1. The complex sentences

The complex sentence is based on hypotaxis (гипотаксис – подчинительные связи), i.e. subordination. By subordination the principal clause positionally dominates the subordinate clause making up with it a semantico-syntactic unity. The subordinate clause can be joined to the principal clause either by a subordinating connector, or, with some types of clauses, asyndetically.

Subordinate clauses can be classified on different principles: either functional, or categorial.

In accord with the functional principle, subordinate clauses are classified on the analogy of the positional parts of the simple sentence. As a result of this classification, subordinate clauses are classified into subject, predicative, object, attributive, and adverbial.

1. Nominal (What I need is a piece of good advice)

2. Attributive (A man whose voice seemed familiar to me gave commands)

3. Adverbial (I’ll be glad when he comes)

Nominal clauses

1. Subject (How the book will sell depends on its plot and the author.)

2. Predicative (That’s what I want you to do)

3. Object (I don’t know why I like you so much.)

The categorial classification is aimed at revealing the inherent nominative properties of the subordinate clauses irrespective of its immediate position in the sentence. According to it all subordinate clauses are divided into three generalized types: clauses of primary nominal positions (subject, predicative, object clauses), clauses of secondary nominal positions (attributive clauses), clauses of adverbial positions.

Subordinate сlauses

1) Substantive-nominal (What I want to do is to go home)

2) Qualification-nominal (The man who is talking to her is my brother)

3) Adverbial (Everything will be OK if we come in time)

2. The compound sentences

The compound sentence is based on parataxis (паратаксис – предикативные группы ставятся друг после друга без обозначения связи между ними при помощи каких-либо соединительных слов), i.e. coordination. By coordination the clauses in the composite sentence are arranged as units of syntactically equal rank. The position of the coordinate clause is always rigidly (жестко, твердо) fixed and it serves as one of the differential features of coordination as such.

It is usual to single out the following types of semantic relations between coordinative clauses: copulative (соединительный), adversative (противительный), disjunctive, causal, consequential.

1) Copulative (I didn’t recognize the girl, nor did I remember her name)

2) Adversative (The story was amusing, but nobody laughed)

3) Disjunctive (Either listen to me, or I shall stop reading to you)

4) Causative-consecutive (The days became longer, for it was now springtime)

Coordinating connectors are divided into proper (and, but, or, nor, for, either, neither, etc.) and semi-funtional (then, yet, so, thus, consequently, etc.), the latter revealing adverbial features.

1. Semi-composition sentences

Semi-composite sentences are sentences in which one predicative line is represented by a semi-predicative construction. Semi-composite sentences are divided into semi-complex and semi-compound according to the type of relations between the semi-clause and the main clause - subordinative and coordinative, respectively.

The semi-complex sentence is a semi-composite sentence built up on the principle of subordination.

The semi-complex sentences fall into a number of subtypes. Their basic division is dependent on the character of predicative fusion (cлияние, объединение ):this may be effected either by the process of position-sharing (word- sharing), or by the process of direct linear expansion (расширение, увеличение).

The sentences based on position-sharing fall into those of subject-sharing (наложение двух предложений на общее подлежащее: The man stood silent = The man stood. The man was silent.) and those of object-sharing (I saw him crossing the street = I saw him. He was crossing the street).

The sentences based on semi-predicative linear expansion fall into those of attributive complication (This is a letter received yesterday = This is a letter which was received yesterday), adverbial complication (The work being done, she left for home = The work was done. She left for home), and nominal-phrase complication (For me to do it was easy = I did it. It was easy (constructions with the infinitive and gerund).

The semi-compound sentence is a semi-composite sentence built up on the principle of coordination. There are different structural types of syntactic coordination: coordinated subjects, predicates, objects, adverbial modifiers (с однородными членами предложения) (They talked and laughed at the lecture).