2.2 Typological Features of Subject Clauses

The functions of subject clauses in English and Ukrainian may both coincide and not coincide. Structurally common are:

1. Subject clauses which re-compensate or substitute the subject in a | two-member sentence with a compound nominal predicate of being or seeming. These subject clauses initiate a complex sentence with the help of:

a) the corresponding/equivalent conjunctions (that, whether, if, because, either...or, whether...or — що, щоб, якщо, тому що, чи, або...або, чи...чи); a subject clause may initiate b) with the help of

the corresponding connectives (relative pronouns or adverbs): who,

whose, what, which, whom, where, when, how, why — хто, що, який,

котрий, чий, де, коли, як/яким чином:

What you say is true. (Dreiser) Те, що ти кажеш, є правда ...

...whether it does not create worse... чи це не створить більших

difficulties in place of the one remo- труднощів замість цієї подоланої

ved is another question. (Voynich) — залишається ще одним запитанням.

The subject clause in each sentence above can equally be substituted in both languages for pronouns, nouns and other nominals.

Cf. What he said is true — Що він сказав (є) правда

That/the document is true. Це/Те (є) правда.

Common in these and other subject clauses of this type in both contrasted languages is also their thematic nature.

2. The second common group constitute extended thematic subject clauses. They are mostly introduced by a pronoun (usually indefinite or relative) or by a noun specified by an attributive clause which constitutes with the pronoun/noun an extended subject clause that initiates the complex sentence:

All I want's to die in my own place... (Prichard)

Єдине, чого/що я бажаю,- померти у себе вдома...

The thing that made me decide on

Те, що змусило мене визначитись

the place to build my house was the sea elephants. (O'Dell)

щодо місця для побудови хати, були морські слони.

Pertaining only to English are rhematic subject clauses located in

the postposition to the matrix clause and introduced by the anticipatory pronoun it. Cf. It has been said that the greatest events of the world take place in the brain. (Wilde) It is no exaggeration to say that one was told he must have plums. (T. Wolfe) This structural form of English subject clauses has some semantic equivalents, though not absolutely identical in Ukrainian. The main difference, naturally, lies in the absence of the introductory pronoun it and in the use of various forms of predicate verbs. There are distinguished the following

groups:

1. Subject clauses introduced by the conjunctions and joining the claus es to the predicate verb in -ся: З'ясувалося, що він перевіряє, чи справжній кулемет. (Яновський) ...і мариться їй, що йде біля волів її Остап уже вусатий, уже жонатий, може. (Головко) І снилось, як гаряче дихають дні. (Малишко)

2. Subject clauses introduced in Ukrainian by the conjunction що

and connected with the neuter gender verb in the past tense form: Бувало, що зіпсується на мені ударник або вчиниться хімічна реакція в гримучім живім сріблі капсули. (Яновський) При цьому його не лякало, що він може оступитися, схибити. (Гончар)

3. Subject clauses introduced by the conjunction що and connected with the predicate expressed by a stative: Просто дивно, що йому пасувало власне прізвище. (Гуцало) Ще хоч добре, що дочка недалеко. (Головко).

4. Subject clauses, introduced by a prepositional connective: He поет, у кого думки не літають у світі. (Л. Українка) Note. Some English subject clauses, introduced by the anticipatory "it", may have in Ukrainian semantically dual subject or object equivalent clauses introduced by the conjunction "що", that connects the clauses with the definite personal single verb clause. Such nominal

clauses are referred in present-day Ukrainian syntax to the group of explicatory subordinate clauses (підрядних з'ясувальних).

No structural equivalents have in Ukrainian some transforms of English subject clauses introduced by the emphatic pronoun it. The English complex sentences then may correspond to Ukrainian simple extended or even to simple unextended sentences:

It is the smoking itself that is not nice. (London)

Уже само собою палити/куріння не гарно.