Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature 1607-6192 2713-2226 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-218-231 Research Article Articles SEMANTICS OF THE OPPOSITION SENIORITY — “JUNIORITY” IN MONUMENTS OF THE BORISOGLEBIAN CYCLE Ranchin Andrey M. old-rus@imli.ru 2025 24 218 231 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article examines the functions of lexemes with the meaning of age contained in the works of the Borisoglebian cycle, belonging to the correlating and opposing semantic fields of seniority and “juniority.” The young age of Boris and Gleb is paradoxically combined with wisdom, denoted by lexemes with the meaning of old age, and thus indicates their holiness. Svyatopolk, older in age, but acting insanely, falling into the power of demonic temptation, in one of the sermons of the cycle, contrary to the actual truth, is defined as junior in relation to the “brotherhood” against whom he started the war. It is demonstrated that the lexeme old/oldest in the works of the cycle is used both with the semantics ‘senior in age’, and with the semantics ‘senior in importance, superior’ and ‘adult, mature, wise’. The uniqueness of its use and functioning as one of the elements of the opposition seniority ↔ “juniority” in the texts dedicated to Boris and Gleb lies in the fact that three meanings, in other cases potentially (and very often actually) combined in one lexeme, enter into complex relationships and are partly opposed. 1. Gippius, A. “‘Letopisnye’ Paremiinye chteniia o Borise i Glebe: istoriia teksta i istoricheskii kontekst” [“‘Chronicle’ Proverbs Readings about Boris and Gleb: History of the Text and Historical Context”]. Fakty i znaki: issledovaniia po semiotike istorii [Facts and Signs: Studies on the Semiotics of History], ed. B.A. Uspensky and F.B. Uspensky. Moscow, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi gumanitarnyi universitet Publ., 2010, pp. 42–71. (In Russian) 2. Legkikh, I. 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