ENGLISH IS A CRAZY LANGUAGE

V. TYPES OF SENTENCES

Principles of classification: there are two principles used for the classification of sentences.

1. The first principle is according to TYPES OF COMMUNICATION. Applying that principle we obtain a classification into declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences.

1.1.Declarative sentences assert or deny something, E.g.: A wind had cleared the mist, the autumn leaves were rustling and the stars were shining.

1.2. Interrogative sentences ask a question: Do you like this?

IV. ADDITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SENTENCES

1. THE SENTENCE IS UNIQUE AMONG LINGUISTIC UNITS

The sentence is unique among other linguistic units: unlike words and phrases sentences don't exist as prefabricated units (the sentence doesn’t exist in the system of language as a ready-made unit); there is no 'vocabulary list of sentences', sentences are created every time a new in the act of communication following certain sentence patterns. Therefore the sentence, unlike the word, is not a unit of language proper; it is a chunk of text built up as a result of speech-making process, out of different units of language, first of all words, which are the immediate constituents of contextually bound sentences.

III. MAJOR FEATURES OF THE SENTENCE

1. PREDICATIVITY 

In the sentence is a syntactic category that is the means of expressing a thought. Predicativity has nothing to do with the relation between the sentence and reality. Predicativity is a structural feature of the sentence and is the backbone of human thinking and linguistic statements. Simply, it means 'saying sth about sth ' ; it comprises relation of dependence between two members - one member which is what the statement is about, which is subjected to description (the subject) and another member which predicates sth about the Subject, which describes the Subject, ascribes features and characteristics to the Subject.
E.g: The sky is blue.
'the sky' is what the sentence is about (Subject) and 'is blue' is the Predicate characterizing the Subject. Predicativity is binary relation(S-P); The Subject and the Predicate are correlative notions - a Subject functions only in correlation to a certain Predicate and vice versa.

The predicate relation is different from the attributive relation - only the former expresses a thought, statement, whereas the latter is like a label of some entity or phenomenon.
cf. nice house - attributive expression, 'label' of some house;
The house is / could be / must have been nice. - predicative relation, expresses a thought / statement about the house.

According to Reformatskiy, predicativity is the main relation in the sentence; it is the nucleus, the basis of communication. The predicative relation corresponds to an act of thinking. In this act the subject of thought combines predicatively with its characteristics. This act of combining a subject with a predicate /two notions/ results in a thought. In the real world objects and their features are not separated, which can be illustrated with the so-called attributive word combinations like: blue sky, white clouds. Human reasoning singles out the separate components of reality and then relates them to each other predicatively as a subject and predicate,

E.g.: The sky is blue. The clouds are white.

II. DEFINITION OF THE SENTENCE

A satisfactory definition of the sentence is very difficult to give. Many definitions have been suggested by grammarians but it is very unlikely that there will ever be a ‘best’ definition that will satisfy everybody. It is difficult to draw the line between what constitutes a sentence and what doesn’t. The study of grammar has always focused on the sentence as the maximal unit of analysis, the tip of the pyramid of the hierarchy of linguistic units.

1. THE SENTENCE – DEFINITION, FEATURES AND TYPES

 I. INTRODUCTION

Syntax is a major branch of linguistics which along with morphology deals with the description of the structure / grammar / of linguistic expressions. 

Morphology / from Old Greek – “the study of form”/ deals with the paradigms of forms of linguistic units, e.g. the forms that tell aspect, mood etc. of a verbal lexeme. Syntax / from Old Greek – “putting together”/ deals with the combinations of linguistic units /syntagmatic relations/ into larger structures – phrases and sentences. The main unit of study in syntax, however, is the sentence, while phrases are on the borderline between morphology and syntax.

Because the sentence is essential for syntactic analysis, it is very important to give a definition of this linguistic unit.