75.Classification of sentences based on their communicative function

Aspects of the sentence:

- the structural aspect – the form of the sentence, the way words are organized into it

- the semantic aspect – the meaning of the sent.

- the actual aspect – determines which part of the sent conveys the most imp.info

- the pragmatic aspect – the use of the sent.as a unit of communication: a statement, a question, an order, a request, a promise

Types of communication:

declarative, interrogative, imperative (incl.emotional) and exclamatory

Declarative – the subj precedes the verb

Interrogative – aux.v in front of the subj.special w-order, very few modal words – modal w-s expressing full certainty (certainly, surely…) can’t appear in a sent, expressing a question

Semi-interrogative sent-s – “oh, you’ve seen him?”

Imperative – no gram.subj, the v – in the imperative mood; modal words, expressing possibility (perhaps,maybe) are incompatible with orders and requests

The notion of exclamatory sent-s and their relation to the other 3 types presents some difficulty: every sent, whether narrative, interrogative or imperative, may be exclamatory, i.e. it may convey the speaker’s feelings and be characterized by emphatic intonation and by an exclamation mark

Eq. But he can’t do anything to you! What can he possibly do to you! Scarlett, spare me!

Purely exclamatory sentence: “Oh, for God’s sake, Henry!”

The structure of a certain sent.may be used for other communicative purposes than those that are characteristics of the sent-s of this class

eq. Yes/No questions – You will speak to him? – declarative

Rhetorical questions – Is that the reason for despair? (of course not)

76.The category of tense in me

While the existence of the aspect category in English is a disputed matter, the tense category is universally recognized. This category denotes the relation of the action either to the moment of speaking or to some definite moment in the past or future (it expresses the relations between the time of the action and the time of the utterance). So the three main divisions of time are represented in the English verbal system by the three tenses. Each of them may appear in the common and in the continuous aspect. Thus we get 6 tense-aspect forms. Besides these 6, however, there are 2 more, namely, the future-in-the-past and the future-contin.-in-the-past. These forms are used chiefly in the subordinate clauses depending on the main clause having its predicate verb in one of the past tenses: ex. It meant for him that even death wouldn’t part them.

The time of the action can be expressed lexically with the help of such wds and combinations as yesterday, next week, a year ago, at half past seven, on the fifth of May, in 1980, etc. All grammarians believe that the English lang. has the present tense (it denotes actions taken place at the moment of speaking. It may denote very prolong & timeless actions: ex. I hear a noise. I’m writing a lecture. The Earth moves round the Sun.; it may be used for past actions- historical or dramatic present- ex. Yesterday I entered the room and who do you think I see? It can express future actions (planned): ex. The train leaves at 5 tomorrow.; in complex sent-s the present tense is bound or structurally dependent: a) adv. clauses of time, condition, concession… when, if, whenever; b) certain types of object clauses after the expressions to see to smth, to take care, to make sure: ex. I’ll make sure he comes on time.) The mean-g of the past tense (by Barhudarov): “it denotes an action, which is prior to the moment of speaking & that is not correlated with the moment of speaking. Non-past tense denotes actions which are outside the past tense sphere. The present & past tense forms create an opposition: take- took- is/was taking. Within this opposition the past tense form is the marker member. It’s marked by the suffixes in reg. verbs & in speech the suffix is represented by a number of allomorphs [t, d, id]. In irregular verbs it’s represented by dif. morphologically conditioned allomorphs – sing/sang.” The future tense (pr. Smirnitskiy, Ilyish) this tense form is analytical. It’s made up by the auxiliary verb shall/will & the inf. Which is the lex. part. Many grammarians even now believe that English has 2 tenses only- the present & the past (Jesperson, Shtelling, Barhudarov), and shall/will+ inf. Should be treated as a modal combination. However it doesn’t mean that the future actions can’t be expressed at all (it can be expressed by a number of other lex., gram. & contextual means).