The communicative aspect of the sentence and its actual division

According to their communicative aim sentences are divided into three types: declarative, interrogative and imperative.

The declarative sentence expresses a statement, either affirmative or negative. Declarative sentences are characterized by a direct word order, a falling tone and are correlated with the listener's responding signal of attention, which may express agreement, disagreement, sympathy, approval, appraisal

The interrogative sentence presents a request for information wanted by the speaker from the listener. It also differs structurally from the declarative sentence by an inverted word order. The usual response to an interrogative sentence is an answer which, together with the question, forms a question-answer_dialogue_ unity. Traditionally interrogative sentences are subdivided into several subclasses: general, special, alternative and so called disjunctive (or tag) questions.

The imperative sentence expresses inducement, either affirmative'or negative (prohibition) and its communicative function is to induce the listener to perform (or not to perform) an action. Structurally imperative sentences are usually subjectless and the verb is used in the form of the Imperative mood. They are correlated with the listener's verbal or nonverbal response showing whether the inducement is carried out or rejected

Each communicative type of sentence is best suited for a number of speech acts. Thus with the help of declarative sentence we merely state a fact (This is the best day for fishing), make a promise (I will come back and marry you), threaten (You shall regret your words), perform a speech act (I pronounce you man and wife); with the help of the imperative sentences we may give an order ( Come back at once), make a request {Please, give me your handy)

exclamatory sentences shows that they can hardly be placed on the same level with the three basic communicative types because they differ in their communicative status. TSo each communicative type of the sentence may be exclamatory and non-exclamatory. They are used to express the emotional state of speaker

Transpositions on the level of communicative types occur quite frequently and embrace all communicative types of sentences. Thus, a declarative sentence may be used as a request for information when it is supported by the proper intonation

Declarative sentences are often transposed into the sphere of imperative sentences. / want you to be quiet

Interrogative sentences can be transposed into the sphere of declarative and imperative. The most typical example of an interrogative sentence transposed into the sphere of a declarative sentence is the so called rhetorical question which from the point of view of its communicative function presents an emphatic statement

Interrogative sentences of the ' Will (would) you'' type are regularly used to express inducement and in this sphere, especially in women's speech, they occur perhaps more frequently than the forms of the Imperative mood, which is in exact accordance with the rules of speech etiquette.

Transposition of imperative sentences into the sphere of interrogative takes place with verbs of speech activity, e.g. 'Tell me your name!'

As is always the case with transposition, the primary communicative meaning of the sentence does not disappear completely but is shifted to the background giving way to the secondary meaning. This interplay of two meanings creates the effect of transposition and makes transposition an effective means of expressive syntax. Transpositions on the level of communicative types of sentences enrich the syntactic means of expressing various communicative intentions of the speaker. On the other hand, the processes of transposition reveal the flexibility and dynamism of the language and the absence of hard and fast lines between its various subsystems. Taking this into consideration it is possible to point out intermediate types of communicative sentences (declarative- interrogative, declarative - imperative

Analyzed in the aspect of its actual division most of the utterances may be divided into two parts that have been given different names: the topic and the comment, the starting point and the nucleus, the given and the new and, finally, the theme and the rheme, which are most widely accepted The theme is defined as the part of the utterance that contains given, familiar information which serves as the starting point of the utterance. It denotes an object or a phenomenon about which something is stated. The rheme is accordingly defined as the part of the utterance that presents new information for the sake of which the utterance is made, it is the focus of the utterance, its communicative centre. The information contained in the rheme may not be objectively new, but it is the most important for the speaker.

The system of any language possesses various means of expressing the components of actual division. They are numerous and may be expressed by units of different lingual levels: phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical. These means are generally used not isolatedly but in combination with one another. The most universal means is the logical stress with the help of which the speaker accentuates the focus of information. It should be treated as the primary means if only because the primary form of the language existence is its oral form.

Among the morphological means the most important role in actual division belongs to the articles^ The definite article is usually identified with the theme and the indefinite – wrth the rheme

Syntax also plays an important role in the actual division of the sentence. The components of actual division are first of all accentuated by the word order. This finds its reflection in two types of word order: objective and subjective. In the former the theme precedes the rheme, and in the latter the rheme comes first

Among other syntactic means of expressing the rheme we find rcpetition.riTg' You_ and only you_ can make me happy

Among the lexical means an important role in the promotion of the rheme belongs to emphatic particles which do not have a fixed position in the sentence and are usually placed before the rheme. E.g. Only he came yesterday. He came only yesterday.

The functional styles

A functional style is a system of interrelated language means peculiar to a specific sphere of communication.

Features of all FS: 1)Specific lexical, grammatical, and phraseological means which are used exclusively for the given style. The choice of these means depends on the aim of communication. 2) The basic language material in all FS is made up of language means common to all of them. Only a smaller part of the FS is made up of specific stylistically colored means. 3) FS are constantly interacting.

A register is a variety of the language distinguished according to its use / situationally oriented use of the language / a social variety of the language.

Modern linguists also distinguish social, regional and occupational language varieties. Regional language variation provides an answer to the question “Where are you from?” Social language variation provides an answer to the question “What are you?” in the eyes of the English-speaking society.

A genre is a text or discourse type which is recognized as such by its characteristic features of style or form.