'I say ... ': Some aspects of 19th-century Russian syntax

The paper deals with many problems related to our understanding of 19th-century Russian. Our main claim is that what may seem straightforward and nearly identical to the contemporary usage often displays significant difference in semantic and syntactic patterns. This difference, however, is usually 'latent', and special efforts are needed to unearth it. The paper is focused on one specific construction with a parenthetical govorju ja 'I say'. It is shown that 19-century usage differs from what a modern speaker of Russian would expect, both semantically and syntactically.