COMMA FUNCTIONS IN MODERN AMERICAN ENGLISH DISCOURSE
Introduction. The article deals with the problem of modern English punctuation in a written communication of American mass media (The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle). The paper is focused on the rules of putting comma as a sign, the functions of which are very contradictory and diverse, since in the same syntactic contexts it can be either allowed or avoided. The analysis of the comma functioning rules is explained by the fact that this sign often replaces all other punctuation marks in modern written communication. The aim of the work is to identify and explain the principles of comma functioning in modern communication (based on the material of American English) in order to facilitate the understanding of the laws of punctuation in the English language. Material and methods. The main research methods are the method of linguistic description, syntactic analysis, interpretative method, the method of stylistic description. Results and discussion. In the undertaken analysis, we claim that in American written communication, comma performs the following set of functions: dividing or separating syntactic units within a syntactic structure, highlighting the meaning, enhancing an expressiveness and semantic significance of a syntactic element, using the sign as an individualised stylistic means of expressiveness in the text. The scientific novelty of this work is systematization and scientific classification of functions typical of a comma from the point of view of the English grammar laws and their stylistic variation, which practically were not covered in other studies on the grammar of English. Conclusion. The proposed list of functions performed by comma in a modern American discourse allows us to offer students studying English a relatively complete overview of the possible meanings characteristic of this sign, and thus, remove some difficulties in understanding and mastering the syntactic theory of English.