TYPES OF SIMPLE SENTENCES

SUMMARISING VER
1. STATEMENTS

 E.g: John will speak to the boss today.

2. QUESTIONS

a. The placing of the operator immediately in front of the subject:

 E.g: Will John speak to the boss today?

b. The initial positioning of an interrogative or wh – elements:

 E.g: Who will you speak to?

c. Rising intonation:

 E.g: You will speak to the BÓSS?

3. COMMANDS

 E.g: Speak to the boss today.

4. EXCLAMATIONS: An initial phrase introduced by what or how, without inversion of subject

and operator:

 E.g: What a noise they are making!

A. Statements (Declarative sentences).

Statements are sentences in which the subject is always present and generally precedes the verbs.

1. Affirmative sentences.

 E.g: John drinks beer.

 In the case of declaratives without a subject there is a situational ellipsis.
 E.g: Sorry about that / See you later.
 When the subject is given special emphasis the verb comes first.
 E.g: Out rushed the thief.

2. Negative sentences.

The negation of a sentence is accomplished by inserting not between the operator and the
predication.

 Clausal negation = negative clause.

 E.g: She was not happy/She wasn’t happy.
 Subclausal negation = positive clause.
 E.g: She was unhappy.

Word negation.
There are two possible combinations:

a. When both the form and the meaning are negative.

 E.g: He wouldn’t say a word/He would say not a word.

b. When there is positive form and negative meaning.

NEVER, HARDLY, FEW, SELDOM, BARELY, LITTLE, RARELY, SCARCELY.

 E.g: He has seldom told a lie.

Focus of Negation.

 E.g: (1) ‘HARRY didn’t attack the Labour Government.

(2) Harry didn’t ‘ATTACK the Labour Government. 
(3) Harry didn’t attack the ‘LABOUR GOVERNMENT.

Scope of Negation.

 E.g: (1) I definitely didn’t speak to him. (‘It’s definite that I did not’)

(2) I didn’t definitely speak to him. (‘It’s not definite that I did’)

B. Questions ( Interrogative sentences).

(1) affirmation of rejection: YES – NO questions;

(2) a reply supplying an item of information: WH – questions;

(3 the reply one of two or more options presented in the question: ALTERNATIVE questions.

1. Yes-no questions.

a. Forms:

Auxiliary verb + Subject + Verb?

 E.g: Has the boat left?

Modal verb + Subject + Verb?

 E.g: Will Tom be here tomorrow?

DO:

 E.g: Does he like Mary?

BE:

 E.g: Was John late?

b. Responding to Yes-no questions.

Other ways of saying yes and no include yeah, yep, mm, okay, and nah, nope. These are
informal:
A: Would you like to play tennis with me later?

B: Okay. (meaning yes)

We sometimes add more information:

A: Will you be going to Ryan’s party?

B: No. I’m actually going to be away on Friday night.

Don’t use yes or no as a reply but the answer that we give means yes or no:

A: Do you know Tina Gomez?

B: We’ve known each other for years. We went to the same school. (meaning yes)

Using the auxiliary verb from the question instead of yes and no:

A: Hey Tim, did you go fishing today?

B: I did. I went with the boys.

c. Positive orientation.

 E.g: Did someone call last night?

Has the train left already?

d. Negative orientation.

 E.g: Don’t they believe me?

Did nobody call last night?

Negative orientation may also indicate that an expected positive answer is now expected to be
negative.

 E.g: Didn’t you call last night?

A negative question containing assertive items has a positive orientation.

 E.g: Didn’t someone call last night?

Note: We can use Yes-no questions to make invitations, offers, requests, suggestions and asking
permissions.

 E.g: Shall we eat out tonight? (Suggestion)

Could you wait a moment, please? (Request)
Can I carry your bag? (Offer)
Would you like to come to the party? (Invitation)
May I go out? (Asking permission)

e. Tag questions (Question tags).

A tag question is made up of AUXILIARY VERB + PERSONAL PRONOUN.

Forms:
 POSITIVE STATEMENT + NEGATIVE TAG

 E.g: The children can swim, can’t they?

NEGATIVE STATEMENT + POSITIVE TAG

 E.g: David hasn’t got a car, has he?

According to these two factors, four main types of tag questions are identified.

STATEMENT TAG TONE

Positive assumption and neutral expectation + - Rising
Negative assumption and neutral expectation - + Rising
Positive assumption and positive expectation + - Failing
Negative assumption and negative expectation - + Failing

Rising tone:

 E.g: The train hasn’t left, has it? (This is a real question)

Falling tone:

 E.g: Pretty woman, isn’t she? (This is not a real question)

f. Declarative questions.

A declarative question is formed by a statement with a final rising intonation.

(1) Statements with a positive form have a positive orientation:

 E.g: You’ve got the tickets?

 E.g: You understand what I mean?

 (2) Statements with a negative form have a negative orientation:

 E.g: Nobody called last night?

 E.g: You didn’t drink anything?

Declarative questions are used as an alternative formula for recapitulary question.

 E.g: What did you say?

 E.g: I beg your pardon? (Reduced form: Pardon?)

2. Wh-questions.

Their main features are:

(1) WHO, WHOM, WHOSE, WHAT, WHICH, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, WHY.

(2) A clause element containing the Wh- comes first. The Wh-word takes the first position in the
clause.

(3) They have a falling intonation.

Form: Question word + auxiliary verb + subject + verb ... ?

Interrogative words are used to differentiate person and/or clause function.

Positive orientation: A positive Wh-question may be matched with a positive presupposition.

 E.g: (Someone broke my glasses) Who broke my glasses?

Negative orientation: Wh-questions can also be negative. The presupposition can be listed just
as for positive questions.

 E.g: (You didn’t phone me for some reason) Why didn’t you phone me? 

3. Alternative questions.

There are two types of alternative question.

(1) Resembling a yes-no question: The only difference between an alternative question
resembling a yes-no question and a yes-no question is the intonation.

 E.g: Would you like a téa, a coffeé, or àn òrange jùice?

(2) Resembling a Wh- question: They present a wider offer of elements to be chosen.

 E.g: Which ice-cream would you LIKÈ? Would you like CHOCOLATÉ, VANÍLÌA, or
STRÀWBERRY?

4. Exclamatory questions.

The exclamatory question is a question in form, but is functionally like an exclamation.

A negative yes-no question with a falling instead of rising tone:

 E.g: Wasn’t it a marvellous CONCÈRT!

A positive yes-no question, also with a falling tone, is another way of expressing a strong
positive conviction:

 E.g: Am I HÙNGRY!
5. Rhetorical questions.

Rhetorical questions have an interrogative form, but they do not demand an answer.

(1) YES-NO rhetorical questions:

A positive question has a negative assertion.

 E.g: Is that a reason for despair?

A negative question has a positive assertion.

 E.g: Haven’t you got anything better to do?

(2) WH- rhetorical questions:

A positive question has a negative assertion. It is equivalent to a statement in

which the wh- element is replaced by a negative element. (Rising intonation).

 E.g: What SHÓULD I do? (There is nothing that I should do)

 E.g: Who KNÓWS? (Nobody knows)