11/1)The Simple sentence: Basic classifications. Parts of the simple sentence: the subject & the predicate.

A Sentence – is an autonomous snt unit of communication describing a situation & having its own purpose of utterance; it’s structurally complete and phonetically or graphically shaped. It is a complete unit of meaning which contains a subject and a verb, followed, if necessary, by other words which make up the meaning.

The Simple Sentence

according to the purpose of the utterance

according to the structure

According to the purpose of utterance

DECLARATIVE s-ce states a fact in the affirmative or negative form and is characterized by direct word order: (Adv. Mod.) + Subj + Pred + Obj + (Adv. Mod.) “The shops close at 7 tonight”.

STATESMENT mainly functions as information-carrier, it may be used with the force of questions, commands and exclamations, as in: “I wonder why he is so late”.

INTERROGATIVE asks a question and is characterized by indirect word order. Its communicative

function consists in asking for information.

1. In general (yes/no) 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. A general question opens with a verb operator, that is, an auxiliary, modal, or link verb followed by the subject. “Do the shops close at 7 tonight?”

2. Special questions open with a question word (what, which, who, whom, whose, where, why, how and the archaic whence (=where, where to), wherefore (=what for, why), the function of which is to get more detailed and exact information about some event or phenomenon known to the speaker and listener. “Where do you live?” “Whose pen is on the table?”

A question word may be preceded by a preposition and in colloquial English it is preferable to shift the preposition to the end of the question: “What are you laughing at?” “What are you talking about?” Note1. When the interrogative word is the subject of the special question or an attribute to the subject, the word order is direct.

3. An alternative question implies a choice between two or more alternative answers. Like a “yes/no” question, it opens with a verb operator, but the suggestion of choice expressed by the disjunctive conjunction or makes the “yes/no” answer impossible.“Would you prefer tea or coffee?”

4. A disjunctive (tail/tag) question is a short “yes/no” question added to a statement. It requires the answer yes or no and consists of an affirmative statement followed by a negative question, or a negative statement followed by an affirmative question. It corresponds to such Russian questions as Не так ли? Не правда ли? You knew that before, didn’t you? – Yes, I did.

You didn’t know that before, did you? – No, I didn’t.

IMPERATIVE expresses a command which conveys the desire of the speaker to make someone, generally the listener, perform an action. Besides commands proper, imperative sentences may express prohibition, a request, an invitation, a warning, persuasion, etc, depending on the situation, context, wording or intonation: “Shut the door.” “Don’t shut the door.”

COMMANDS are formally marked by the predicate verb in the imperative mood (positive or negative), the reference to the second person, lack of subject, and the use of the auxiliary do in negative or emphatic sentences with the verb to be. A negative command usually expresses prohibition, warning or persuasion: “Don’t cross the street before the light turns to green.”

Commands can be softened and made into requests with the help of the word please or a tag question: “Speak louder, please.” “Repeat the last word, will you?”

EXCLAMATORY s-ce expresses feelings and emotions and often begins with the words what (refers to a noun) or how (refers to an adjective or an adverb). It always has direct word order. “What a slow train it is!”

ACC/ to the STRUCTURE

a the 2-member s-ce has 2 members, a subject and a predicate (a complete sentence):

“He could not help smiling”. If one or both of them are missing, they can be easily understood from the context (an incomplete/elliptical sentence): “Keep clear of the road”. (imperatives). “What about a cup of tea?” (questions expressing suggestion).

the 1-member s-ce has only one principle part (expressed by either a noun, or an infinitive) which is neither the subject, nor the predicate and it makes the sentence complete:

1. nominal one-member sentences: Dusk – of a summer night.

2. verbal one-member sentences: No! To have his friendship, his admiration, but not at that price.

the unextended s-ce consists only of principal parts of the sentence. Both two-member and one-member sentences may be unextended: She is a student. Birds fly. Winter!

the extended s-ce consists of the subj, the pred and 1 or more secondary parts of the sentence (objects, attributes, adverbial modifier): Birds come back from warm countries.

The Subject is the principal part of the sentence, a word or a group of words, which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the second principal part, the predicate, is grammatically dependent, in most cases it agrees in number and person. It denotes a person, an object or a phenomenon. Ways of Expression:

• a noun in the common case: The meeting is over. Occasionally a noun in the possessive case is used as a subject: Ada’s is a noble heart.

• a pronoun (personal, demonstrative, defining, indefinite, negative, possessive, interrogative): You are not a bad fellow. Nothing was said for a minute or two.

• a substantivized adjective or participle: The wounded were taken good care of.

• a numeral (cardinal or ordinal): Two of the letters were from my uncle.

• an infinitive, an infinitive phrase or construction: To understand is to forgive.

• a gerund, a gerundial phrase or construction: Seeing is believing.

• any part of speech used as a quotation: His “How do you do” never sounds cordial enough.

• a group of words which is one part of the sentence, i.e. a syntactically indivisible group: Their friend and defender was darkly groping toward the solution.

• a subject clause, which makes the whole sentence a complex one: What I need is a piece of good advice.

The Predicate

the simple predicate a finite verb	the compound predicate a finite verb + some other part of speech	the mixed predicate contains elements of two other types of predicates
the simple verbal predicate the simple nominal predicate	the compound nominal predicate the compound verbal predicate the compound verbal modal predicate the compound verbal aspect predicate	the compound modal nominal predicate the compound aspect nominal predicate the compound modal aspect predicate

The Predicate is the second principal part of the sentence which expresses an action, state, or quality of the person, object or phenomenon denoted by the subject upon which it is grammatically dependent. Types of Predicates:

From the structural point of view there are two main types of predicate: the simple predicate and the compound predicate. Both these types may be either nominal or verbal, which gives four sub-groups: simple verbal, simple nominal, compound verbal, compound nominal.

The simple predicate

the simple verbal predicate is expressed by a finite verb in a simple or compound tense form:

His words frightened me.

the simple nominal predicate is expressed by a noun, an adjective or a verbal. In the meaning of the simple nominal predicate there is an implied negation. Sentences with the simple nominal predicate are always exclamatory. These predicates are used in colloquial English, although not frequently.

He a gentleman! She spying!

The compound predicate

the compound nominal predicate denotes the state or quality of the person, object or phenomenon expressed by the subject; or a class of persons, objects and phenomena to which this person, object or phenomenon belongs. It consists of a link verb and a predicative (the nominal part). “The leaves are turning yellow.” “He is a mining engineer.”

the compound verbal predicate can be of two types:

a) the compound verbal modal predicate shows whether the action expressed by a non-finite form of the verb is considered as possible, impossible, obligatory, desirable, etc.

You shouldn’t have gone to the concert. I have to work for my living. I tried to open a bottle but I didn’t manage.

b) the compound verbal aspect predicate expresses the beginning, repetition, duration or cessation of the action (non-finite form of the verb). It consists of such verbs as to begin, to commence, to finish, to give up, to go on, to keep on, to proceed and an infinitive or a gerund; also would and used to+infinitive, which denote a repeated action in the past. I kept looking for the keys.

The mixed predicate

the compound modal nominal predicate: I don’t mean to be unkind. She couldn’t be happy.

the compound aspect nominal predicate: I continued to be glad for that. He was beginning to look desperate.

the compound modal aspect predicate: He ought to stop doing nothing. He can’t continue training.