The article deals with the formation of intensive meanings of the prefix po- in the Russian language in the 11th - 17th centuries. We determine the time and the formation mechanism of the intermittently-diminutive and diminutive meaning as a result of interaction with the internal (a derivative verb) and external (circumstances, determinants) context, and analyze the process of the prefixal and suffixal way of word formation. The research has revealed that the intermittently-diminutive verbs originated from prefixal verbs by means of suffixes, later the intermittently-diminutive meaning was correlated with the complex formant po-… -iva-. Verbs with -iva-/-yva- suffixes initially expressed the semantics of frequency whereas the semantics of diminished, intermittent action appeared due to the context and unmarked multiplicity of the original verbs. The diminutive meaning in the Old Russian period was expressed only by the secondary prefixal verbs.
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