Теоретическая грамматика английского языка

history of linguistics numerous attempts liave been undertaken to define the sentence, to reveal its essential properties. The sentence is an elementary unit of speech built up of words according to a definite speech pattern and distinguished by a contextually relevant communicative purpose, the sentence is characterized by predication which refers the nominative content of the sentence to reality therefore the sentence is the main object of Syntax as part of grammatical theory. Classification of the sentence according to the purpose of communication. The sentence is a communicative unit that is why the primary classification of sentences must be based on the communicative principle. In accord with the purpose of communication three cardinal sentence types are recognized in linguistics; declarative, imperative and interrogative. The declarative sentence expresses a statement either affirmative or negative, e.g. My friend told me everything about it. The imperative sentence urges the listener in the form of a request or command to perform or not to perform a certain action. e.g. Let's go to the post and send your letter. The interrogative sentence expresses the question. That is the request for information wanted by speaker from the listener. e.g. Did you get my telegram? The property of exclamation is considered as one of the accompanying features effected within the system of three cardinal communicative types. In other words each of these sentence types can be represented in two variants: exclamatory, non- exclamatory. Classification of the sentence according to the structure. According to the structure sentences are classified into simple and composite. The basic predicative meaning of the typical English sentence is expressed by the finite verb immediately connected with the subject of the sentence. Ibis predicative connection is usually referred to as the predicative line of the sentence. Sentences may have one predicative line or several predicative lines. A sentence with only one predicative line is the simple sentence. e.g. You've come later than usual. It all depends. Sentences with several predicates referring to one and the same subject can not be considered as simple. e.g. The vase fell and broke to pieces. This sentence expresses two different predicative lines since its two predicates are separately connected with the subject. Sentences having one verb predicate and more than one subject to it cannot be considered as simple either (if the subjects form separate predicative connections), e.g. The door was open and also thefront window. The subject group and the predicate group of the sentence are its two constituent members. According to the presence of bolii members in the composition of the simple sentence it can be one-member sentence and two-member sentence. 29