The Definition of the Sentence. Its Essential Features. The Classification of Sentences.

A sentence is a unit of speech whose grammatical structure conforms to the laws of the language and which serves as the chief means of conveying a thought. A sentence is not only a means of communicating something about reality but a means of showing the speaker’s attitude to it.

It is rather difficult to define the sentence as it is connected with many lingual and extra lingual aspects – logical, psychological and philosophical. We will just stick to one of them - according to academician G.Pocheptsov, the sentence is the central syntactic construction used as the minimal communicative unit that has its primary predication, actualises a definite structural scheme and possesses definite intonation characteristics.

The most essential features of the sentence as a linguistic unit are a) its structural characteristics – subject-predicate relations (primary predication), and b) its semantic characteristics – it refers to some fact in the objective reality.

According to the purpose of the utterance we distinguish 4 kinds of sentences:

1- The declarative sentence states a fact in the affirmative or negative form. In DS the subject precedes the predicate (pronounced with falling intonation) (!: English predicate can have only one negation).

He does not go anywhere.

2- An Imperative sentence serves to induce a person to do smth, so it expresses a command (falling tone: Come to the blackboard!), a request or invitation (rising tone: Open the door, please!).

3- The interrogative sentence asks a question. It is formed by means of inversion (unless subject is an interrogative word: Who is in the room? – no inversion).

There are several kinds of questions:

General questions requiring the answer yes or no and spoken with a rising intonation. They are formed by placing part of the predicative (auxiliary or modal verb) before the subject.

Do you like art? Can you speak English?

Astonishment: Haven’t you seen him yet?

Rhetoric questions: Can you commit a whole country to their own prisons?

Special q. beginning with an interrogative word (falling intonation)

Where do you live? (order of words is as in Gen. question)

Who lives in this room? (Who – is a subject, order of words is as that of a statement)

Alternative questions, indicating choice

Do you live in town or in the country?

Disjunctive questions requiring the answer yes or no and consisting of an affirmative statement followed by a negative question, or a negative statement followed by an affirmative question

You speak English, don’t you?

4- An exclamatory sentence expresses some kind of emotion or feeling. It often begins with the words what and how, it is always in the declarative form (no inversion) (falling intonation: What a lovely day it is! How wonderful!)

20. Predicativity. Primary & secondary predication.

Predicativity is the correlation of what is named by the S with the situation of speech when the S is produced. It is constituted by the features of modality, time & person which are expressed by the category of mood, tense, person. The predicate V is the main means of expressing Predicativity. The person component of Predicativity is also expressed by the subject. So subject-predicate group is the main means of expressing Predicativity → predication line. In a 2-member S features divided, in 1-member S – undivided. A S may contain primary & secondary predication: I saw her dancing ( primary & secondary predication lines). Secondary predication line resembles primary predication in its structure. ‘her’- nominal component, ‘dancing’- verbal component. Features of modality & time are not shown. Secondaty predication structures have no correlation with reality. They are related to the situation of speech indirectly through primary predication line.

21.Principals of classification of sentences.

Sentences may be classified on the basis of 2 main principals: structural & communicative. Communicative principal is related to the speaker’s purpose in communication; 4 types of S: declarative – to convey info; interrogative – ask for info; imperative – make actions to be done; exclamatory – to express emotions. Structural principal is related to the structure of S. Subcriteria: structural classifications are based on the number of predication lines, the completeness of the predication line, the ways of its expression & in case of multiple predication – all the types of relations between the clauses.

1. Number of P: 1 → simple S, 2 or more → composite S.

2. The ways of expressing: 1-member & 2-member S.

3. Completeness of predication line: only 2-member S can be discussed here: complete & incomplete (elliptical). Any of 2 or 3 types may be used as independent or as an element of a composite S.

Composite S are classified on the basis of syntactic relations between clauses: 1) equal → coordination → compound S (parataxis) 2) unequal → subordination → complex S (hypotaxis)

1.Finite clauses – primary predication. 2. Non-finite clauses – constructions: I saw him cross the street. Semi-composite S may exist in 2 forms: 1) semi-compound – smth about which we think as S with homogeneous predicates; 2) semi-complex – S which contains primary & secondary predication: I saw him break the window.

Incomplete (elliptical) 2-member S is built on the model of a 2-member S in which 1 or both principal parts are missing. Their existence fully depends on the context or situation, for these are the factors that create the necessary pre-conditions for the possibility to omit 1 or both principal members. Elliptical Ss are mainly observed in conversations, though may occur in narrations, newspaper headlines, ads, stage directions.

One-member Ss are those the predication line of which comprises only 1 principal part which can’t be identified as a subject or a predicate. As distinct from elliptical Ss, they are not context-dependent. There are 4 subtypes of 1-member Ss: 1) nominal – form of a N or sometimes numeral; extended or unextended; mainly sentences which are existential sentences used in descriptions or in stage directions or as book titles; 2) adjectival – denote certain qualities & ascribe these qualities to the whole situation; 3) adverbial – mostly prepositional adverbial phrases; 4) verbal – expressed by the non-finite forms of the V. Mainly used to describe emotions, subjective perception of reality.

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Semi-predicative / secondary predicative word groups	\|	Compound Sentence. Semantic relations between the clauses.

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