Typology of the Supersyntactic Units

The supersyntactic unit or the "superphrasal whole," as it is sometimes termed, is hierarchically the highest syntactic unit in all languages. It consists of some simple or composite (or both — simple and composite) sentences united around a concluded piece of information which expresses some completed content. The semantic interrelations formed between the component sentences of such units are partly similar to those existing between the clauses of a complex sentence and may be temporal, causal, concessive, disjunctive, etc. These semantic interrelations in English and Ukrainian supersyntactic units are formed by phonological, grammatical and lexical means which include various types of intonation patterns, different conjunctions/connectors, joining lower syntactic units and words in them, nouns, pronouns, pronominal adverbs. Of importance at the deep level are also such phenomena as the correlation of predicative structure and verb forms with their complements, etc.

The general principles according to which different types of their component sentences are logically connected in the supersyntactic units of the contrasted languages are mainly two: 1) the parallel connection and 2) the catenated (ланцюговий) or consecutive connection. Each of these ways may be used in a supersyntactic unit separately or in combination with each other. The choice of the way of connection for a super-syntactic unit is predetermined by the main meaning to be expressed. Thus, a parallel connection is employed to express relations of enumeration, comparison or contrasting. These sense relations are expressed through the structural parallelism of the component sentences forming the supersyntactic unit. The component sentences thus connected usually express recurrent actions/events, state of objects/events, etc. As a result, the English supersyntactic units have mostly structural and sense

equivalents in Ukrainian and vice versa, as in the following complex sentences which may equally be due to their sense completion a small supersyntactic unit:

It was nine o'clock when we finished breakfast and went out on the porch.

Була дев'ята година, коли ми поснідали і вийшли на ґанок.

The supersyntactic unit may be larger, comprising some sentences, cf.

The night had made a sharp difference in the weather and there was an autumn flavor in the air. The gardener, the last one of Gatsby's former servants, came to the foot of the steps. (Fitzgerald)

Ніч внесла різку зміну в погоду і в повітрі духмяніли пахощі осені. До підніжжя сходів підійшов садівник - останній з колишньої прислуги Ґетсбі.

The cited supersyntactic unit consists of three parallel affirmative statements each of which expresses an event vaguely connected with each other. The first statement (In was nine о'clock...) performs a kind of logical introduction, the second (The night had made a sharp difference in the weather...) adds a new piece of information and the third sentence (The gardener came to the foot of the steps) makes the structure and the general content of this syntactic whole complete.

The catenated way of logical connection between the component sentences of a supersyntactic whole is mostly realised through a repeated use of a lexical unit (sometimes a functional word), which serves as a linking element combining the succeeding sentence with the preceding one and thus cementing the content of the supersyntactic unit. Such a linking function is often performed in English and Ukrainian by personal or demonstrative pronouns, which can be observed in the following supersyntactic unit below:

Friday before the journey he went into his pub to get a pint. He had been working hard all day in the fields and he wanted a pint. He was

У п'ятницю перед подорожжю він зайшов до пабу на кухоль пива. Він увесь день пропрацював V полі і йому захотілося пива.

cleaned up and shone like a pair of Він прибрався і сяяв, як

shoes. He had never been so particular новий шеляг. Він ніколи ще так with his appearance. (Macken) не вифранчувався.

All five sentences in the English supersyntactic unit and in its Ukrainian equivalent are linked syntactically and semantically by the personal pronoun "he" /"він" and its paradigmatic form "йому". The pronoun he "catenates" each succeeding component sentence with the preceding one and makes the syntactic whole intact.

Also common in the contrasted languages are supersyntactic units with a parallel connection between the component sentences which contain a linking personal pronoun thus having a regular mixed-type connection. Cf.

His voice was solemn, as if the Він говорив поважно, так ніби

memory of that sudden extinction of згадка про те раптове вимирання

a clan still haunted him. For клану все ще переслідувала його,

a moment I suspected that he was Якусь мить я навіть подумав,

pulling my leg, but a glance of him що він дурить мені голову,

convinced me otherwise. та його погляд переконував

(Fitzgerald) мене у протилежному.

Other morphological means, as, for instance, tense and aspect forms of the verb, may often be used as means of cementing sentences in supersyntactic units. [Плющ 2001:415-416]

From what has been shown in this chapter of the book the attentive reader could not have failed to notice the existence of predominantly isomorphic features and phenomena in the system of the syntactic level units in the English and Ukrainian languages. Certainly the most conspicuous is the existence of the hierarchical nature of these units in both contrasted languages. This can be seen from the table below presenting the nomenclature of all types of the syntactic level units of both contrasted languages in their nominal surface structures.

As can be noticed, allomorphism is observed at the surface level in the lack of several secondary predication word-groups in the Ukrainian language which are pertained to the present-day English.

Table 29