B. As to Their Categories

The sentences He is a student — Is he a student? form a syntactical opposeme. Their forms differ only in the type of intonation and the relative position of the members of the predication. The only difference in meaning is that between 'declaration' and 'interrogation'. These two meanings can be regarded as the manifestations of the general meaning of a grammatical (syntactical) category which has no name yet. The category shows whether the sentence is presented as a statement or as a question. Let us call it the category of presentation. Like any grammatical category this is a system of opposemes whose members differ in form to express only (and all) the particular manifestations of the general meaning of the category.

The meaning of 'declaration' is expressed by a falling tone and by placing the subject before the predicate. The meaning of interrogation is expressed by a rising tone and by placing the structural (part of the) predicate before the subject.

Are you alluding to me? (Shaw).

Shall I announce hini? (lb.).

Is there no higher power than that? (Ib.).

Do you call poverty a crime? (Ib.).

In the last example a special syntactical predicate, the syntactical word-morpheme do is introduced and placed before the subject.

With regard to the category of 'presentation' Eng­lish sentences divide into those that have 'presentation' opposites and those which have not. Imperative and exclama­tory sentences mostly belong to the latter subclass-'In these sentences the opposeme of 'presentation' is neutralized. The member of neutralization usually resembles that of 'statement' (Go to the blackboard. Let us begin. Lookout!) But often it takes the form of the 'interrogation' member (Would you mind holding your tongue? (Hornby). Pass the salt, will you? Isn't she a beauty/) or an 'intermediate' form (How pretty she is!)

Not all interrogative sentences are syntactical opposites of declarative sentences.

The meaning of 'interrogation' in 'special questions' (otherwise called W/z-questions) is expressed either lexically^: (when the subject or its attribute in a statement are replaced by the interrogative pronouns who, what, which or whose) or lexico-syntactically (when some other part of a statement is replaced by some interrogative pronoun). In either case they are not opposites of the corresponding statements because they differ lexically[9].

The alternative question Are you going out or do you prefer to stay at home? is a compound sentence containing two coordinating interrogative clauses each of which is the syntactical opposite of a declarative clause. Only the intonation of the second clause is not interrogative.

Disjunctive questions are peculiar complex sentences the principal clause being a statement and the subordinate clause the syntactical opposite of its predication with regard to two categories, ‘information’.

You don’t smoke, do you? She is beautiful, isn’t she?

The meaning of 'affirmative' information is expressed by a zero form, and the meaning of 'negative' information' by means of the predicate negation, the syntactical word-mor­pheme not (n't) placed after the syntactical (part of the)

Not every sentence containing a negation is the syntactical opposite of an affirmative sentence. There was nobody in the room is not the opposite of There was somebody in the room. Here the difference is in the lexical meaning of somebody and nobody. Similarly in There is a book on the table, and There is no book on the table the difference is lexical.

With regard to the category of information English sentences divide into those that have opposites of the category and those which have not. Since 'negative information' is expressed in English only by means of the predicate negation, all the sentences that have no predicates are outside the cate­gory. Rain. No rain, are not members of a syntactical opposeme. They only resemble the corresponding members and may be said to possess lexico-grammatical meanings of 'affirmative' and 'negative' information. In exclamatory sentences the category of information is mostly neutralized. The member of neutralization usually resembles that of 'affirmation'. What a lovely day! But often it takes the form of the member of 'negation'. Isn't it marvelous!

The sentences above can be regarded as opposemes of the category of expressiveness. The two particular meanings are those of 'emphatic' and 'non-emphatic' expressiveness.

'Non-emphatic' expressiveness has a zero form, whereas 'emphasis' is expressed by a strong accent on a word-morpheme (morphological or syntactical). In sentences like He did come a special syntactical word-morpheme is placed before the notional verb to receive the stress[10].

CONCLUSION

In the conclusion of my work, I would like to say some words according the done investigation. The main research was written in the main part of my course paper. So here I'll give content of it with the description of question discussed in each paragraph.

The main part of my work consists of following items:

· The Sentence». Here I gave the definition to the term sentence.

· Classification of Sentences», in this paragraph different types of classification of English sentences are done.

I hope that my course paper will arise the sincere interest of students and teachers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Allen W.S. Living English Structure. – Longmans, 1960.

2. Beard, R. (1992) Number. In W. Bright (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Linguistics.

3. Croft, William. 1993. «A noun is a noun is a noun – or is it? Some reflections on the universality of semantics.» Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society» Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.

4. Eckersley С E. and Eckersley J.M. A Comprehensive English Grammar For Foreign Students. – Longmans, 1966.

5. Francis W.N. The Structure of American English. – New York, 1958.

6. Fries Ch. С and LadoR. English Sentence Patterns.-The U-y of Michigan Press.

7. Hornby A.S. The Teaching of Structural Words and Patterns. – Oxford University Press, 1959.

8. B. Ilyish. The Structure of Modern English. М.-Л., 1965

9. Jespersen 0. Essentials of English Grammar. – Allen and Unwin, 1953.

10. B. Khaimovich, B.Rogovskaya. A Course in English Grammar. M., 1957

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1061