33) Notion of the sentence. Classification of sentence. Types of sentences.

1.A sentence is a proposition expressed by words (something true). A proposition

is the semantic invariant of all the members of modal and communicative

paradigms of sentences and their transforms. But besides sentences which contain

propositions there are interrogative and negative sentences. Speech is emotional.

There is no one to one relationship. Then a sentence can be grammatically

correct, but from the point of view of logic it won’t be correct, true to life (Water

is a gas). Laws of thinking are universal but there are many languages. Grammar

and Logic don’t coincide.

2.A sentence is a subject-predicate structure. What are the subject and the

predicate? Grammatical subject can only be defined in terms of the sentence.

Moreover the grammatical subject often does not indicate what we are ‘talking

about’ (The birds have eaten all the fruit. It is getting cold). Besides, this

definition leaves out verbless sentences. There are one-member sentences. They

are non-sentences? Conclusion – a sentence is a structural scheme.

3.Phonological: A sentence is a flow of speech between 2 pauses. But speech is

made up of incomplete, interrupted, unfinished, or even quite chaotic sentences.

Speech is made up of utterances but utterances seldom correspond to sentences.

Thus, it is more preferable to describe a sentence than to define it. The main

peculiar features of the sentence are:integrity,syntactic independence,grammatical

completeness,semantic completeness,communicative completeness,communicative

functioning,predicativity,modality,intonational completeness

Predicativity is a syntactical category. It is actualized reference to reality. Logical

understanding: combination of 2 parts of proposition. Formally syntactic

understanding: relations of the structural components of the sentence (subject and

predicate). Semantic approach: correlation of the contents of the utterance with the

situation. The latter is most popular.

Modality is a semantic category. It is broader a notion than predicativity, it is

revealed both in grammatical elements of language and its lexical, purely

nominative elements. Prof.Pocheptsov: predicativity is mood plus tense

(predicativity is broader than modality)

Classification of sentences

1. According to structural features: simple and composite; two-member and

one-member sentences. Elliptical and one-member sentences:

e.g. Marvelous! Horrible! How very interesting!

e.g. No birds singing at the dawn (Strong resemblance to 2 member sentences).

e.g. I saw him there. Yesterday (parselation).

2. According to the purpose of the utterance: declarative, interrogative, imperative,

exclamatory, ? optative. Prof.Ilyish: before dividing sentences into 3 classes we

should divide them into emotional and non-emotional and within emotional we

can establish 4 classes.

The strictly declarative sentence immediately expresses a certain proposition, that

is why the actual division of the declarative sentence presents itself in the most

developed and complete form. The rheme of the declarative sentence makes up the

center of some statement as such.

The strictly imperative sentence does not express any statement or fact, i.e. any

proposition proper. It is only based on a proposition, without formulating it

directly. Namely, the proposition underlying the imperative sentence is reversely

contrasted against the content of the expressed inducement. It is so because an

urge to do something (i.e. affirmative inducement) is based on a supposition that

something is not done. An urge not to do something (i.e. negative inducement) is

founded on the supposition that something is done or may be done. E.g Don’t talk

about them (They talk about them). Thus, the rheme of the imperative sentence

expresses the informative nucleus not of an explicit proposition, but of an

inducement – a wanted or unwanted action.

The actual division of the strictly interrogative sentences is uniquely different from

declarative and imperative sentences. It expresses an inquiry about information

which the speaker does not possess. Therefore the rheme of the interrogative

sentence, as the nucleus of the inquiry, is informationally open (gaping). Its

function consists only in marking the rhematic position in the response sentence

and programming the content of the rheme in accord with the nature of the inquiry.

The thematic part of the answer is usually zeroed since it’s already expressed in

the question: e.g. How are you? – Fine, thanks.