1.2. Communicative types of sentences

The sentence is a minimal unit of communication. From the viewpoint of their role in the process of communication sentences are divided into four types, grammatically marked: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory sentences. These types differ in the aim of communication and express statements, questions, commands and exclamations respectively.

e.g.: Dickens was born in 1812.

When shall I see you again?

Do you know Italian?

Come up and sit down.

What a quiet evening!

Declarative sentences

A declarative sentence contains a statement which gives the reader or the listener some information about various events, activities or attitudes, thoughts and feelings. A statement may be positive (affirmative) or negative:

e.g.: I have just come back from a business trip.

I haven’t seen my sister yet.

Grammatically, statements are characterized by:

1. the subject-predicate structure with the direct order of words. They are mostly two-member sentences, although they may be one-member sentences:

e.g.: Very early morning.

2. a falling tone;

3. a pause in speaking and by a full stop in writing.

Interrogative sentences

Interrogative sentences contain questions. Their communicative function consists in asking for information. They belong to the sphere of conversation and only occasionally occur in monological speech. All varieties of questions may be structurally reduced to two main types, general questions (also called “yes-no” questions) and pronominal questions (otherwise called “special” or “wh” - questions). Both are graphically identified by a question mark.

Interrogative Sentences

General			Pronominal
Tag questions	Suggestive	Alternative

General questions

In general questions the speaker is interested to know whether some event or phenomenon asked about exists or does not exist; accordingly the answer may be positive or negative, thus containing or implying “yes” or “no”. A general question opens with an auxiliary, modal, or link verb followed by the subject. Such questions are characterized by the rising tone.

e.g.: Does your sister go figure-skating?

Is that girl a friend of yours?

Can you speak French?

“Yes-no” questions may be incomplete and reduced to two words only:

e.g.: Can you? Does he?

Note: A negative "yes-no" question usually adds some emotional colouring of surprise or disappointment. e.g.: Haven’t you posted the letter yet? (Why?) General questions opening with will/ would may be considered as commands and requests according to their communicative role. e.g.: Will you help me? Owing to their occasional emotional colouring, “yes-no” questions may function as exclamations.

Tag questions

A tag question is a short “yes-no” question added to a statement. It consists only of an auxiliary, modal, or link verb prompted by the predicate verb of the statement and a pronoun prompted by the subject. Generally the tag has a rising tone.

e.g.: You know French, don’t you? – Yes, a bit.

George is a football fan, isn’t he? – He certainly is.

A tag question is added to a statement for confirmation. It corresponds to such Ukrainian tag questions as Чи не так? Чи не правда? The speaker expects the listener to share his view of some situation rather than to give him some new information. The most usual patterns of sentences with tag questions are as follows.

Positive statement - negative tag - positive answer You knew that before, didn’t you? –- Yes, I did. Negative statement - positive tag - negative answer You didn’t know that before, did you? – No, I didn’t.