This paper considers the fluctuation in the use of Russian converbs, active participles and the predicate verbs in the author's words in literary works from the point of view of semantic transitivity. The present form (PRF) and the past form (PAF) of Russian active participle of the imperfective aspect can be replaced without changing the meaning of a sentence. And in 18-19-th century Russian converb of the perfective aspect formed from the present-tense stem (PSPR) prevailed in parallel with the converb of the perfective aspect formed from the pasttense stem (PSPA). The verbs in the author's words are divided into two large groups according to their lexical meanings: verbs indicating speech or thought and verbs that do not denote speech or thought. We call the direct speech construction with verbs of the first group “the type of verb of speech (TVS)”, and the direct speech construction with verbs of the second group “the type of verb of non-speech (TVN)”. Previous studies have not paid sufficient attention to semantic differences between them (PRF – PAF, PSPR – PSPA, TVS – TVN). The result of research of frequency of use of the active participles, the converbs and the predicate verbs in the author's words is as follows: PRF, PSPR and TVN are marked. PAF, PSPA and TVS correlate with lexical meanings of high transitivity, while PRF, PSPR and TVN bear a close connection with lexical meanings of low transitivity. These results coincide with the fact that typologically the phenomena of lower transitivity often deviate from the linguistic norm.