Examples of the construction are found in Old Ukrainian documents and in modern South Russian dialects, and, although these are few and their usage differs from that found in North Russian sources (where the construction is well documented), it cannot be said that the construction has always been restricted to northern and central dialects. In almost every text both nominative and accusative are used for the direct object of independent infinitives, and often the choice of case seems to be random. From the sixteenth century, however, the accusative gradually becomes more frequent until it displaces the nominative from the written language.