Korsun O. Subjectless Sentences in English and Ukrainian.

The thesis deals with the contrastive analysis of subjectless sentences (SubjS) in English and Ukrainian. The SubjS is a full or elliptical two- or one-member sentence without a formally represented semantic subject, i.e. without designation of an agent that can perform an action and be characterized by a certain state, feature, perception, relation. Depending on the semantic meaning of the predicate, 4 semantic types of SubjS were distinguished (the SubjS of characterization, the SubjS of action; the SubjS of state; the SubjS of existence). On the basis of its generalized meaning, each type was further subdivided into subtypes. Each semantic subtype has been described using semantic models based on the interpretation formulae, which introduce the meaning of the SubjS. Common semantic types and subtypes of SubjS are indicative of similar cognitive characteristics of the speakers of English and Ukrainian, whereas the dominance of modally coloured SubjS in Ukrainian highlights greater emotional disposition of Ukrainians as compared to the English. The isomorphic nature of the syntactic structure of the English and Ukrainian SubjS manifests itself in the fact that both contrasted languages contain two-member complete and incomplete SubjS and have similar types of subjects and predicates. The distinctive features include the use of subjects which are not characteristic of Ukrainian in the English SubjS (i.e. indefinite pronouns, gerund etc.) and the occurrence of one-member sentences in Ukrainian. It has been shown that in most cases the semantic subject, which is not found on the formal level, is in evidence on the deep level of the SubjS analysis and can be defined as the known (recreated), the generalized or the unknown subject.