Russian sentences with descriptive constructions with the verb делать / сделать ‘to do’ as predicates

Purpose: The article describes the structure and the functioning of the verb-noun construction with the verb делать / сделать ‘to do’ in the modern Russian language. We study sentences with predicate expressed via descriptive constructions containing the verb делать / сделать ‘to do’ as their grammatical component; the semantic component (deverbative) expresses the main lexical meaning of the predicate. Such verb-noun constructions are found in all styles of speech, which was noted by V. V. Vinogradov and prompted him to suggest that the Russian language might be shifting from synthetic language structure to a mixed analytic-synthetic structure. The purpose of our work is to compare the structure and semantics of sentences with verb-noun constructions as predicates and corresponding finite verbs. The relevance of our research is rooted in the necessity of a description of sentences with the listed types of predicates as language units. Among sentences where descriptive constructions are used as predicates, we found some typical variants describing the situations of motion, caused moution (transfer), process, action. The biggest group is the group of descriptive constructions used in sentences with action semantic, which is caused by the fact that делать / сделать ‘to do’ is an action verb. Results: The artcile analyzes the specific structural and semantic traits of sentences with descriptive constructions as predicates, and shows the correlation between sentences with verb-noun constructions as predicates and corresponding sentences with finite verbs as predicates; we also describe the limits of sentence variation. Our research shows that sentences with descriptive constructions as predicates ought to be analyzed within the paradigm of the corresponding structural-semantic type. The analyzed sentences fit the paradigm of sentences describing a situation expressed via the deverbative instead of the desemanticized verb делать / сделать ‘to do’, which is demonstrated by the predicate’s surrounding elements in the sentence. Conclusion: It is possible for the results of our research to have future practical application: they may be used to analyze the semantic of some constructions with the verb делать / сделать ‘to do’, since the descriptive construction corresponds to some specific lexical-semantic variants of the verb and not the whole polysemantic lexeme; moreover, the sum of the verb’s meanings is not always the same as the sum of the descriptive verb-noun construction’s possible meanings. It may be used to perfect the system of automatic translation and to create national language corpora.