Nod V. Development of the Absolute Infinitive Construction in English (12-19th centuries).

The dissertation focuses on structural, semantic, and pragmatic peculiarities of the absolute infinitive construction (AIC) in the historical perspective of the 12-19th centuries and the identification of its origin in English. This construction is defined as a reduced syntactical unit developed from the Old English simple finite sentence. The AIC subject of action is presented implicitly on the surface structure level. The development of the AIC falls into three periods. During the 12-13th centuries sporadic occurrences of the AIC are fixed, in the 14-15th centuries, it is mostly used in the East Midland dialect. The influence of rhetorical art and the rise of argumentative speech caused the further spread of the AIC. According to the structure, the AIC splits into two types: the extended and non-extended ones, which consist of definite models. In Middle English the unextended AIC are characterized by the "subject-object-verb" order. The word-order of the extended AIC is of the "subject-verb-object"-type. In the 16-17th centuries the frequency of the AIC is reduced and its structure gets more complicated. During the 18-19th centuries the usage of AIC in texts is increased, its structure gets simplified and the SVO-order dominates in both extended and non-extended types. Four main semantic classes of the AIC are distinguished in the texts of the 12-19th centuries. They are evaluative, connective, specifying, and qualifying.