Functioning of non-finite forms of the verbs in Russian and English scientific texts

The paper considers non-finite forms of the verb in the Russian and English languages, their grammatical categories and syntactic functions. The author points out that non-finite forms are syncretic in nature as they combine verbal features with those of other parts of speech. The author also considers the main features of the scientific text such as high level of informativity, consistency, impersonality, compression, nominal character. The author analyzes the extracts from Russian and English textbooks on electric-power engineering, provides quantitative data on the non-finite forms used and considers the main functions of using the non-finite forms in the given texts. The author concludes that the non-finite forms are frequent in the scientific-technical texts due to their syncretism, which contributes to the nominal character of scientific-technical texts. The use of structures with non-finite forms including participial phrases and the structures with secondary predication is a good means of compression as they can replace subordinate clauses. There is a tendency in the English scientific texts to use participles and infinitives postpositively after the noun. The use of participles and passive constructions as well as the impersonal infinitive sentences contributes to impersonality of the scientific texts.