THE ORGANIZATION OF A SCIENTIFIC TEXT ON ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: THE PRODUCTIVITY OF COMPLEX SENTENCES

Abstract

This article continues the study of the evolution of the syntax of written scientific chemical discourse, considering it on the example of texts from the second half of the 20th century to the first quarter of the 21st century. The focus is on an important syntactic construction characteristic of scientific style - a complex sentence. Various types of complex sentences used in works by scientists from leading research institutes are identified and described. Their productivity at different time periods is determined, and models of subordinate clauses that reflect logical and grammatical relations in scientific text are investigated. A comparative analysis uses a structural and semantic approach to classifying complex sentences adopted in academic grammar, a description of features of the syntactic structure of written scientific speech, as well as previous studies on the history of chemical discourse. As a result of the study, it was concluded that explanatory subordinate clauses are the most stable, serving to fill structural and semantic gaps in the main sentence while simultaneously revealing its content. This syntactic construction provides semantic completeness to the main clause, replacing the missing or implied element of the utterance. There is an increase in the number of attributive sentences indicating the need to describe chemical objects, taking into account various features. At the same time, there is a decrease in productivity of multicomponent complex sentences, including those with sequential subordination. These trends may be attributed to a general tendency to conserve linguistic resources in oral and written communication, due to an increase in the speed of information updating.