1. INTRODUCTION
This topic deals with the different ways in which the meaning of a sentence can be varied, by altering the order of words or by adding other words to the verb group.
The main types of sentence can be distinguished by means of MOOD. There are 3 moods in English:
· The declarative mood. (a)
· The interrogative mood. (b)
· The imperative mood. (c)
a) Statements are always formed using the declarative mood.
b) It is used in questions.
c) It is usually used to tell someone to do something.
A sentence comprises one or more CLAUSES. According to FUNCTION there are two main Clause Constituents: the subject and the predicate.
Main Features of the SUBJECT:
– It is a response to what is being discussed.
– It determines concordance.
– It changes position depending on whether the sentence is a statement or a question.
Main features of the PREDICATE:
– It is formed by four elements: verbs, adverbials, complements and objects.
– The verb element determines other elements:
· Transitive verbs can take one or two objects.
Monotransitive: if they only take one object.
Ditransitive: if they take the direct object and the indirect object.
Complex-transitive: when it takes an object complement and an adverbial.
· Intransitive: verbs do not take any object.
· Copular verbs: take a subject complement and adverbials.
According to FORM there are 5 clause constituents:
· NOUN PHRASE (NP): it can function as subject, object, complement, adverbial.
· ADJECTIVE PHRASE: it can function as subject or object complement and also as modifier of a noun phrase.
· ADVERB PHRASE: it functions as an adverbial.
· PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (PP): it is always formed by a preposition and followed by a noun phrase.
· VERB PHRASE (VP): it can be finite, if the verb is conjugated and non-finite, as the gerund, the participle and the infinitive.
Several clauses can be CO-ORDINATED to forma a sentence:
I am very extrovert and can easily make friends
but I don?t want to go out tonight.
A clause can also be SUBORDINATED within another clause:
I can easily make friends when I go out.
Syntactic definition of sentence elements
SUBJECT The main features of the subject are:
– It is normally a NP or a clause with nominal function
– It is placed before VP in statements
– It is placed immediately after the operator in questions
– Its number concords with the VP
OBJECT The main features of the object are:
– It can be direct (things) and or indirect (people)
– It consists of a NP or a clause with nominal function
– It is normally placed after the VP
– It assumes a subject function in the passive voice
– The direct object usually follows the indirect object
COMPLEMENT Its main features are:
– It can be a subject complement or an object complement
– It consists of a NP, Adj. P or a clause with a nominal function
– It has a co-referential relation with the subject or the object
– It follows the subject or the object
– It does not assume the subject function in the passive voice
ADVERBIAL The characteristics of the adverbial are:
– It may express manner, place, time?
– It consists of an Adv. P, NP, PP or a clause with nominal or adverbial function
– It may occur in more than one position
– It is generally optional, although it is compulsory with some verb types
i.e. I put the keys?
VERB The main features of the verb are:
– It consists of a VP
– There are 2 types:
· An intensive verb always takes a subject complement
· An extensive verb can take objects, object complements, adverbials?
Clause Types
According to the clause elements that are obligatory present (in addition to the subject and the verb) there are seven clause types:
S V A John is at home
S V C John is tall
S V O John drinks beer
S V O A John puts his beer on the table
S V O C John makes Sue happy
S V O O John gives Sue a beer
S V John laughs
Sentence Types
Simple sentences may be divided into 4 major syntactic types (Grenbaum & Quirk 1990) which correlate with four classes of discourse functions:
DECLARATIVE They keep the structure S+P. The verb can be in the affirmative or in the negative form. They correspond to statements, whose main aim function is to convey information.
INTERROGATIVE They are divided in two classes:
Yes / No questions: require the presence of an operator before the subject
Wh- questions: require the presence of a wh- element followed by the operator and the subject. They correspond to questions which seek information on a specific point.
IMPERATIVES They do not have an overt grammatical subject. They correspond to directives, whose main function is to instruct somebody to do something.
EXCLAMATIONS They are characterised by the presence of an initial WHAT / HOW phrase. They keep the regular order S + P. They correspond to Exclamations, whose main function is to express the speaker?s impression about something.
Notice that syntactic type and discourse functions do not always match. For example, some declaratives are semantically a question: You?ve got the tickets?
While some rhetorical questions are semantically a statement: Haven?t you got anything better to do?
2. DECLARATIVES: Affirmative & Negative sentences
2.1.- AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCES
In the affirmative sentence:
– The subject is normally present
– The subject usually precedes the verb (John drinks beer)
But sometimes the order may change:
· In the case of declaratives without a subject there is a situational ellipsis
Sorry about that / See you later
· When the subject is given special emphasis the verb comes first
Out rushed the thief
· MUCH / MANY, when they are followed by an object, take an initial position
Many trout has he fished in this river
· A structure with HERE / THERE and the verb ?to be? also falls in an initial position
Here?s the milkman (meaning: at last!)
2.2.- NEGATIVE SENTENCES
VERB NEGATION
The negation NOT is placed between the operator and the predicate:
I?m going to Berlin / I?m not going to Berlin
Sometimes contraction is possible, except with ?am not?:
She isn?t coming today
When a finite clause in simple present or simple past (except ?be? and occasionally ?have?), needs to be negated, the ?dummy? or auxiliary DO is used. This process is known as do-periphrasis.
He doesn?t like chocolate
We didn?t come back home
One of the main syntactic features of verb negation is that the negative clauses can be followed by:
· Positive tag questions:
They aren?t ready, are they?
· Negative tag clauses with additive meaning:
They aren?t ready, and neither are you.
· Negative agreement responses:
They aren?t ready / No, they aren?t
· Non-assertive items:
They aren?t ready either
WORD NEGATION
There are two possible combinations:
1. When both the form and the meaning are negative
2. When there is positive form and negative meaning
1. When both form and meaning are negative, there are alternative verb negations:
He wouldn?t say a word
He would say not a word
· Notice that an initial position is also possible:
Not a word would he say (formal style)
· A local negation is also possible without making the clause negative:
He is considered a not very sympathetic guy
I met him not long ago
· Other alternative negative words are:
Nothing Nobody No one
Never Nowhere
2. Some words have a negative meaning that transfer a negative orientation to a positive statement:
NEVER HARDLY FEW
SELDOM BARELY LITTLE
RARELY SCARCELY (?)
These words affect clause negation syntactic features:
– He has seldom told a lie
– Has he?
– Neither have I
– No, he hasn?t
These words fall in an initial position when there is a subject-operator inversion.
Little did I expect such enthusiasm
Clause negation often requires the use of NON-ASSERTIVE items, for example:
I need some à I don?t need any
He needs it too à He doesn?t need it either
He?s still at school à He?s not at school any longer
ANY
ANYTHING They are used in negative sentences instead of some, something or
YET already
SCOPE OF NEGATION
The scope of negation is the stretch of language over which the negative meaning has a semantic influence. This scope normally extends from the negative word itself to the end of the clause.
From now on there will be no lunch, dinner or chocolates?
And this even influences subordinate clauses:
I wouldn?t like to interfere in this affair
Disjuncts and conjuncts always lie outside the scope of the clause negation, whatever their position.
He didn?t meet them, unfortunately.
He didn?t meet them, however.
The use of assertive forms indicates the limit of the scope of negation:
I didn?t listen to some of the speakers
I didn?t listen to any of the speakers
FOCUS OF NEGATION
The focus of negation is a contrastive nuclear stress falling on a particular part of the clause which indicates that the contrast of meaning implicit in the negation is located at the spot.
I didn?t take JOAN to swim in the pool today.
He didn?t talk to the PREsident yesterday. (It was to his secretary)
He didn?t talk to the president yesterday. (It was the day before yesterday)
Its position indicates the scope of negation. As there are several possibilities to place the nuclear stress, the focus of negation is also variable.
I didn?t take Joan to swim in the pool today.
NEGATION OF MODAL AUXILIARIES
· In general, in the case of auxiliary negation, the scope of negation doesn?t include the main verb:
You cannot stop here (in all senses)
You needn?t pay the fine
· In the case of main verb negation, the scope of negation does include the main verb:
You shall not lose your reward
You mustn?t do that
· Auxiliary ?will? neutralises this distinction:
I will not interfere means both:
I don?t intend to (auxiliary)
I intend not to (main verb)
NEGATION IN WORD FORMATION
Some lexemes can be derived by adding a negative affix. The most common affixes are:
PREFIXES A- ANTI- COUNTER- DE- DIS- EX- IL- IM-
MIS- UN-
This room is very untidy
I found her disillusioned
SUFFIX -LESS
He was lying breathless
These words are more frequently used with attributive adjectives than with predicative adjectives.
3. QUESTIONS
Questions are used to express lack of information on a specific point, and to request the listener to supply this information verbally.
Questions can be divided into three major classes according to the answer they expect:
· Yes / No questions: Those that expect only affirmation or negation
Have you bought the eggs?
· Wh- questions: Those that contain a wh- element and expect an answer from an open range of answers.
What?s his name?
· Alternative questions: They expect as an answer one of two or more options presented in the question.
Would you like tea or coffee?
Other minor classes of questions are:
· Exclamatory questions: They function as an exclamation but are questions in form
Has he grown?
· Rhetorical questions: This type of question doesn?t expect an answer; moreover it has the force of an assertion.
Isn?t his car red? (surely his car is red)
3.1.- YES-NO QUESTIONS
This type of questions are characterised because of the type of answer they require: they expect an affirmative or negative answer.
One of its main features is the presence of an operator. This operator is normally placed before the subject:
· BE and modal auxiliaries are used as operator.
Are you ok?
· Also main verb HAVE (BrE); informally HAVE?GOT
Have you (got) a cold?
If there is no item in the verb phrase that can function as operator, DO is introduced.
Do they work in a hospital?
A. POSITIVE or NEGATIVE ORIENTATION
CONDUCIVENESS: These questions may indicate that the speaker expects either a positive or negative answer. Therefore they can be classified as:
– Conducive with a positive orientation
– Conducive with a negative orientation
When there is no expectation for a positive or negative answer, they are called neutral questions (it leaves open whether the answer is positive or negative).
Non-assertive forms as ANY, EVER, YET? are used with neutral questions.
Does anyone want to go out?
Positive yes-no questions:
A question has positive orientation if it uses assertive forms rather than non-assertive forms.
Did someone call last night?
Has the train left already?
Negative yes-no questions:
This happens when a question contains a negative form of one kind or another.
Don?t they believe me?
Did nobody call last night?
Isn?t your door bell working?
Negative orientation may also indicate that an expected positive answer is now expected to be negative.
Didn?t you call last night?
Can?t you speak proper English?
A negative question containing assertive items has a positive orientation.
Didn?t someone call last night?
B. TAG QUESTIONS
A tag question is made up of AUXILIARY VERB + PERSONAL PRONOUN. It is used at the end of a sentence to ask for confirmation of something we are not sure about or to ask for agreement.
Commonly the tag question is negative if the statement is positive and vice versa.
You called last night, didn?t you?
You can?t speak proper English, can you?
According to these two factors, four main types of tag questions are identified.
|
|
statement |
tag |
tone |
|
Positive assumption & neutral expectation |
+ |
– |
rising |
|
Negative assumption & neutral expectation |
– |
+ |
rising |
|
Positive assumption & positive expectation |
+ |
– |
falling |
|
Negative assumption & negative expectation |
– |
+ |
falling |
Rising tone: it implies a verification of meaning. With rising intonation the sentence is more like a real question.
The train hasn?t left, has it? (this is a real question)
Falling tone: it invites a confirmation of the statement. It is said that with a falling intonation it makes the sentence sound more like a statement.
Pretty woman, isn?t she? (this is not a real question)
————————————————-
A special case of tag questions is constant polarity tags. They are characterised by the following features:
– They have a rising tone
– There is no doubt about the meaning of the statement
– They can be used to express some disapproving attitude
– They can have a sarcastic tone
According to the form, there are two sub-types:
– When both statement and question are positive
You?ve been drinking beer, have you?
– When both statement and question are negative
You have not finished, haven?t you?
These tags may form part of imperatives and exclamations.
Open the door, can?t you?
Don?t make a noise, will you?
Several tag questions are invariant, they occur independently of the subject and the main verb. The most frequent invariant tags are:
? isn?t that so?
? don?t you think?
C. DECLARATIVE QUESTIONS
A declarative question is formed by a statement with a final rising intonation. There are two types according to the orientation of the statement:
– Statements with a positive form have a positive orientation:
You?ve got the tickets?
You understand what I mean?
– Statements with a negative form have a negative orientation:
Nobody called last night?
You didn?t drink anything?
Declarative questions are used as an alternative formula for recapitulary question.
What did you say?
I beg your pardon? (Reduced form: pardon?)
3.2.- WH- QUESTIONS
These questions demand an answer containing some information required by an interrogative word. Their main features are:
1) The presence of interrogative words: WHO, WHOM, WHOSE, WHAT, WHICH, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, WHY.
2) A clause element containing the Wh- comes first. The Wh. Word takes the first position in the clause.
What school do you study at?
(But also: At what school do you study? ? formal)
3) They have a falling intonation.
Interrogative words are used to differentiate person and/or clause function. The most frequent interrogative words are:
WHO
This is used to ask about a person?s identity. It can be SUBJECT, OBJECT or COMPLEMENT OF A PREPOSITION. A special formal variant is WHOM. This always functions:
– As an object.
– As complement of a preposition.
For whom do the bells toll?
Another variant is WHOSE:
– It indicates possession
– It can be used as a determiner within a NP
Whose car have you borrowed?
– It can also be used as a pronoun with personal reference
Whose is this car?
WHAT
This is mainly used with non-human reference as an alternative to WHO
What did you see?
It can be SUBJECT, OBJECT or COMPLEMENT of a preposition. It can also be used as a determiner.
What language do they speak?
WHAT is also used as a recapitulary question.
What did you say?
But notice that ?What?? is impolite (except among friends). AN alternative formula is used instead:
I beg your pardon? / Pardon? / Sorry? (BrE)
It is also used as an Exclamatory question showing general incredulity:
I bought her a new car
What? You must be mad
WHICH
This interrogative word is used to identify one out of a number of people or things. It has both human and non-human reference. It can function as SUBJECT, OBJECT or COMPLEMENT of a PREPOSITION. And it can also be used as a determiner.
Which car do you prefer?
HOW
This word is used to identify a clause of manner. To ask about the method used for doing something, or about the way in which something can be answered. The reference can be an adverb, an adjective or a clause:
– It is also a modifier of adjectives. It can be combined with an adjective when you ask to what extent something has a particular quality or feature.
How big is it?
– And adverbs:
How much do you want?
HOW can be combined with other words at the beginning of questions:
How many and how much are used to ask what number of things there are or what amount of something there is. ?How many? is followed by a plural countable noun and ?how much? by an uncountable noun.
WHEN
This word is used to ask questions about the time something happened, happens or will happen.
When did you meet her?
WHERE
This word is used to ask questions about place, position or direction.
Where does she live?
WHY
It is used to ask a question about the reason for something:
Why are you here?
POSITIVE and NEGATIVE ORIENTATION
· Positive orientation: a positive wh- question may be matched with a positive presupposition.
(Someone broke my glasses) Who broke my glasses?
(You have lent him some car) Which car have you lent him?
· Negative orientation: wh- questions can also be negative. The presupposition can be listed just as for positive questions.
(You didn?t phone me for some reason) Why didn?t you phone me?
MORE THAN ONE Wh- ELEMENT
There may be more than one wh- element in one question:
Which car did you give to whom?
In this type of sentences, only one wh- element may be moved to the front, the others remain in their normal position:
Where have they stolen what?
3.3.- ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS
Alternative questions present alternative answers from where the other speakers may decide. The two main types of alternative questions are:
1) Resembling a yes-no question
Would you like a tea, a coffee, an orange juice??
The only difference between an alternative question resembling a yes-no question and a
yes-no question is the intonation.
Yes-no question à rising tone
Alternative question à contains a different nucleus for each alternative. A rise occurs on each item of the list, except the last, with a falling tone.
A positive question is also formed by adding ?or not? at the end of the question.
Are you coming or not?
2) Resembling a Wh- question
They present a wider offer of elements to be chosen.
What would you like, a tea, a coffee, an orange juice??
3.4.- EXCLAMATORY QUESTIONS
An exclamatory question is characterised by the following:
– They have an interrogative form
– According to the meaning, they are an exclamatory assertion
– They have a falling tone
There are two types of exclamatory questions according to the orientation of the question: a positive question or a negative question. However, both show a positive assertion (and they both have a falling intonation):
A positive form indicates a positive assertion.
Am I hungry!
A negative form also indicates a positive assertion.
Wouldn?t it be lovely!
3.5.- RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
Rhetorical questions have an interrogative form, but they do not demand an answer. Although they have the form of a question, they are used with the meaning of a strong assertion. Two types:
· YES-NO rhetorical questions
They are characterised because they have a rising intonation. They can also have a different assertion according to the orientation of the question.
– A positive question has a negative assertion.
Is that a reason for despair?
– A negative question has a positive assertion.
Haven?t you got anything better to do?
· WH- rhetorical questions
They are characterised because they have a rise-fall tone or falling tone. They can also have a different assertion according to the orientation of the question.
– A positive question has a negative assertion. It is equivalent to a statement in which the wh- element is replaced by a negative element. (Rising intonation)
What SHOULD I do? (There is nothing that I should do)
Who KNOWS? (Nobody knows)
3.6.- ECHO QUESTIONS
Echo questions repeat part of what has been said. They do not have interrogative form, but they have a rise-fall tone. They are used in two main situations:
1. When the speaker wants to show interpersonal involvement.
– I had to do three exams
– Three exams?
2. For confirmation or clarification.
– Take a look at this
– A look at what?
Echo exclamations are also possible:
– I?m going to London
– To London!
4. EXCLAMATIONS
Exclamations are words and sentences that express something emphatically.
As a formal category of sentences, exclamative sentences are restricted to introductory WHAT and HOW. Their main features are:
1. They appear at initial position, but there is no subject-operator inversion.
2. The wh- word can only appear where an expression of degree is possible.
How quickly they learn.
3. They can be transformed into statements by using the emphatic degree items SUCH and SO.
He scored such a goal!
You learn so quickly!
4. In speech, they are frequently reduced by ellipsis of the other parts of the sentence.
What a girl!
How quickly!
5. There are exclamations that show reaction.
Good Heavens!
Oh, dear!
Bother! (porras!)
WHAT
It is a predeterminer in a NP. It may function as:
· Subject What a girl appeared on stage!
· Object What a goal he scored!
· Complement of a preposition What a mess they got in!
HOW
It is an intensifier of an adjective or adverb.
How kind of you to let me come!
How quickly you learn!
A prepositional phrase with OF can be used to specify a person, and a TO-INFINITIVE clause to refer to the action.
It can also function as a degree adverbial.
How I used to hate maths!
ECHO EXCLAMATIONS
Echo exclamations, like echo questions, repeat part or all of a preceding utterance. It is characterised by a rise-fall tone.
A: Close the door, please.
B: Close the DOOR! Do you take me for a slave?
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