English Sentence Structure: Statements, Questions, Exclamations, Negations

0. INTRODUCTION

1. SENTENCE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH

In order to understand the topic discussed in unit 23, we must explain some concepts concerning sentence structure in English. In order to do that, we will begin by defining the concept of sentence itself:

Greenbaum & Quirk "Those language units which we must regard as primary, in comprising a minimum sense of completeness and unity"

Alcaraz, E. & Moody, B. a sentence is a group of words with which we express a thought

Collins COBUILD A sentence is a group of words which, when written down, begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop.

To many linguistics Sentence is the basic unit of language since, of all linguistic units, it is the one that can best stand on its own, and in everyday speech has the most coherent function.

Simple sentence - One clause that does not have another clause functioning as one of its elements. - Each of its constituents realized by a unit smaller than the clause, namely, a phrase.

Compound sentence - Two or more coordinated simple sentences with equivalent function.

Complex sentence - At least one of the constituents is realized by a subordinated clause (main cl. + sub.) - On the other hand, a clause can be defined as: o A structure with one or more of the following constituents: subject, verbal group (being essential), object, complement & adverbial, which will be analysed next. o So, there are 2 types of clause: . Main clause used on its own as a sentence. · Subordinate clause can only be used with a main clause & is often introduced by a subordinating connector. They only appear in complex sentences.

Up to this point, it is time to go into the analysis of the clause constituents, which are: a) Subject (S) · Complement (C): subject & object b) Verb (V) c) Object (O): direct & indirect · Adverbial (A)

1.1. SUBJECT

The main features of the subject are: - It is normally a NP or clause with nominal function. - It is placed before the VP in statements. - It is placed immediately after the operator in questions. - Its number concords with the VP.

1.2. OBJECT: DIRECT AND INDIRECT

DO & IO objects have some characteristics in common, which justifies their sharing the term 'object'. - According to form: normally a NP, a nominal clause or a nominal relative clause. - According to position: normally after the verb (IO + DO or DO + to + IO). - According to syntactic function: o Objective form of pronouns or reflexive pronoun. o The IO can bee omitted without generally affecting the relation between the other elements, except with ditransitive verbs.

- According to semantics: o DO affected participant o IO recipient O Sometimes also: locative or effected object.

1.3. COMPLEMENT: SUBJECT AND OBJECT

The subject complement relates to the subject, the verb being copular. The object complement relates to the direct object. - According to form: a NP, but also an AdjP. - According to position: o CS after the verb. o CO after the direct object. - According to syntactic function: o A NP concords in number with the subject (CS) or with the object (CO). o A reflexive pronoun concords in number, person and gender with the subject. - According to semantics: o CS Current or Resulting attribute of the subject. o CO Current or Resulting attribute of the object.

1.4. ADVERBIAL

Adverbials are the most diverse of the clause elements. They may express manner, place, time ... - According to form: AdvP, PP, Adverbial clause, NP. - According to position: initial, medial or final. - According to syntactic function: optional. - According to semantic properties: o Adjuncts refer to the circumstances of the situation, and is integrated within the structure of the clause. Ex: They are waiting outside. o Disjuncts express an evaluation of what is being said either with respect to the form of communication or to its content, and is not integrated within the structure of the clause. Ex: Frankly, I'm tired. o Conjuncts have a connective function between what is being said and what was said before, provides a link between clauses, and is not integrated within the clause, either. Ex: He seems very intelligent, though.

1.5. VERB

The verb consists of a VP and can belong to a number of different classes, and hence enter into a number of different class types, which are: SVA John is at home. SVOC John makes Sue happy. SVC John is tall. SVOO John gives Sue a beer. SVO John drinks beer. SV John laughs.SVOA John puts his beer on the table.

Now that these elements have been presented, we will continue with other different topics concerning this unit, which are: statements, questions, negations and exclamations, together with their corresponding uses and functions.

2. STATEMENTS

- Statements are sentences in which the subject is always present (except for cases of ellipsis) and generally precedes the verb, always present, too. - They can be affirmative and negative. The former are dealt with this section. Negations will be discussed later. - The general structure for EFL students to learn is the following: Any sentence constituent which is not the subj. or the verb Subject + Verb + Complement They are sometimes optional in the sentence DO+to+IO/IO+DO > manner > place > time - But sometimes the order may change: o In the case of sentences without a subject, there is a 'situational ellipsis'. Ex: Sorry about that / See you later. o When a speaker wishes to give special emphasis to a constituent, focalisation takes place, giving rise to the sequence of elements or ideas that most favour the communicative intention of the one emitting the message. That is, when the subject is given special emphasis, the verb comes first. Ex: Out rushed the thief. Ex: Here I said! / Never ever were we able to convince him / It was John we were hiding.

3. QUESTIONS

Questions can be divided into 3 major classes according to the type of answer they expect: - Yes/No questions expect affirmation or rejection. Ex: Have you finished yet? - Information questions expect a reply supplying an item of information. Ex: What is your name? - Alternative questions expect as the reply one of two or more options presented in the question. Ex: Would you like to go for a walk or stay at home?

A general structure for all questions, very useful for EFL students, where the components in brackets are not always obligatory, is the following: (Q-word) + operator + subject + (lexical verb) + (complements) + ?

Next, these major classes of interrogatives are to be explained in detail. Besides, another section will be used for presenting other kinds of questions which are less frequent, although interesting to be analysed.

3.1. YES/NO QUESTIONS

- They are usually formed by placing the operator before the subject and giving the sentence a rising intonation. Ex: Is that your car?

- If there is no item in the verb phrase that can function as operator, the auxiliary `do, does or did' (always governing a bare infinitive for the lexical verb) are introduced. Ex: Do you live in Spain? - Lexical `be', `have', when followed by past participle, and the modal auxiliary verbs function as operators themselves. - Another typical characteristic of yes/no questions is the use of the non-assertive forms `any, ever' ... in place of the correspondent assertive ones in statements. Ex: Someone called last night > Did anyone call? - Questions, like negatives, belong to the class of 'non-assertions'. - A question may be presented in a form which is biased towards a positive or negative answer. Ex: Would you like some cake? - Negative orientation is found in questions which contain a negative form of one kind or another. Ex: Does no one believe me? - Negative-oriented questions often express disappointment or annoyance. Ex: Haven't you finished yet? - A second type of negative question combines `not' with the assertive items which are the formal signals of positive orientation. Ex: Didn't someone call last night? - Such a question is similar in effect to statements showing disbelief and to tag questions. Ex: Surely someone called last night.

Among yes/no questions, we can also distinguish other different kinds of interrogatives, which are exposed as follows.

3.1.1. Tag Questions

- They are very short questions following a superordinate statement closed by a comma. - They consist of an operator (coinciding with the one in the statement, or with the correspondent `do, does, did') followed by a pronominal subject correferent with the one in the statement. - If the superordinate clause is positive, the tag is negative, and vice-versa. - The nuclear tone of a tag occurs in the operator and is either a fall (it invites confirmation of the statement) or a rise. - 4 main types of tag questions emerge from the observance of these rules: Tone Statemen t Ta g Examples: Rising + - He likes his job, doesn't he? Positive assumption & Neutral expectation Rising - + He doesn't like his job, does he? Negative assumption & Neutral expectation Fallin g + - He likes his job, doesn't he? Positive assumption & Positive expectation Fallin g - ++ He doesn't like his job, does he? Negative expectation assumption & Negative

3.1.2. Declarative Questions

- The declarative question is an exceptional type of yes/no question identical in form to a statement, but with rising intonation. Ex: He didn't finish the race?

- They do not admit non-assertive forms. Ex: The guests had nothing/anything to eat? vs *The guests had anything to eat? - Their casual tone suggests that the speaker takes the answer yes or no as a foregone conclusion.

3.2. INFORMATION OR WH-QUESTIONS

- These kinds of questions are formed with the aid of one of the following interrogative words (or Q-words): who, whom, whose, what, which, when, where, how, why. - When the Q-element is part of a prepositional complement, the preposition precedes the Q-word in formal style, but it can retain the position it would have in a declarative sentence in informal style. Ex: On what did you base your prediction (Formal) vs What did you base your prediction on? (Colloquial). - When the Q-element is the subject of the clause, the order is the following: Q-word (=subject) + lexical verb + complements + ? - Adjuncts of reason, instrument and purpose are normally questioned by the prepositional constructions. Ex: What did you do that for? - Abbreviated questions (=Q-word and final preposition) are popular in colloquial speech. Ex: Where to? Why not? - An IO cannot act as Q-element. Ex: * Who(m) did you give the present? vs Who(m) did you give the present to?

3.3. ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

As mentioned before, alternative questions expect as the reply one of two or more options presented in the question. There are 2 types: 1) Those resembling a yes/no question. Ex: Would you like chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ice cream? Intonation: rise (in the 1st element) + fall (in the last element). 2) A wh-question + elliptical alternative question of type 1). Ex: Which ice cream would you like? Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? - Any positive yes/no question can be converted into an alternative question by adding either: o `or not?'. Ex: Are you coming or not? o Or a matching negative clause. Ex: Are you coming or aren't you (coming)? - The structure of alternative yes/no questions follows the pattern of clausal coordination, collapsing together two or more separate questions, by ellipsis. Ex: Did Italy win the World Cup or (did) Brazil (win the World Cup)? - Where there is no repeated structure, no ellipsis is possible, and so the 2nd question appears in its full form. Ex: Is it raining or has it stopped?

3.4. OTHER TYPES

3.4.1. Rhetorical Questions

Rhetorical questions are questions to which the speaker does not expect a direct answer. They are used to make a point or to create a dramatic effect. Ex: Who knows? (meaning "Nobody knows").

3.4.2. Exclamatory Questions

Exclamatory questions are questions that are phrased as questions but are intended to express strong emotion or surprise. They often have a rising intonation. Ex: Did you really do that?!

3.4.3. Echo Questions

Echo questions are questions that repeat part or all of what someone else has just said, usually to confirm or clarify. Ex: "I'm going to the store." "You're going to the store?"

4. NEGATION

Negation in English is primarily formed by adding "not" after the auxiliary verb or by using negative words like "no," "never," "nobody," etc. - The most common way to form a negative statement is by inserting "not" after the operator (auxiliary verb). Ex: I am not going. She does not like coffee. - If there is no auxiliary verb, "do/does/did" is used as the operator. Ex: They do not play football. - Negative words can also be used to express negation. Ex: I have no money. Nobody came to the party. - Double negatives are generally avoided in standard English, as they can create confusion. Ex: I don't have no money (incorrect) vs. I don't have any money (correct).

5. EXCLAMATIONS

Exclamations are sentences or phrases that express strong emotion, surprise, or excitement. They often end with an exclamation mark. - Exclamations can be formed using "what" or "how." o "What" is used with a noun phrase. Ex: What a beautiful day! What an amazing goal! o "How" is used with an adjective or adverb. Ex: How tall he is! How quickly she runs! - Other ways to express exclamations include interjections (e.g., "Wow!", "Ouch!"), or simply by using an emphatic tone of voice with a regular statement. Ex: That's incredible!

6. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, understanding the structure of English sentences, including statements, questions, negations, and exclamations, is fundamental for effective communication. Each type serves a distinct purpose and follows specific grammatical rules, allowing speakers to convey a wide range of meanings and emotions.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY