Communicative Classification of Sentences

The sentence is a communicative unit, therefore the primary classification of sentences must be based on the communicative principle. This principle is formulated in traditional grammar as the “purpose of communication”.

From the viewpoint of their role in the process of communication sentences are divided into three cardinal sentence-types: the declarative sentence, the imperative sentence, the interrogative sentence (Fig. 111). These types are usually applied to simple sentences. In a complex sentence the communicative type depends upon that of the main clause. In a compound sentence, coordinate clauses may as well belong to different communicative types.

A declarative sentence contains a statement which gives the reader or the listener some information about various events, activities or attitudes, thoughts and feelings. Statements form the bulk of monological speech, and the greater part of conversation. A statement may bepositive (affirmative) or negative. Grammatically, statements are characterized by the subject-predicate structure with the direct order of words. Statements usually have a falling tone; they are marked by a pause in speaking and by a full stop in writing. In conversation, statements are often structurally incomplete, especially when they serve as a response to a question asking for some information, and the response conveys the most important idea. Thanks to their structure and lexical content, declarative sentences arecommunicatively polyfunctional.

 

 

Fig. 111

 

The imperative sentence expresses inducement, commandswhich convey the desire of the speaker to make someone, generally the listener, perform an action. Besides commands proper, imperative sentences may express prohibition, a request, an invitation, a warning, persuasion, etc., depending on the situation, context, wording, or intonation.

Interrogative sentences contain questions. Their communicative function consists in asking for information. They belong to the sphere of conversation and only occasionally occur in monological speech.

Alongside of the three cardinal communicative sentence-types, another type of sentences is recognised in the theory of syntax, namely, the so-called exclamatory sentence. In modern linguistics it has been demonstrated that exclamatory sentences do not possess any complete set of qualities that could place them on one and the same level with the three cardinal communicative types of sentences.

SIMPLE SENTENCE

The simple sentence is a sentence in which only one predicative line is expressed.

1. According to their structureall simple sentences of English should be divided into two-member (two-axis) constructions and one-member (one-axis)constructions (Fig. 112).

One-member and two-member sentences are distinguished by the num­ber of principal parts (positions) they contain: two-member sentences have two main parts – the subject and the predicate, while one-member sen­tences have only one principal part, which is neither the subject nor the predicate.

 

Fig. 112

 

One-member sentences in English are of two types:nominal sentences andverbal sentences. Nominal sentences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a noun. They state the existence of the things expressed by them. They are typical of descriptions. Verbal sentences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a non-finite form of the verb, either an infinitive or a gerund. Infinitive and gerundial one-member sentences are mostly used to describe different emotional perceptions of reality.

Two-member (two-axis) constructions can be complete and incomplete. They 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.

In an incomplete (elliptical) sentence one or both of the main posi­tions are not filled, but can be easily supplied as it is clear from the context what is missing. Elliptical sentences are typical of conversational English. There exist several types of elliptical sentences (Fig. 113).


Fig. 113


Fig. 114


The semantic classification of simple sentences should be effected at least on the three bases: first, on the basis of the subject categorial meanings; second, on the basis of the predicate categorial meanings; third, on the basis of the subject-object relation.

2. According to the type of the subject simple sentences are divided into personal and impersonal (Fig. 114). The further division of the personal sentences is into human and non-human; human — into definite and indefinite; non-human — into animate and inanimate. The further essential division of impersonal sentences is into factual and perceptional. The differences in subject categorial meanings are sustained by the obvious differences in subject-predicate combinability.

3. According to the type of the predicatesimple sentences are divided into process-featuring (“verbal”) and, in the broad sense, substance-featuring (including substance as such and substantive quality — “nominal”) (Fig. 115). Among the process-featuring sentences actional and statal ones are to be discriminated. Among the substance-featuring sentences factual and perceptional ones are to be discriminated.

 

 

Fig. 115

 

4. According to the type of the subject-object relation simple sentences should be divided into subjective, objective and neutral or “potentially” objective, capable of implying both the transitive action of the syntactic person and the syntactic person’s intransitive characteristic (Fig. 116).

 

 

Fig. 116

 

5. According to the presence of secondary partssimple sentences should be divided into unextended (unexpanded) and extended (expanded) (Fig. 117).

 

Fig. 117

 

Anunextended sentence contains two main positions of the basic pattern, that of the subject and the predicate.

An extended sentence may contain variousoptional elements (including attributes, certain kinds of prepositional objects and adverbial modifiers).

 

SENTENCE PARTS

Every sentence can be divided into certain components which are called parts of the sentence (Fig. 118).

Fig. 118

 

Parts of the sentence are usually classified into principal and secondary. The principal parts of the sentence are subject and the predicate. The subject is a person-modifier of the predicate. The predicate is a process-modifier of the subject-person. They constitute the backbone of the sentence. The secondary parts of the sentence are the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifier. The secondary parts of the sentence modify the principal parts or each other.The object is a substance-modifier of a processual part. The attribute is a quality-modifier of a substantive part. The adverbial is a quality-modifier of a processual part or the whole of the sentence.

Besides these two kinds of sentence components there are so-called independent elements, that is, elements standing outside the structure of the sentence, and therefore of lesser importance. The independent elements the parenthetical enclosure, the addressing enclosure, the interjectional enclosure. The parenthetical enclosure is a detached speaker-bound modifier of any sentence-part or the whole of the sentence. The addressing enclosure (address) is a substantive modifier of the destination of the sentence and hence, from its angle, a modifier of the sentence as a whole. The interjectional enclosure is a speaker-bound emotional modifier of the sentence.

PRINCIPLE SENTENCE PARTS

SUBJECT

 

English sentence but the one-member and the imperative one must have a subject. The subject is one of the two principal parts of the sentence. The subject can be expressed in different ways (Fig. 119).

From the point of view of its grammatical value the subject may be either notional or formal (Fig. 120).

The notional subject denotes or (points out a person or a non-person, that is, various kinds of concrete things, substances, abstract no­tions or happening.

The formal subject neither denotes nor points out any person or non-person and is only a structural element of the sentence filling the position of the subject. Thus a formal subject functions only as a position-filler. In English there are two such position-fillers: it and there.

The formal subject expressed by it is found in two patterns of sentences: those with impersonal it and those with introductory it.

The formal subject it is impersonal when it is used in sentences describing various states of nature, things in general, characteristics of the environment, or denoting time, distance, other measurements.

The formal subject it is introductory (anticipatory) if it introduces thenotional subject expressed by an infinitive, a gerund, an infinitive/gerundial phrase, a predicative complex, or a clause. The sentence thus contains two subjects: the formal (introductory) subject it and the notional subject, which follows the predicate.

The difference between the two structural types lies in that the pattern with the introductory subject accentuates the idea expressed by the notional subject, whereas the pattern without it accentuates the idea expressed in the predicate.

Sentences with a notional subject introduced by there express the existence or coming into existence of a person or non-person denoted by the subject. Such sentences may be called existential sentences or sentences of presentation. They are employed where the subject presents some new idea or the most important piece of information.

 

 

Fig. 119

 

Fig. 120

PREDICATE

 

The predicate is the second principal part of the sentence and its organizing centre, as the object and nearly all adverbial modifiers are connected with, and dependent on, it.

The predicate may be considered from the semantic or from the structural point of view.


Fig. 121

Structurally the predicate in English expressed by a finite verb agrees with the subject in number and person. The only exception to this rule is a compound modal and a simple nominal predicate, the latter having no verb form at all.

According to the meaning of its components, the predicate may denote an action, a state, a quality, or an attitude to some action or state ascribed to the subject. These different meanings find their expression in the structure of the predicate and the lexical meaning of its constituents.

From the structural point of view there are two main types of predicate: the simple predicate and the compound predicate (Fig. 121). Both these types may be either nominal or verbal, which gives four sub-groups: simple verbal, simple nominal, compound verbal, compound nominal. Compound verbal predicates may be further classified into phasal, modal and of double orientation Compound nominal predicates may be classified into nominal proper and double nominal.