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Types of sentences according to the aim of communication.

The sentence is a minimal unit of communication. From the viewpoint of their role in the process of communication sentences are divided into 4 types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory. These types differ in the aim of communication and express statements, questions, commands and exclamations respectively. Dickens was born in 1812. Come up and sit down. What a quiet evening! A declarative sentence contains a statement which gives the reader or the listener some information about various events, activities or attitudes, thoughts and feelings. A statement may be positive (affirmative) or negative, as in: I have just come back from a business trip. I haven't seen my sister yet. Interrogative sentences contain questions. Their communicative function consists in asking for information. They belong to the sphere of conversation and only occasionally occur in monological speech. All varieties of questions may be structurally reduced to two main types, general questions(also called "yes-no" questions) and pronominal questions(otherwise called "special" or "wh"-questions). In general questions the speaker is interested to know whether some event or phenomenon asked about exists or does not exist. A general question opens with a verb operator, that is, an auxiliary, modal or link verb followed by the subject. Is that girl a friend of yours? Can you speak French? A tag question is a short "yes-no" question added to a state­ment. It consists only of an operator prompted by the predicate verb of the statement and a pronoun prompted by the subject. George is a football fan, isn't he? You know French, don't you? An alternative question implies a choice between two or more alternativeanswers. The conjunction or links either two homogeneous parts of the sentence or two coordinate clauses. Will you go to the opera or to the concert to-night? Which do you prefer, tea or coffee? Suggestive questions (declarative) keep the word order of statement but serve as questions owing to the rising tone in speaking: You still don't believe me, sir? So you knew about it before? Pronominal questions open with an interrogative pronoun or a pronominal adverb, the function of which is to get more detailed and exact information about some event or phenomenon known to the speaker and listener. The interrogative pronouns and adverbs: what, which, who, whom, whose, where, when, why, how: Whose team has won the match? Which story did you like best? Who came first? A rhetorical question contains a statement disguised as a question, which is usually positive hiding a negative statement. No answer is expected. What else could I do? Do we always act as we ought to? Imperative sentences express commands which convey the desire of the speaker to make someone, generally the listener, perform an action. Besides they may express prohibition, a request, an invitation, a warning, persuasion, depend­ing on the situation, context or intonation. Stand up! Sit down. Open your textbooks. Be quick! Exclamatory sentence. Each of the communicative sentence types, besides performing their main communicative function, may serve as exclamations. You do look a picture of health! (statement) Hurry up! (command). An exclamation as a sentence type opens with one of the pronominal words what and how. What refers to a noun, how to an adjective or an adverb. What a terrible noise! What a funny story she told us!



Indefinite Article

The article is a form-word which functions as a noun determiner. There are 2 articles in English: indefinite and definite. There are two variants of this article: "a" (before consonants),"an" (before vowels). By origin the IA is a numeral in the meaning "one". That's why it occurs only before nouns in the singular. It has 3 functions: 1. Classifying, in which it means "one of (the like)",Henăó is a student. My father was still a busv man. 2. Generalising, in which it means "any". A tiger is a dangerous animal. = Any tiger is a dangerous animal. 3. Numerical, in which it means "one" (this is its original meaning). Wait a minute. Be back in a second. Have a word with Leo. The IA is used only in the singular. In the plural such nouns are used without any article: There were books on the shelves. In English the nouns "advice, information, fun, luck, news, weather" are never used with the IA. In speech the IA most often introduces the referent of its noun into the situation of speech for the first time: A nurse was coming from the first tent. Emily shouts from the house that I have a visitor. IA is used: 1. When the referent of the noun is mentioned for the first time: From a hill he saw the city. 2. Before predicative class nouns (without any specification): You are a fine child. It is an American coin. 3. In the generalizing meaning (here in its meaning the article is near to the pronoun "'any"): A sentence is a language unit. A horse with a broken leg cannot run. 4. With abstract or material nouns preceded by descriptive attributes denoting special aspects or concrete instances of the notion or special kinds of the referents denoted by material nouns: It was a cold autumn. It was a very rare book.5. In its original numerical meaning of "one”: I’ll wait a minute. 6. with singular class nouns in exclamatory sentences beginning with "what": What a lovely picture it is! 7. with personal names: when a person is one of the family, clan: he was a Burton before his marriage; when the name is preceded by the adjective “certain” or if the referent is indefinite: A certain Mrs. Smith rang me up today. She was a Miss Crawford

Definite article.
The article is a form-word which functions as a noun determiner. There are 2 articles in English: indefinite and definite. By origin this article is a demonstrative pronoun with the meaning "that". Sometimes it occurs in a demonstrative meaning-even at present: I had no idea what the future held and at the time I did not care. It has 2 functions: 1.Individualizing (meaning "this definite), in which it shows a noun whose referent is known or definite in the situation of speech: The person I saw today was an old friend. Our apartment was on the first floor. 2.Generic (meaning "the whole class of), in which it is used before a singular noun indicating the whole class of objects, denoted by this noun: The lion is a wild animal from Africa. The DA is used in the individualizing function before nouns whose referents are definite. They are made definite by: 1. a restrictive (limiting) attribute or a restrictive attributive clause. We arrived at the house in which I lived. Where is the book I bought this morning. 2. the preceding context: Oliver opened the door and looked around, but could not see a big boy. "Do you know who I am?" asked the boy. "No, sir", replied Oliver. 3. the situation of speech: Mary sprang up and rushed to the door (of the room where Mary was). 4. the meaning of the noun(which takes place only in the case with nouns denoting unique objects): The sun rises in the West. The Earth is a planet. Ňhĺ Moon and Sixpence. DA is used: 1. When the person, thing, event, etc. (referent) is already mentioned in the given situation of speech: Yesterday he wrote a letter. A girl entered the room. 2. When any noun is modified by a restrictive attribute or a restrictive attributive clause: I’ll never forget the town in which I was born. 3. When the situation of speech itself makes the referent definite: Go to the blackboard (in the classroom). 4. before the names of unique referents: the sun, the moon, the sky, the world, the universe, the earth. 5. with nouns preceded by adjectives in the superlative degree, the pronoun "same", the adjectives “proper", "right". "wrong”: It was the happiest day in his life. He had taken the wrong tone. 6. With personal names: with personal names in the plural, denoting a whole family: The Davidsons lived in the next house. 7. with the names of historical events: the Renaissance. 8. Names of buildings, hotels, restaurants: the Tower, The Hermitage, the Kremlin. 9. Names of ships, newspapers, clubs, organizations: the Titanic, the United Nations, the Times. 10. with geographical names: a) names of four cardinal points: the east, west, south, north; b) groups of islands, deserts, mountain chains, names of rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, channels: The Baltic Sea, The Atlantic Ocean, the Thames, the Alps, the English Channel. c) Names of some countries and provinces: the Crimea, the Netherlands, the Argentine.


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 4552


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On, instead of, after, object to, because of, think of, by | Predicate Compound nominal.
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