4.The Sentence. Types of Simple Sentence (ss).

The sentence as the unit of the proposimic level of lang. is treated as the smallest communicative unit of lang. There are dif. definitions of a sentence, Iliysh gives the fol. definition: the sentence is a syntactical construction built up of words characterized by predicativity & modality.

The features of the sentence:

1) It's a syntactical construction built up of words;

2)The words are combined according to a certain syntactic pattern;

3)It's characterized by predicativity, modality, intonation;

4)Being a communicative unit it's characterized by a certain communicative purpose.

According to Blokh, the predicative meanings of the typical Eng. sentence are expressed by the finite verb which is immediately connected with the subject of a sentence. This predicative connection is termed as the predicative line of the sentence According to the number of predic. lines sentences fall into simple (monopredicative) & composite (polipredicative). Thus the simple sentence is a syntactical construction with one predic. line (predic. centre).

The communic. type of sentences: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory. The declarative sent-s: affirmative, negative. The interrogative sent-s: general questions, special, alternative, tag-questions. The imperative sent-s: orders, requests. All these 3 types co sent-s can be either exclamatory or unexclamatory. But there are pure types of such sent-s: What a nice day! How nice it is!

The structural types of the SS: there are 2-member & 1-member sent-s.

2-mcmber sent-s include both of the main parts (subject, predicate). 1-member sent-s contain only one of the main parts (either the subject or the predicate). 2-member sent-s can be complete & incomplete (elliptical).

The unextendant SS is a monopredicative sentence built of only obligatory notional parts (Subject, predicate). The extendant SS is a monopredicative sentence, which includes some notional parts which don't constitute a predicative enlargement of the sentence.

According to Ilysh, elliptical sent-s (ES) shouldn’t be confused with 1-member sent-s. ES are 2-member sent-s with one or both of the main parts missing in the outer structure of the sent-s but which can be easily restored from the context (either a situational or a linguistic context). The main sphere of ES-s is direct speech (Who was the first to come? - Mary. When did she arrive? – Yesterday.)

Es-s contain only the rheme of the utterance with the thematic part excluded for the sake of economy.1-member sent-s fall into nominal & verbal types. The verbal type may be expressed by finite verbs or infinitives (The shame of the day! The noise of it! - nominal type. Come here! Go away! - verbal type with finite verb. John to talk of it! To be away from here! - infinitive).

According to Blokh. not only ES-s. but 1-member sent-s too can be restored from the context (Night! - It was night. To be away! - I want to be away.). He divides the SS-s into 1-axis & 2-axis sent-s. The 2-axis sent. has the subject & the predic. axises which are clearly expressed in the outer structure of the sentence, in a 1-axis sent, only 1 axis or its modifiers are expressed clearly in the outer structure of the sent. He divides 1-axis sent-s into free 1-axis sent-s which include ES-s & 1-member sent-s which can be easily restored from the context: fixed 1-axis sent-s:

1) naming sent-s (The spimg of 1945. Night.);

2) greetings (Evening!);

3) Excuses (Pardon. Sorry);

4) causative constructions (Come on! Get away!);

5) Negations, assertions (Yes. No. Hardly.).

1-axis sent-s form a minor set within the system of Eng. sentence patterns. Though they are all related to 2-axis sent-s either by direct or indirect association. The SS is looked upon as a base pattern or elementary sentence, or kernel sentence. All the sent-s which are built up out of kernel sent-s by means of transformational operations are called transforms. They distinguish

1) inflectional syntactic paradigms;

2)derivational syntactic paradigms.

E.g.. The child plays. The children play. These 2 transforms are united by the category of number of verbs. OR: She plays. She played. She has played. (the category of tense, aspect).

Syntactic derivation is a paradigmatic production of more complex pattern constructions out of kernel constructions as their structural basis. The derivation of new sent-s are called transforms & the operations fall into the fol. types:

1) Morphological arrangement of the sent (He starts. He will be starting. He has started.);

2) Functional expantion (He understood my request. He seemed to understand my request);

3) Substitution (The pupils ran. They ran.);

4) Delition (Would you like a cup of tea? A cup of tea?);

5) Positional arrangement (Kate ran in with a cry. In ran Kate with a cry);

6) Intonational arrangement (We must go. We/must go?).