What is a sentece?

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ 

ВОЛЖСКИЙ  ГУМАНИТАРНЫЙ ИНСТИТУТ

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Историко-филологический факультет

Кафедра английской филологии 
 

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‘What is a Sentence?’ 
 
 

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                                                        студентки IV курса группы А-243

                                                                 историко-филологического факультета

                                                    Боковой Ольги Александровны 

Проверил:

                                                                 к. ф. н. доц. Янушкевич И. Ф.

Волжский 2007

The parts of a sentence

A simple complete sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. The subject is typically a noun phrase, though other kinds of phrases (such as gerund phrases) work as well, and some languages allow subjects to be omitted. The predicate is a finite verb phrase: it's a finite verb together with zero or more objects, zero or more complements, and zero or more adverbials. See also copula for the consequences of this verb on the theory of sentence structure.

The classification of sentences

Classification by structure

One traditional scheme for classifying English sentences is by the number and types of finite clauses:

• A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause with no dependent clauses.
• A compound sentence consists of multiple independent clauses with no dependent clauses. These clauses are joined together using conjunctions, punctuation, or both.
• A complex sentence consists of one independent clause with at least one dependent clause.
• A complex-compound sentence (or compound-complex sentence) consists of multiple independent clauses, at least one of which has at least one dependent clause.

Classification by purpose

Sentences can also be classified based on their purpose:

• A declarative sentence or declaration, the most common type, commonly makes a statement: I am going home.
• An interrogative sentence or question is commonly used to request information — When are you going to work? — but sometimes not; see rhetorical question.
• An exclamatory sentence or exclamation is generally a more emphatic form of statement: What a wonderful day this is!
• An imperative sentence or command is ordinarily used to make a demand or request: Go do your homework.

Major and minor sentences

A major sentence is a regular sentence; it has a subject and a predicate. For example: I have a ball. In this sentence one can change the persons: We have a ball. However, a minor sentence is an irregular type of sentence. It does not contain a finite verb. For example, "Mary!" "Yes." "Coffee." etc. Other examples of minor sentences are headings (e.g. the heading of this entry), stereotyped expressions (Hello!), emotional expressions (Wow!), proverbs, etc. This can also include sentences which do not contain verbs (e.g. The more, the merrier.) in order to intensify the meaning around the nouns (normally found in poetry and catchphrases).

  Definitions

• Major sentences

So far, we have referred to sentences without providing any definition of a sentence. The question "What is a sentence?" is more difficult than it might appear. An American linguist, C. C. Fries, counted more than two hundred definitions of the sentence. In defining a sentence, too, it is important to remember that written prose and informal spoken language are different. The sentence is the basic building block of written language. In the past, sentences were often defined according to their meaning. For example, they were said to contain "a complete thought". This raises all sorts of questions about the difference between a complete thought and an incomplete one.

A common definition today is: "A sentence is marked by a capital letter at the beginning and a full-stop at the end."

This works for many English sentences, but there are many languages, such as those in Asia, that do not use this punctuation. Also, it is possible to have written sentences without capital letters and punctuation marks.

In traditional school grammar, a sentence was said to contain a subject and a predicate: a major classroom occupation was analysing sentences into subjects and predicates. (The predicate is all the rest of the sentence after the subject.)

This is how the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield, writing in 1926, defined a sentence: 
Each sentence is an independent linguistic form, not included by virtue of any grammatical construction in any larger linguistic form.

In other words, a sentence is capable of standing alone.

• Utterances

It is even more difficult to define sentences in speech.

For this reason, the term utterance rather than sentence is often used for spoken material.

• Minor sentences

There is a small group of sentences that are called minor sentences. These tend to have a set form that is not often changed. They cannot be analysed in the same way as regular or major sentences. This book is concerned mainly with major sentences. Minor sentences, however, occur often in everyday conversation.

David Crystal, in Rediscover Grammar with David Crystal, has suggested the following classifications of minor sentence types.

• Formulae used in social situations: 
  Thanks. Hello. Yes. No. Cheers. How do you do? 'Bye for now.
• Interjections (emotional noises): 
  Tut-tut. Hey! Ugh! Ow! Eh? Shhh!
• Proverbs or pithy sayings (aphorisms): 
  Easy come, easy go. The more the merrier. Like father, like son.
• Abbreviated forms, used in instructions, postcards, and commentaries: 
  Mix well. Once more with feeling. Wish you were here. One more lap.
• Words and phrases used as exclamations, questions, or commands: 
  Bother! Happy birthday! Nice day! The hell with it! All aboard! Oh for a drink of water! Taxi? No entry.

Some of the examples above contain finite verbs: Mix well; wish you were here. These have been included as minor sentences because elements of the basic clause structure have been omitted:

Minor sentences also occur as answers to questions or depend for their meaning on a previous sentence.

Aiden's answers to PC Timms's questions are still sentences, but they are minor sentences. These can also be called elliptical sentences because part of their structure has been omitted (Latin ellipsis: "falling short").

Minor sentences are not the same as incomplete sentences.

Sentence Types

There are four basic sentence types: statements, commands, questions, and exclamations.

• Sentence types: statements

These are also referred to as declarative sentences or declaratives (Latin declarare: "to make clear").

Written prose is made up mainly of statements. This is the sentence type mainly used in this book and described by the forms SVO, SVC, SVA and so on, as discussed earlier in this section.

The function of statements is to convey information. 
     My dog + has buried + his bones + in the lawn. SVOA

• Sentence types: commands

These are also referred to as imperative sentences or imperatives (Latin imperativus : "proceeding from a command").

The subject of a command is usually left out, but it is understood as the second person pronoun "you".

A gentler or more polite form of the command begins with "let's": 
     Let's have a party.

Commands are common in instructions:

• Sentence types: questions

These are also referred to as interrogative sentences or interrogatives (Latin interrogativus: "of a question").

There are four main types of question:

1. Yes/no questions

These sentences expect "yes" or "no" for an answer.

2. Wh questions

These sentences begin with a Wh word: what, which, when, who, why, where, how. They cannot be answered with yes or no.

Interviewers who use yes/no questions can have difficulty eliciting much response when the person questioned just answers "yes" or "no".

A questioner who wants a fuller answer must use Wh questions: