Separation of Sub-substantive Infinitive as a Phenomenon of Syntax and Punctuation

Abstract

An analysis of such a phenomenon of written speech as the separation of the infinitive in the sub-substantive position is proposed from the point of view of syntax and punctuation. As a material for the study, a microcorpus was used, compiled by a complete selection from the texts of Russian artistic prose of the second half of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries. The relevance of the study lies in the need to clarify the punctuation codification of the subsubstantive infinitive separation, which appeared in Russian academic science only at the beginning of the 21st century. It is shown that the separation of the sub-substantive infinitive is determined by its participation in the expression of explanatory relations. According to the author’s observations, the factors that determine the separation of the infinitive in the sub-substantive position are the explicit implementation of the explanatory conjunction, the presence of cataphoric words in the zone of the explained component, the inability of the infinitive to form a phrase with the explained substantive component, the exclamatory nature of the explanatory component. The analysis of speech facts leads to the conclusion that the setting of punctuation marks when separating the sub-substantive infinitive is focused on the communicative-semantic principle of punctuation and that punctuation marks perform a meaning-distinguishing or expressive-semantic function in this punctuation position. It is shown that a separate sub-substantive infinitive is marked by “dashes” or “colons”. At the same time, the colon tends toward contextual specialization, and the dash - toward greater frequency of use.

Keywords

• синтаксис
• пунктуация
• присубстантивный инфинитив
• пояснительная конструкция
• коммуникативно-смысловой принцип пунктуации