Formal and functional-semantic features of identifying-assimilating correlative conjunctions like takoi zhe...chto i, stol'ko zhe...chto i, tam zhe...chto i, etc

The object of our research is a type of multi-word connectors (Russ. analiticheskaya skrepa), which consist of four components: in the main clause there is an antecedent phrase with a demonstrative pronoun (T-pronoun) and the particle ZhE, whereas the subordinate clause begins with the indeclinable ChTO followed by a phrase beginning with the particle I. It is shown, that each component has its own meaning, but together they combine to make a unit that functions as a marker of a specific type of syntactic relation, which is called equating-similizing relation. The T-pronoun in the antecedent phrase can belong to any POS, with the exception of verbs. The equating-similizing relation between the main and subordinate clauses can be expressed not only with the connectors in question, but also with connectors that have a wh-pronoun or complementizer KAK instead of the indeclinable ChTO. In many of the cases these variants are interchangeable. The absolute frequencies of "connectives" with different T-pronouns differ to a considerably extent (cf., for example, TAKOI vs. POTOMU and OTTOGO). In all types of "connectives" one can use a wh-pronoun, however, in the "connectives" with T-pronouns TAKOI and TAKOV wh-pronouns KAKOI and KAKOV are less frequent than the complementizers. The wider distribution of ChTO in comparison with KAK creates good prerequisites for its future development.