modifier, congruent attribute, non-congruent attribute, and apposition each have precise structural and semantic criteria.
8
Detached (обособени) parts are syntactically significant
— isolated participial, adjectival, and adverbial constructions occupy a distinctive place between simple and complex sentence analysis.
9
Compound sentences (сложни съчинени) are classified by the logical relation
— copulative, correlative, adversative/contrastive, with detailed treatment of Bulgarian coordinating conjunctions.
10
Complex sentences (сложно съставно) cover ten types of subordinate clauses
— relative, subject, predicative, object, and six adverbial types (temporal, locative, manner/comparative, causal, final, degree, conditional, concessive, exceptive, consecutive).
11
Semi-direct speech (полупряка реч) is given dedicated treatment
— a feature often absent from school grammars but essential for literary and journalistic analysis.
12
Punctuation is treated as part of syntax, not orthography
— the final section analyses how punctuation marks encode syntactic and intonational structure. ---
Contents
Chapter by chapter — click to expand
§
Увод — Синтаксисът и неговият предмет (§1–6)
▾
- Morphology vs. syntax; syntax as the science of the sentence
- The term syntax — origins and terminological disputes in Bulgarian linguistics
- Scope: laws of word combination, typology, intonation, word order
- Abstract character of syntactic rules; Bulgarian analytic specifics
§
Дефиниции и теории за изречението (§7+)
▾
- Logical theory (Plato, Aristotle, Becker, Buslayev) — sentence as judgment
- Psychological theory — sentence as expression of complete thought
- Formal-grammatical theory
- More recent approaches; relationship between thought and language
- Why no universal definition suffices; the working definition adopted
§
Основни признаци на изречението
▾
- Predicativity and modality
- Intonational completeness
- Communicative function
§
Словосъчетание (Phrases/Word combinations)
▾
- Types of syntactic relationships: agreement, government, adjunction
- Free vs. bound phrases
§
Изразяване на подчинителната връзка
▾
- Means of expressing subordination in Bulgarian
§
Видове изречения по цел на изказването (§ — Ницолова, Попов)
▾
- Съобщителни (declarative)
- Въпросителни (interrogative) — total, partial, disjunctive questions
- Подбудителни (imperative/directive)
- Желателни (optative)
- Възклицателни (exclamatory)
- Affirmative and negative sentences
§
Видове прости изречения по структура (§ — Попов, Георгиев)
▾
- Two-part (двусъставни) vs. one-part (едносъставни)
- Определено-лични (definite-personal)
- Неопределено-лични (indefinite-personal)
- Обобщено-лични (generalised-personal)
- Безлични (impersonal) — types by predicate form
- Едносъставни именни (nominal one-part)
- Неразчленими (non-articulated/utterance-type)
- Непълни (elliptical/incomplete)
§
Части на изречението — Главни части (§ — Попов)
▾
- Подлог (subject) — forms, agreement, omitted subject
- Сказуемо (predicate) — simple verbal, compound verbal, nominal compound; types of predicative link
§
Второстепенни части (§ — Попов, Георгиев, Е. Георгиева, Стефанов-Брезивски)
▾
- Допълнение (object) — direct, indirect, prepositional
- Обстоятелствено пояснение (adverbial modifier) — place, time, manner, degree, cause, purpose, condition
- Съгласувано определение (congruent/agreed attribute)
- Несъгласувано определение (non-congruent attribute)
- Приложение (apposition)
§
Разширени, сложни и повторени части; Еднородни части (§ — Пенчев)
▾
- Extended and complex parts of the sentence
- Homogeneous (coordinated) parts — punctuation rules
§
Обособени части (§ — Е. Георгиева)
▾
- Isolated participial, adjectival, adverbial constructions
- Conditions for isolation; punctuation
§
Вметнати и присъединителни конструкции; Обръщение (§ — Пенчев)
▾
- Parenthetical constructions (вметнати)
- Connective (appended) constructions
- Forms of address (обръщение)
§
Частици, Междуметия, Предлози и съюзи (§ — Пенчев)
▾
- Syntactic role of particles, interjections, prepositions, conjunctions
§
Словоред (Word Order) (§ — Е. Георгиева)
▾
- General principles; communicative (actual) articulation vs. grammatical structure
- Positional rules for subject, predicate, object, modifiers
- Stylistic and emphatic inversion
§
Сложни съчинени изречения (Compound sentences) (§553–562 — Стефанов-Брезивски)
▾
- Съединителни (copulative): и, та, нито, па, пък
- Съотносителни (correlative)
- Противоположни (adversative): а, но, ала, обаче, ама
- Punctuation in compound sentences
§
Видове подчинени изречения (§563–565)
▾
- Classification criteria; conjunctions and relative pronouns
§
Сложно съставно с подчинено определително изречение (Relative clause) (§566–597 — Ницолова)
▾
- With correlative word: който, което, която; когато, където, откогато
- Without correlative word
- Position and word order of relative clause
§
Подложно изречение (Subject clause) (§598–603 — Лазарова)
▾
- Introduced by: че, да, дали; relative pronouns
§
Сказуемноопределително изречение (Predicative clause) (§604–611 — Попов)
▾
§
Допълнително изречение (Object clause) (§612–627 — Генадиева-Мутафчиева)
▾
- Direct and indirect object clauses
- Correlative elements; moods used
§
Обстоятелствени изречения (Adverbial clauses) (§628+)
▾
- За време (temporal) (§631–640) — когато, щом, докато, преди да, след като, откакто — Лазарова
- За място (locative) (§641–645) — където, откъдето, накъдето — Лазарова
- За начин и сравнение (manner/comparative) (§646–677) — като, сякаш, както, колкото — Ницолова
- За причина (causal) (§678–690) — защото, тъй като, понеже, поради — Стефка Петрова
- За цел (final/purpose) (§691–704) — за да, да — Генадиева-Мутафчиева
- За количество и степен (degree) (§705–713) — толкова…колкото — Ницолова
- За условие (conditional) — ако, щом, при условие че — Генадиева-Мутафчиева
- За отстъпване (concessive) — макар че, въпреки че, ако и да — Генадиева-Мутафчиева
- За изключване (exceptive) (§734–743) — освен дето, без да — Генадиева-Мутафчиева
- За последица и заключение (consecutive) (§744–754) — та, така че, следователно — Стефка Петрова
§
Безсъюзни сложни изречения (Asyndetic complex sentences) (§759–760)
▾
§
Взаимна замяна на обособени части и подчинени изречения (§761–764 — Е. Георгиева)
▾
§
Сложни с повече подчинени; Сложни смесени (§766–774 — Лазарова)
▾
§
Синтактичен паралелизъм (§775–780)
▾
§
Словоред на сложното изречение (§781)
▾
§
Пряка и непряка реч (Direct/Indirect Speech) (§782–787 — Стефанов-Брезивски)
▾
- Structural and punctuation rules for direct speech
- Transformations in indirect speech: tense, pronoun, mood shifts
§
Полупряка реч (Semi-direct Speech) (§788–792 — Георгиев)
▾
- Definition and identification; literary and journalistic use
§
Пунктуация и синтаксис (§793–809 — Е. Георгиева)
▾
- Comma, semicolon, dash, colon, parentheses — syntactic basis for each
- Punctuation at clause boundaries; ambiguous cases
Practical Takeaways
What to actually do with this
Use §-numbered sections for precise cross-referencing when citing grammatical rules
For subordinate clause selection (e.g. temporal vs. conditional), consult the relevant adverbial clause section for conjunction choice and mood requirements
Punctuation questions (comma before че, да, който) are answered in §793–809
Word order questions — especially emphatic or inverted constructions — are covered in the Словоред section
For indirect speech transformation rules (including mood changes), see §782–787
For questions about detached participles and their punctuation, see the Обособени части section
The one-part sentence types (§Георгиев) are essential for understanding literary and colloquial Bulgarian constructions that school grammar under-explains
See Also
Related books in the library
— (no other linguistics or language reference books in this library yet)