The problem of the status of structural components of compound sentences in the grammatical research of A.P. Hryshchenko and in the modern syntax of the Ukrainian language

Kateryna Horodenska, Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Professor, Head of the Department of Grammar and Scientific TerminologyInstitute
of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
4 Mykhailo Hrushevskyi St., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine

Е-mail: k.horodenska70@meta.ua
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2638-9037

Heading: Scientific figures of Ukrainian linguists
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract: The article explores how the status of structural components in compound and complex sentences has evolved in traditional and modern Ukrainian syntax.

The study clarifies A.P. Hryshchenko’s negative view on classifying certain components as simple sentences, a perspective that has gained traction in Ukrainian linguistics, and how he substantiates these components as parts of a complex sentence. To refute the claim that the components of a complex sentence are independent sentences, A.P. Hryshchenko — following O.S. Melnychuk — argued that they lose their grammatical and communicative autonomy, despite their internal syntactic similarity to simple sentences. He also rejected the idea of ​​potentially using the term “simple sentences” to designate the components of a complex sentence.

It is concluded that A.P. Hryshchenko in 60-ties of the 20th century directly contributed to the search for a term to designate the structural component of a complex sentence that is isomorphic to a simple sentence in its internal syntactic structure, as he rejected the traditional view of such a component as merely a simple sentence.

The article explains the reason of the rationale behind replacing the term “component parts” with the term “predicative parts”, previously used in the grammatical studies of A.P. Hryshchenko. It was first introduced in the analysis of Ukrainian literary syntax during the 1980s and has since become established in modern syntactic theory. This shift is further supported by university-level textbooks and study guides published in the early 21st century.

Keywords: complex sentence, simple sentence, structural component, constituent part, component, predicative part, traditional syntax, modern syntax, sentence structure.

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Received 28.07.2026  Аpproved 14.09.2026  Рublished 02.11.2026