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Determining the syntactic status of comparative constructions is one of the most controversial issues in the Ukrainian linguistics. Distinguishing between comparative phrases and incomplete subordinate comparative sentences is actively debated. Various linguists offer opposing points of view to the same issue. The aim of the work is to clarify the syntactic functions of comparative constructions (both conjunctive and non-conjunctive) within simple and complex sentences. The material of the study embraced about 200 comparative units, selected from the novel “Nekhvoroshch (verbena)” by Liubov Ponomarenko. Descriptive and comparative methods, elements of functional and component analysis, as well as the method of quantitative calculations were used to perform the research. The article analyses domestic linguists’ points of view to the syntactic functions of comparative constructions. Having analysed the comparative units in Liubov Ponomarenko’s texts, the author presented the list of numerous syntactic functions of conjunctive and non-conjunctive comparatives within a simple sentence (comparative subjects and predicates, attributes, objects and circumstances denoting action mode, measure, degree, and reason, etc.), as well as the structure of subordinate comparatives in complex subordinate sentences (complete or incomplete clauses, the possibility of supplementing the missing member by “borrowing” it from the main part). The article focuses on the most controversial issues of distinguishing comparative constructions and offers the author’s vision of the problem. When determining the status of a comparative unit, the author analyses its structure, semantics, degree of prevalence, the possibility of replacing it with instrumental case, and if there is one of the main parts in a comparative construction, the imaginary substitution of the eliminated subject or predicate is used. The article supports the consideration that phraseological comparisons with the sentence structure perform the common function that is determined by the meaning of this phraseological unit.
Олена Дуденко (Mon,) studied this question.