CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH SENTENCES CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCE Traditionally English sentences are classified by their structure and purpose. By structure: Simple sentence Compound sentence Complex sentence Compound-complex By purpose: A declarative sentence An interrogative sentence An imperative sentence An Exclamatory sentence A DECLARATIVE SENTENCE (STATEMENTS) A declarative sentence (statements) they state facts in the affirmative or negative forms. They are characterised by a direct word order and are generally pronounced with a fallen intonation E.g. The day was lovely. I like sleeping INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE Interrogative(questions) they are formed by means of inversion. There are 4 types of question: -General - require the answers YES or NO -Special - begin with an interrogative word - Alternative – imply choice complex intonation -Disjunctive - require the answer YES or NO. Structurally they are complex sentences, the principle clause being a statement and subordinate clause IMPERATIVE SENTENCE They serve to induce a person to do something E.g. Bring me a glass of water. Don't ever touch my phone. Never forget the person who loves you. Take a step and don't move. EXCLAMATORY SENTENCE They serve to express various emotions E.g. Happy birthday, Amy! Thank you, Sheldon! I hate you! Ice cream sundaes are my favorite! BY STRUCTURE According to their structure all the variety of English sentences can be divided into four types: Simple sentence comprises a subject and a predicate (as well as secondar y par ts of a sentence): She (subject) invited (predicate) us to dinner. Compound sentence unites two independent clauses brought together by a semicolon or a comma + a coordinating conjunction: She keeps telling me to control myself, but she never does her self. Complex sentence consists of the main clause and at least one subordinate clause: Although he is tr ying to convince me (subordinate clause), I do not believe a single word he says. (Main clause). Compound-complex sentence has two main clauses and one or more subordinate clauses introduced by subordinating conjunctions and joined by a coordinating conjunction: I opened the parcel, but the boy disappeared before I could utter a word. WORD ORDER IN SENTENCE The sentence is a unit of speech which expresses a complete thought, and has a correct grammatical form and intonation. Every sentence has modality, which shows the speaker’s attitude towards reality. WORD ORDER IN SENTENCE A sentence which has some secondary parts is called extended.( Last night we went for a walk in the centre of Moscow) A sentence which consists only of a subject and a predicate is called unextended. (Life is wonderful) SUBJECT The subject and the predicate constitute the backbone of the sentence: without them the sentence would not exist at all, whereas all other parts may or may not be there, and if they are there, they serve to define or modify either the subject or the predicate, or each other. The subject is one of the 2 main parts of the sentence: It denotes the thing whose action or characteristic is expressed by the predicate. It is not dependent on any other part of the sentence. It may be expressed by different parts of speech , the most frequent ones being: a noun in the common case, a personal pronoun in the nominative case, a demonstrative pronoun occasionally, a substantivized adjective, a numeral, an infinitive, and a gerund. It may also be expressed by a phrase. PREDICATE The predicate is one of the 2 main parts of the sentence : It denotes the action or property of the thing expressed by the subject It is not dependent on any other part of the sentence. Ways of expressing the predicate are varied and their structure will better be considered under the heading of types of predicate. It is sometimes claimed that the predicate agrees in number with the subject: when the subject is in the singular, the predicate is bound to be in the singular, and vice versa. However this statement is very doubtful. E.g. My family are early risers . + The question of concord refers to the level of phrases, not sentences. THE SECONDARY PARTS OF THE SENTENCE The Object is a secondary part of the sentence expressed by a verb, a noun, a substantival pronoun, an adjective, a numeral, or an adverb, and denoting a thing to which the action passes on, which is a result of the action, in reference to which an action is committed or a property is manifested, or denoting an action as object of another action. Objects differ form one another by their morphological composition, by the parts of speech or phrases which perform the function of object by the type of their relation to the action expressed by the verb (direct/indirect) OBJECT Classification of object: Prepositional and non-prepositional objects Morphological types (noun, pronoun, substantivized adjective, infinitive, gerund) Direct/indirect, is applied only to objects expressed by nouns or pronouns. There are sentences in which the predicate is expressed by the verbs send, show, lend, give. These verbs usually take 2 different kinds of objects simultaneously: (1) an object expressing the thing which is sent, shown, lent, given, etc. (2) the person or persons to whom the thing is sent, shown, lent, given, etc. The difference between the 2 relations is clear enough: the direct object denotes the thing immediately affected by the action denoted by the predicate verb, whereas the indirect object expresses the person towards whom the thing is moved, e.g. We sent them a present. The indirect object stands 1st, the direct object comes after it. THE ADVERBIAL MODIFIER. T he Adverbial Modifier. T he term ‘adverbial m odifier’ cannot be said to be a ver y lucky one, as it is apt to convey erroneous (wrong, incorrect) ideas about the essence of this secondar y par t. They have nothing to do with adverbs and they modify not only verbs. T here are several ways of classifying adverbial modifier s: According to t heir m eaning – not a grammatical classification. However it may acquire some grammatical significance. According to t heir m orphological peculiarities – according to the par ts of speech and to the phrase patterns. It has also something to do with word order, and stands in a cer tain relation to the classification according to meaning.adverb,preposition + noun,a noun without a preposition,infinitive or an infinitive phrase According to t he t ype of t heir head -word – is the syntactic classification proper. The meaning of the word (phrase) acting as modifier should be compatible with the meaning of the head -word. Adverbial modifier of: Time and frequency, Place and direction, Manner and attendant circumstances, Cause, Purpose, Result, Condition, Concession, Degree THE ATTRIBUTE The attribute The problem of the attribute.The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, a substantivized pronoun, a cardinal numeral, and any substantivized word, and characterizing the thing named by these words as to its quality or property. The attribute can either precede or follow the noun it modifies. Accordingly we use terms prepositive and postpositive attribute. The position of an attribute with respect to its head-word depends partly on the morphological peculiarities of the attribute itself, and partly on stylistic factors. The size of the prepositive attributive phrase can be large in ME. Whatever is included between the article and the noun, is apprehended as an attribute.