Systematization of simple sentences in Finno-Ugric languages

Introduction. Despite the fact that the syntax of the Finno-Ugric languages has been actively studied only since the middle of the 20th century, there are a lot of works devoted to the structural, semantic, intonational features of the sentence, as well as cognitive linguistics, functional syntax, etc. The relevance of the study is due to the insufficiently developed problems of the syntax of a sentence in Finno-Ugric linguistics. It happened that traditionally in Finno-Ugric languages the syntax has been given less attention than other aspects. The topicality is defined by the importance of a simple sentence in the syntactic system of Finno-Ugric languages, inadequate identification of its functional and communicative capabilities. The subject of the study is simple sentences in Finno-Ugric languages. The objectives of the study are to characterize and compare simple sentences in Finno-Ugric languages. Materials and Methods. We used comparative historical, and typological methods. A general theoretical and methodological data was collected from the works on Finno-Ugric syntax of Russian and foreign researchers, works in general linguistics, and the theory of syntax. The material of the study was fiction and folklore texts. Results and Discussion. Simple sentences in each of the Finno-Ugric languages are described in accordance with the division of the latter into the Western, Saami, Volga, Perm and Ob-Ugric branches. The classification of sentences is based on such characteristics as: the number of members of the sentence, the type of the predicate, the presence or absence of distributors, the form of the subject, words order. Conclusion. Simple sentences are actively used in all Finno-Ugric languages and are very diverse. There are one-member sentences, which in a number of languages can be impersonal, definite personal, indefinite personal, generalised personal and nominative sentences, and two-member sentences, among which there are derived and kernel sentences, complete and elliptical ones.