The Structural Segmentation of the Sentence in English and Ukrainian

The structural segmentation of sentences in English and Ukrainian may be performed on the basis of some common principles. These are employed when segmenting sentences into their component parts at the surface level structure, as well as when contrasting the meaning of the component parts at the deep level sentence structure.

The most common and traditional segmentation of unextended and extended two-member sentences in all languages is that into the parts of the sentence. Common in the contrasted languages is also the segmentation of extended sentences into parts of the sentence and into syntactic units. The latter mostly perform the functions of extended or expanded parts of the sentence.

A deep level sentence structure segmentation may aim at identifying the meaning expressed in the contrasted languages by the same parts of the sentence and in structurally identical sentence patterns. Thus, depending on the lexico-grammatical semantics of the component nominals and verbs, the former, when endowed with some functional meanings, may denote 1) the subject of an action and the predicate of an action: the student reads/студент читає; 2) the subject of motion and the predicate of motion: the child walks/дитина ходить; 3) the subject of state and the predicate of state: the child sleeps/дитина спить.

Common with the same sentence structures in English and Ukrainian may also be the semantic homonymy of sentences. Thus, the N — V — Adv/S — P — D model sentence may sometimes express, depending on the lexico-grammatical characteristics of the verb, the active and the passive voice meaning. Cf. this girl sells well (active voice) — this book sells well (passive voice). Similarly in Ukrainian: Ця дівчина давно прибирається (active voice). Ця вулиця давно прибирається (passive voice). Петренко будується (active voice). Місток будується (passive voice).

TYPOLOGY OF THE MAIN PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

Ail parts of the sentence in the contrasted languages have both an isomorphic functional meaning and lexico-grammatical nature. Common/ isomorphic is also the traditional subdivision of them into a) the main and into b) secondary parts of the sentence. The main parts are the subject (підмет) and the predicate (присудок). The secondary parts are the object, the attribute and different adverbial modifiers (додаток, означення, обставинні члени речення).

The subject and the predicate in the contrasted languages are considered to be interdependent parts of the sentence. They are bearers of predication forming the sentence. Cf. They laughed. (Hemingway) Вони засміялися. Other parts of the sentence are usually dependent on the subject, on the predicate or on one another. As in the following sentence. Everyone knows his own business best. (Pritchett) The constituent word-group of this sentence in English and in its Ukrainian variant in syntactic presentation (patterning) are as follows: 1) the primary predication (S-P) word-group Everyone knows Кожен знає; 2) the predicate-object word-group knows < his own business знає свою власну справу; 3) the attributive word-group his own business свою власну справу and 4) the predicate-adverbial modifier word-group known best знає найкраще. Therefore, the highest degree of combinability in this sen-tense has the simple verbal predicate with its postpositive complements.

The structure of the parts of the sentence in the contrasted languages is characterised by isomorphic features in the main. There are distinguished the following structurally common types of them in English and Ukrainian: 1) simple, i. e. expressed by a single word-form (synthetic or analytical); 2) extended or expanded, i. e. expressed by a subordinate or by a co-ordinate word-group; 3) complex (when expressed by a secondary predication construction/word-group). Some parts of the sentence in English and Ukrainian may be expressed by a regular clause. For example: What you told me is a lie. (Twain) This subject can be substituted for a single word performing the same function: That/ it is a lie. Similarly in Ukrainian: Те, що ти казав мені, — брехня; Те (це) є брехня.