Grăcko-slavjanskite leksikalni săotvetstvija kato kriterij za atribucija na starobălgarski prevodi [= Greek-Slavonic lexical equivalents as a criterion for authorship attribution of Old Bulgarian translations]

This paper deals with the problem of lexical variation in Old Bulgarian translations from Greek. The authors investigate lexical correspondences for the same Greek word in a number of texts, whose origin is linked to the Preslav literary School (late 9th-early 10th century). They are on the one hand, the “Didactic Gospel” and the “First Oration against the Arians” by Athanasius of Alexandria (CPG 2039) translated by Constantine of Preslav, and, on the other hand, four anonymous translations of homiletical works. The latter include the “Third Sermon on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary” by John of Damascus (CPG 8063), the “A” and the “B” translations of the “Homily on the Transfiguration of the Lord” by Proclus of Constantinople (CPG 5807), and the “Funeral Oration on the Great S. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia” (Oratio 43 / CPG 3010.43) by Gregory of Nazianzus. The adopted methodology is based on a statistical approach to lexical variation. The achieved results show that the percentage of Greek-Slavonic lexical matches is higher in texts penned by Constantine than in the anonymous translations. This allows to conclude that the adoption of a quantitative criterion, based on a statistical analysis of lexical data, may turn useful to verify the validity of the attribution of an anonymous text to a specific translator.