Composite

Simple

Sentence

The Communicative Types of Sentences

Lecture 7. Old English Syntax.

Contents:

1. The Sentence. The communicative types of the sentence.

2. Structural classification of sentences.

3. Simple sentence.

4. Negation.

5. Parts of a sentence.

6. Phrases and ways of expressing syntactical relations.

7. The composite sentence.

8. The word-order.

Syntax is the part of grammar which deals with phrases, sentences and combinability of words. The main subject of syntax is a sentence, its structure and the relations between the components of a sentence.

The Sentence

Sentence is a unit of communication which has its own intonation and is used by speakers to communicate their thoughts.

According to the role in the process of communication sentences are divided into 4 types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory sentences. These types differ in the aim of communication and express statements, questions, commands and exclamations respectively.

Structural Classification of Sentences

Every sentence in language has its structure depending on definite syntactic functions which are performed by words in a sentence. As a rule, English sentences contain words or groups of words functioning as the subject and the predicate – the principal parts in the sentence. Words performing all other functions in the sentence are called the secondary parts. From the point of view of their structure and their communicative value sentences may be regarded as:

One-member Two-member

Complete Incomplete

Complex Compound

Complete Incomplete

Simple Sentence

Simple sentence contains only 1 subject-predicate unit and composite sentence – more than one. Subject-predicate units that form composite sentences are called clauses. Two-member sentence contains two main parts, while one-member sentence has only one principal part, which is neither the subject nor the predicate. In OE impersonal sentences may be one-member sentences: hū lomp ēow in lāde? как путешествовалось вам в пути?

Complete and incomplete sentences are distinguished by the presence or absence of word-forms in the principal positions of two-member sentences. In a complete sentence both the principal positions are filled with word-forms. When did you arrive ? I came straight here. In an incomplete (elliptical) sentence one or both of the main positions are not filled, but can be easily supplied from the context: Ready? Cheerful, aren’t you?

In OE only one principal part – namely the subject can be missed and is to be supplied from the context: ālēdon þā lēofne þēoden on scipe (they) laid then their beloved leader on a ship.

In OE there are sentences introduced by the subject hit and by the adverbial modifier þær, which to some extent lose their own meaning. These are the beginnings of sentences with a “formal subject” it and with the phrase there is.

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