Communicative types of sentences

According to their role in the process of communication sentences are divided into four types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory sentences.

DECLARATIVE SENTENCES or statements. A statement may be positive (affirmative) or negative: Grammatically, statements are characterized by the direct order of words.

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES The communicative function of the interrogative sentences consists in asking for information. Two main types of questions: general questions (yes-no), special. The two main types have a number of structural and communicative modifications.

IMPERATIVE SENTENCES express commands. Besides, imperative sentences may express prohibition, request, invitation, warning, etc.

EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES Exclamatory sentences express ideas emphatically.

 

The subject. Ways of expressing the subject.

A subject is a part of a sentence which denotes an agent, an instrument or other participants in an action. The subject is usually the topic of the sentence. The subject is characterized by the following formal features. It is basically formed by a noun phrase or a pronoun (also a numeral, a gerund, an infinitive, a predicative complex, a nominal clause, etc. Structurally subjects can be of four kinds: simple -expressed by a single word form (The rain is heavy), phrasal -expressed by a phrase(Two and three is five) complex -expressed by a predicative complex (a for –to-infinitive construction (It’s easy for you to talk so), a gerundial complex (Your knowing a thing …), clausal -expressed by a subject clause. (What I need is a piece of good advice).

MODALITY. OBLIQUE MOODS in simple sentences.

Mood is a form of verb which shows in what relation to reality the speaker places the action expressed by a predicate verb.

THE INDICATIVE MOOD presentes actions as real facts in the present past or future.

THE IMPERATIVE MOOD expresses a command or request to perform an action.

Oblique mood forms (Subjunctive II, Conditional and Suppositional)

SIMPLE SENTENCE 1. Subjunctive II (past simple, past perfect) is used in exclamatory sentences beginning with 'Oh, that...', If only...' (Oh, that the rain were over! (present) If only he had come! (past))

Such sentences express wish or regret and are characteristic of literary style. Subjunctive II is found in simple sentences with modal verbs. (Could you come again tomorrow? You might have opened the door for me.)

2. The Conditional Mood (would+non-perf, perf) is used to denote unreal actions in simple sentences (I wouldn't waste my time on rubbish in your place).

In simple sentences only Subjunctive I is used in a few set expressions (Success attend you! So be it)

3. The Suppositional (should+inf) Mood is used only in one type of interrogative sentences beginning with 'And what if...? (And what if he should come back?)

The subjects “It” and “There”.

The pronoun IT may represent a living being or a thing (notional subject), or it can be just a formal IT.

Notional IT has 2 meanings: 1. Personal IT (in Russian = он, она, оно). The elephant is intelligent. IT never forgets.

2. Demonstrative IT (It’s me, It’s Kate).

Formal IT: 1. Impersonal IT (It’s cold)

2. Introductory IT (It’s a pity that you’re leaving so early)

3. Emphatic IT (It was Mike, who broke the window)

 

EXISTENTIAL THERE Sentences with the existential there express the existence or coming into existence of a person or non-person denoted by the notional subject. Most typically, a sentence with the existential there has the following structure: There + be + indefinite NP (nominal phrase). There's a bear sitting in the corner. There tells us that someone or something that has not been mentioned before exists, happens, etc.

 

The category of number. Irregular plurals.

Number is the form of the noun which shows whether one or more than one object is meant. Some nouns in English have both the sing. and the pl. forms. These nouns are called variable nouns. Other nouns are used either only in the sing. or only in the pl. they are called invariable nouns. Variable nouns can be regular plurals and irregular plurals. Some nouns (12) ending in –f form their pl. changing –f into –v: wife-, shelf-, leaf-, loaf-, half-.life, self, elf

Others: beliefs, proofs, roofs, cliffs. Both: scarfs\scarves, handkerchief/ handkerchieves. Mutation: man-men, mouse-mice, goose-geese, louse-lice, foot-feet. en plural ox-oxen. children, brethren Some nouns have the same form in both sing. and pl. * nationality nouns: Japanese, * quantitative nouns: hundred, million, * nouns in –S: species, means, works, crossroads, * animal names: sheep, deer.

Loan words: foreign plurals are common in technical usage (formulas(general) — formulae (in maths)

Some typical number inflections of loan words: stimul us -stimuli, op us -op era, phenomen on -phenomen a, strat um -stra ta, appendi x -append ices, index-indices, basis-bases, formula-formulae

The noun. Semantic classification.

The noun is a notional word which refers to people, things, ideas, feelings, qualities.

Morphological composition

· Simple (cat, desk, floor)

· Derived: - abstract nouns( arrival, meeting, election)- concrete noun ( servant, student, dancer)

· Compound nouns ( airport, bluebird, living room, parents-in-law)

Semantic characteristics

Nouns can be divided into 2 groups – proper nouns and common nouns.

A proper noun is used for a particular person, place, thing which is, or is imagined to be, unique.

Common nouns are subdivided into count nouns and uncount nouns. Count nouns denote objects that can be counted: they may be either concrete (table, tree) or abstract (idea, question). Uncount nouns are names of objects that cannot be counted. They may be material (silver,milk) or abstract (love, friendship).

There are a number of nouns in Engl. which refer to a set of objects collected together. These nouns are called collective nouns. They include group nouns, nouns of multitude and mass nouns.

Group nouns refer to groups of individuals: army, crew, crowd, family, minority. G. nouns also include proper names, such as the name of a country denoting a national team(England) or the name of a business company. Nouns of multitude are used as plural but have no plural ending: people, police, clergy, gentry, cattle. Mass nouns fall into 2 groups: those which are always used in the sing. and those which are always used in the pl. The sing. Mass nouns denote the substance which is divisible into separate things: furniture consist of pieces of furniture, grass consists of separate blades of grass. Some more: clothing, food, homerwork, mail. The plural mass nouns are marked by the plural endings -s: archives, belongings, clothes, earnings, goods.

 

Singular and plural invariable nouns.

Singular invariable: Material nouns: sand, water, silver, Abstract nouns: music, Proper names: the Thames, London, substantivized adjectives denoting abstract notions: the inevitable, Some nouns ending in –S (some diseases: mumps, measles, some games: billiards, darts), Subject names in -ics: aerobics, genetics, linguistics. Some proper names:, Wales, the United States.

Plural invariable: Words denoting things consistingof two matching parts: glasses, jeans trousers, miscellaneous nouns: archives, customs, earnings, some plural proper names: the Middle Ages, the Midlands, nouns of multitude: cattle, police, clergy, substantivized adjectives denoting people: the rich, the poor, the old, the young.

 

The use of the definite article with countable nouns.

Functions: specifying, generic. The definite article in its specifying function serves to single out an object from all other objects of the same kind. The specification is carried out by means of the situation, the context, the meaning of the noun.

Specification can be also carried out by various kinds of limiting attributes.

Prepositive limiting modifiers.

1. Adjectives in the superlative degree.

2. Ordinal numerals.

3. Limiting adjectives and same ( the main reason, the right way)

but an only child!!!

4. Attributive proper nouns ( The Pushkin Theatre.)

5. Nominal modifiers ( the colour red, the number seven.)