Buniyatova I. Complex Sentence Formation in Old Germanic Languages (IV-XIII centuries)

The object of the research is the complex sentence in the Old Germanic languages history (IV-XIII сn.); the aim is to determine the path of formation and trends of complex sentence development in the Old Germanic languages, with specifics of its realization in West Germanic, Gothic and Scandinavian languages taken into account; methods of research are comparative historical, transformational generative, lexico-grammatical, semaciological and quantitative analyses; novelty of research lies in a systemic analysis of hypotaxis formation in the Old Germanic languages history, identification of hypotaxis sources: parataxis and reanalysis of lower syntactic units; reconstruction of complex sentence prototype in Proto-Germanic; recreation of the complex sentence evolvement starting from the prehistoric period through the appearance of the first written records, the process being presented as a stage-by-stage transition from attributive structures to relative clauses with semantically transparent subordinators, determining the correlation between the Old Germanic people’s thinking and syntactic patterns of the languages under consideration; theoretical results of the research include determining the evolutional processes in the complex sentence structure and semantics, identifying sources of its formation in Old Germanic languages, thus contributing in the universalia, syntactic changes and variation of language units theory, the research methodology and conclusions can be used in theoretical works on the Germanic historical syntax problems, general theory of language evolution and mechanisms of language systems development; practical results of the research include the use of the theoretical provisions and conclusions of the research in the development of comparative grammars of Germanic languages on a conceptually new basis, in the courses of “Introduction to the Germanic Linguistics”, “History of English”, “Theoretical Grammar of English” and in the works of scholarly students.