2017-11-01
1002
OF SIMPLE 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 communication but also a means of showing the speaker’s attitude.
The classification of the simple sentences is based on 2 principles:
According to the purpose of utterance we distinguish 4 kinds of sentences:
1. A declarative sentence states a fact in the affirmative or negative form
Children are fond of going to the Zoo. This is not my pen.
2. An interrogative sentence asks a question. It is formed by means of inversion. There are 4 kinds of questions: general, special, alternative and disjunctive.
Have you chosen teaching as a career?
Where is the library?
Is it your bag or mine?
You don’t think so, do you?
3. An imperative sentence is used to induce a person to do something, so it expresses commands, requests, etc.
Put it on the table.
Do have some more tea.
4. An exclamatory sentence expresses some kind of emotion. These sentences usually begin with the words what or how, but there is no inversion in them.
What a good time we've had today!
How delightful her manners are!
An exclamatory sentence can also have the form of a general question.
Hasn't she grown!
Is she gorgeous!
A to the structure simple sentences are divided into two-member and one-member sentences.
A two-member sentence has two principal members – a subject and a predicate. If one of them is missing it can be easily understood from the context. A two-member sentence may be complete or incomplete. It is complete when it has a subject and a predicate.
He was thinking.
It is incomplete when one of the principle parts or both of them are missing, but can be easily understood from the context. Such sentences are called elliptical and are mostly used in colloquial speech and especially in a dialogue.
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What are we doing? - Speaking.
A one-member sentence is a sentence having only one member which is neither the subject nor the predicate. This doesn’t mean, however, that the other member is missing, for the one member makes the sense complete.
One-member sentences are used mostly in descriptions and in emotional speech. If the main part of a one-member sentence is expressed by a noun, the sentence is called nominal. The noun may be modified by attributes
Freedom! Bells ringing out, flowers, kisses, wine.
The main part of a one-member sentence is often expressed by an infinitive.
No! To have his friendship, but not at that price.
Simple sentences, both one-member and two-member, can be unextended and extended. The sentence consisting only of the primary or principle parts is called an unextended sentence.
Birds fly.
An extended sentence is a sentence consisting of a subject, a predicate and one or more secondary parts (objects, attributes, and adverbial modifiers).
The two native women stole glances at Sarie.
WORD ORDER
DIRECT WORD ORDER
Word order in English is more important than it is in Russian. The place of a word in a sentence shows its relation to other words. Word order in English is fixed. Every position in a sentence has a certain functional significance. Thus the place of a noun before a finite verb shows that the noun is the subject while the place of a noun after a verb shows that it is an object. The word order is the only means of distinguishing between a subject and a direct object expressed by a noun. That’s why a subject and a direct object cannot exchange places without the change of meaning.
Compare the following Russian and English sentences with different word order:
(R) Коты едят мышей. Мышей едят коты.- The meaning of sentences (1) and (2) is the same.
(E) Cats eat mice. Mice eat cats. – The change of the subject and object positions determines the change of meaning of the whole sentence. So the word order in an English declarative sentence is fixed and direct.
In most cases it is as follows:
| Adv. modifier | Subject | Predicate | Object | Adv. modifier |
| Attributes | Attributes |
Attributes can be in pre-position and in post-position to the modified words. In the sentence they can modify subject, object and predicative.
Another day of waiting was over.
She will give you the further instructions.
She was a lovely child of five or six.
The position of an adverbial modifier is relatively free. It can occupy the following positions in a sentence:
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1) Initial position (at the beginning of a sentence)
Sometimes it gets really hot here.
2) Interposition (between the subject and the predicate or between the auxiliary and the notional verb).
He often comes to this place. He has never said anything of the kind.
3) Post position (immediately after the finite verb)
She won’t come here with us.
4) Final position (at the end of the sentence)
She is making this report tomorrow.
If there are several adverbial modifiers, they stand in the following order:
a) after the verbs of motion:
| Adv. Modifier of Place | Adv. Modifier of Manner | Adv. Modifier of Time |
b) after other verbs
| Adv. Modifier of Manner | Adv. Modifier of Place | Adv. Modifier of Time |
