Khelil O. Complex Sentence with Conditional Subordinate Clause in Middle English: Structure and Function

The thesis focuses on the study of structural and functional peculiarities of complex sentence with conditional subordinate clause in Middle English. From the standpoint of generative grammar, the conditional embedded clause forms an independent CP projection which splits into TP and vP functional projections and corresponding lexical projections. The structural approach explains the positional characteristics of the conditional subordinate clause in initial, final, and medial positions. The findings indicate that the explicit markers of the antecedent are of dominant and peripheral types. The constituent arrangement in the conditional embedded clause corresponds to the main tendency of Middle English to a fixed SVO word order. The paper investigates the functional peculiarities of complex sentence with conditional subordinate clause to claim that it is a complex speech act that contains two heterogeneous types of utterances, the most prevalent being "condition – supposition", and the least spread being "condition – invitation". The thesis proves that the precise criteria for the division of Middle English conditional sentences into factual and counterfactual are not clear-cut. This is exemplified by the coexistence of indicative and subjunctive forms for marking hypothetical and unreal action, unification of indicative and subjunctive endings, and lack of means to explicate the time correlation of an unreal action. With the loss and unification of endings the Middle English language develops analytical forms on the basis of periphrastic syntactic constructions with a modal, whose functioning increases from 24% in МЕ1 to 44% in МЕ4.