FUNCTIONAL PARADIGM OF NON-FINITE CLAUSES WITH A NON-FINITE WHICH IS PART OF A PREDICATIVE CONSTRUCTION (ON THE MATERIAL OF ENGLISH ONLINE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES)

Abstract

The article homes in on establishing the functional paradigm of non-finite clauses in Modern English. The data for the research has been drawn from English online newspaper articles the Evening Standard, the Guardian, the Times. The research corpus comprises 254 non-finite clauses per 976 thousand words from the texts under analysis. The novelty of this investigation lies in the fact that it views non-finite clauses in the functional aspect with a non-finite as part of a predicative construction. Non-finite clauses are a concise means of expressing thoughts and being such they can make the idea get manifested in a shorter but more attractive way. The use of non-finites demands a more sophisticated kowledge of language and more cognitive effort for perception and interpretation. This last statement may explain the reason why newspaper register abounds in non-finites while informal English does not. As the result of the analysis there have been established the functions performed by (a) the infinitive clauses with the infinitive as a secondary predicate in the subjective predicative construction, the objective predicative construction, the for-to-infinitive construction and the absolute with the infinitive construction; (b) the ing-clauses with the present / perfect participle and the gerund as a secondary predicate of the objective / subjective / prepositional absolute with the participle construction and of the gerundial predicative construction correspondingly; (c) the ed-clauses with the past participle as a secondary predicate of the objective / subjective / prepositional absolute with the participle construction.