20. Structural types of sentences. Types of simple sentences.

A sentence is a unite of speech whose grammatical structure confirms to the laws of the language which serves as the chief means of conveying a thought and which serves as the means of showing the speakers attitude to reality.

According to the structure: 1)One member - having only one principal member which is neither subject nor the predicate; 2)Two member- a subject and a predicate. If one is missing it can be understood from a context; a) nominal type: the main part expressed by a noun: freedom, bells ringing; b) verbal type: principal part is expressed by a non-finite form of the verb: to think of that, living at a mercy of a woman; a) complete; b) incomplete (one of the principal parts or both of them are missing but can be restored from the context: what are you doing? Drinking; Who found a vase? Robin).

Both 1 member and 2 member sentences can be: a)extended: contains the subject the predicate and one or more secondary parts: Spring again; b)unextended: contains only the primary members: The book is interesting.

According to the purpose of utterance: 1) declarative - statement, expressing some fact: a) affirmative; b)negative; 2) imperative - a command, request, invitation, warning. Most of them are marked by: a)lack of the subject; b)the predicate verb is in the imperative mood; c)the use of the auxiliary do in the negative and emphatic sentences (Do go visit your granny!); 3)exclamatory- feeling, emotions: it’s a nice day! What a beautiful day! a)it usually opens with pronominal words: what a terrible noise!; b)statement: you do look marvelous!; c)question: isn’t it funny; d)subordinate clause of unreal condition: if only I knew!; 4)interrogative sentences: a)general question (begins with the auxiliary, modal or link verbs placed before the subject. Can be negative and non-negative. Negative express surprise or disappointment: haven’t you any money left?); b) alternative question (implies the choice between two or more answers. Therefore it contains the conjunction or. Sometimes the alternative question contains only a negation in the second part: will you go out tonight or not?); c)disjunctive (asking this question the speaker expects the listener to share his point of view); d)special question (it opens with interrogative pronoun (who, what, which, whose, whom) or a pronominal adverb (where, when, why, how)).

A simple sentence is a sentence structure that contains one independent clause and no dependent clauses. The most basic type of sentence is the simple sentence, which contains only one clause. A simple sentence can be as short as one word: Run! The singer bowed (This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, singer, and one predicate, bowed). In the backyard, the dog barked and howled at the cat (This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, dog, and one predicate, barked and howled at the cat. This predicate has two verbs, known as a compound predicate: barked and howled. This compound verb should not be confused with a compound sentence. In the backyard and at the cat are prepositional phrases).

The most natural sentence structure is the simple sentence: it is the first kind which children learn to speak, and it remains by far the most common sentence in the spoken language of people of all ages. In written work, simple sentences can be very effective for grabbing a reader's attention or for summing up an argument, but you have to use them with care: too many simple sentences can make your writing seem childish.