THE PROBLEM OF QUALIFICATION OF GENITIVE ONE-MEMBER SENTENCES

Abstract

Purpose. The objective of the article is to clarify the formal-syntactical and semantic-syntactical status of the genitive case. Methods. Among the research methods, the following were used: a descriptive method for the systematization of linguistic material, which allowed establishing the formal-structural and semantic-syntactical peculiarities of genitive sentences; a transformational method to define correlation between formal-grammatical and semantic-syntactical structures of genitive sentences, a construction of temporal paradigms of genitive sentences. Results. The peculiarities of the correlation of formal-grammatical and semantic-syntactical structures of genitive-quantitative sentences and genitive in negated sentences have been traced; the genitive clauses have been distinguished from formally similar structures; the intonation peculiarities of genitive sentences have been defined. Conclusions. Considering the peculiarities of the correlation of the formal-grammatical and semanticsyntactical structures of genitive sentences, it has been possible to clarify the syntactical status of the genitive case. Quantitative-genitive sentences reveal an expressive asymmetry of formal-grammatical and semanticsyntactical structures. Quantitative-genitive sentences in which the genitive case performs a predicative function on its own show typical peculiarities of one-member sentences. Sentences in which the genitive case is part of a quantity-nominal compound should be interpreted as elliptical two-member sentences. The presence of locative, object, and other semantic elements in the structure of genitive sentences indicates the elliptical nature of two-member sentences and their only formal similarity to genitive ones. The intonation peculiarities of genitive sentences form the structural-semantical particularity of the genitive case, which acquires the quality of affirming or denying the existence of objects with reference to their quantitative expression. Negativegenitive sentences are only formally similar to genitive-quantitative ones, since they have distinct specificity on both the formal-grammatical and semantic-syntactical levels.