THE USAGE OF COMPLEX SENTENCES IN THE MODERN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article considers the functional peculiarities of the usage of complex sentences in the modern English language. It is stated that the subordinate clauses are grammatically dependent on the principal ones, performing the defi nite functions in the sentence. According to their grammatical functions subordinate clauses are divided into subject, predicative, object, attributive and adverbial clauses of different types. A subordinate clause may follow, precede or interrupt the principal clause. It was found out that subordinate clauses in a complex sentence can be joined to a principal clause syndetically (by means of subordinating conjunctions or connectives) or asyndetically (without a conjunction or connective). The study shows that the most frequently used type of subordinate clauses in the short stories turned out to be the subordinate object clauses and the least frequently used type turned out to be the subordinate predicative clauses.