Imperative Sentences

1. In imperative sentences the predicate is used in only one form-in the imperative one,

while in non-imperative sentences predicate may be used in any form except the imperative.

2. In imperative sentences no modal verb is used.

3. The imperative sentences are most often directed to the second person.

4. The subject of the imperative sentences are almost always represented by the zero alternant of you, that is, elliptically.

5. The imperative sentences urge the listener to perform an action or verbal response. The above said is quite sufficient to characterize the structure of imperative sentences to be specific and distinct from that of the structure of non-imperative sentences.

The rheme of the imperative sentence expresses the informative nucleus not of an explicit proposition, but of an inducement – a wanted or unwanted action.

SIMPLE SENTENCE

The simple sentence is a sentence in which only one predicative line is expressed.

1. According to their structure all simple sentences of English should be divided into two-member con­structions and one-member constructions.

One-member and two-member sentences are distin­guished by the number of principal parts (positions) they contain: two-member sentences have two main parts - the subject and the predicate, while one-member sen­tences have only one principal part, which is neither the subject nor the predicate.

One-member sentences in English are of two types: nominal sentences (e.g. Silence.) and verbal sentences (e.g. To think of that!). Nominal sen­tences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a noun. They state the existence of the things ex­pressed by them. They are typical of descriptions. Verbal sentences are those in which the principal part is ex­pressed by a non-finite form of the verb, either an infini­tive or a gerund. Infinitive and gerundial one-member sentences are mostly used to describe different emotional perceptions of reality.

Two-member constructions can be com­plete and incomplete. They are distinguished by the pres­ence or absence of word-forms in the principal positions of two-member sentences.

In a complete sentence both the principal positions are filled with word-forms.

In an incomplete (elliptical) sentence one or both of the main positions are not filled, but can be easily sup­plied as it is clear from the context what is missing. Ellip­tical sentences are typical of conversational English.

There exist several types of elliptical sentences. Elliptical sentences are sentences without a word-form:

1) in the subject position

e.g. Looks like rain.

2) in the subject position and part of the predicate position:

- the omitted part is an auxiliary verb

e.g. See what you mean?

- the omitted part is a link verb

e.g. Not bad.

3) only in part of the predicate position:

- the omitted part is an auxiliary verb

e.g. You seen them?

- the omitted part is a link verb

e.g. You sure?

4) both in the subject and the predicate position

e.g. Where’re you going? – Home.

5) in the predicate position.

e.g. What’s happened? – Nothing.

The problem of elliptical sentences has been and still is one of the most important and at the same time difficult problems of syntax.

The problem is solved by different linguists in different way. According to H. Kruisinga's concept “Any noun that is used to call a person may be looked upon as a sentence, or a sentence-word.

Some words regularly form a sentence, such as “yes” or “no”'; but they do so only in connection with another sentence. Words used in a sentence with subject and predicate may also be alone to form a complete sentence, but again in connection with another sentence only...”

2. According to the presence of secondary parts simple sentences should be divided into unextended (unexpanded) and extended (expanded).

The unexpanded simple sentence, a monopredicative sentence, which includes only obligatory nominative parts (e.g. He is a student.). The expanded simple sentence includes also some optional parts which do not violate the syntactic status of the simple sentence, i.e. do not make it into a composite or semi-composite sentence (e.g. He is a good student.).

The semantic classification of simple sentences should be effected at least on the three bases: first, on the basis of the subject categorial meanings; second, on the basis of the predicate cate gorial meanings; third, on the basis of the subject-object relation.

3.According to the type of the subject simple sen­tences are divided into personal and impersonal (e.g. It drizzles; There is no use crying over spilt milk.). The further division of the personal sentences is into human and non-human; human — into definite (e.g. I know it.) and in­definite (e.g. One never knows such things for sure.); non-human — into animate (e.g. A cat entered the room.) and inanimate (e.g. The wind opened the door.). The further essential division of impersonal sentences is into factual (e.g. It drizzles.) and perceptional (e.g. It looks like rain.).

4. According to the type of the predicate simple sentences are divided into process featuring (“verbal”) and substance featuring (“nominal”); process featuring sentences are further subdivided into actional, e.g.: I play ball; and statal, e.g.: I enjoy your party; substance featuring sentences are further subdivided into factual, e.g.: She is clever; and perceptional, e.g.: She seems to be clever. As the examples show, the differences in subject categorial meaning are sustained by obvious differences in the subject-predicate combinability.

5. According to the type o£ the subject-object rela­tion simple sentences should be divided into subjective (e.g. I live in Moscow.), objective (e.g. I’m reading a book.) and neutral (e.g. I’m reading.) or "potentially" objective, capable of implying both the transitive action of the syntactic per­son and the syntactic person's intransitive characteristic

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