Morphology &

Syntax

Communicative Aspects of
Sentence
Ms. Ma. Mickaela Mirasol M. Dimaano
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 02
Communicative types of Role of Sentence in
sentences Communication Process

03 04
Propositions And Illocution, Perlocution,
Presuppositions Illocution
 Lesson 1:
Communicative Types of Sentences
 INTRODUCTION
In accord with the purpose of communication three cardinal sentence types have long been
recognized in linguistic tradition: the declarative, the imperative and the interrogative
sentence. These communicative types stand in strict opposition to one another ,and their
inner properties of form and meaning are immediately correlated with the corresponding
feature of the listener’s response.
The Declarative Sentence

● The declarative sentence expresses a statement(affirmative or negative) and as such stands in

syntagmatic correlation with the listener's signals of attention of appraisal(including
agreement or disagreement).E.g. We live very quietly here, indeed we do.
The Imperative Sentence

● The imperative sentence expresses inducement(affirmative or negative).It urges the listener in

the form of request or command, to perform or not to perform a certain action.Thus, the
imperative sentence is situationally connected with the corresponding “action response” and
lingually is systematically correlated with a verbal response showing that inducement is
either compiled with or rejected.E.g. Go to the table(the person should go).Read the text(the
action follows).
The Interrogative sentence

● The interrogative sentence expresses a question,i.e. a request for information wanted by the
speaker from the listener.It is closely connected with the answer,forming together a
question-answer dialogue unity.E.g. Should I read this text? – Certainly, you should.
 AWESOME
All these three pairs of communicative types of
sentences make up distinct semantico-syntactic
oppositions effected by regular grammatical means of

WORDS
language, such as intonation, word-order and special
constructions with functional –auxiliary lexemic
elements.
The functional-communicative classification of the
sentences specially discriminate, on the lower level
of analysis, between the six sentence-types forming,
respectively, three groups(pairs) of cardinal
communicative quality: 1. Declarative sentences
affirmative and negative;2.imperative sentences
affirmative and negative;3.interrogative sentences
affirmative and negative.
In the Russian school of linguistics (Smirnitsky A.) there was a
tradition to divide all sentences into four types. The fourth type
was an exclamatory sentence.But it depends on the division of
sentences according to their emotional character.E.g. Mother,
aunt has come.(statement). Mother, aunt has come!
(exclamation).It is shown by intonation in an oral speech and by
punctuation marks in a written speech.
 Emotions can be expressed in a language lexically and
Have you ever seen such a thing? syntactically. Lexically it is often done with the
(interrogative sentence) help of interjections: Hey!, Oh!Ah!…
Syntactically it is done by means of a sentence
Have you ever seen such a thing!
structure.Emotional sentences can have a special
(Exclamation) structure.
E.g.What a nice man! How well he writes!How cold it is! In all
these sentences the interrogative words are used but these
sentences are not interrogative, they are declarative ones.
From the communicative point of view they equal declarative
sentences He writes well.It is cold. They express some
statement.But this statement is an emotional one and that’s
why its syntactic structure is changed.
Thus we can say that any exclamatory sentence is a declarative
one with emotional colouring.
Lesson 2: Role
of Sentence in Communication Process
 What is a
sentence?

A subject ( what the sentence is about,

In
In simple
simple terms,
terms, aa sentence
sentence is
is aa the topic of the sentence)
set
set of
of words
words contain:
contain: A predicate (what is said about the
subject)
 Here are different types of
sentences:
Simple Sentences- Have a subject,
Using different types of verb and object.
Compound SentencesHave 2
sentences will help simple sentences of equal
emphasisedifferent importance with the same subject
words or ideas Complex Sentence- consist of 2
simple sentences that are not equal
of importance.
Lesson 3:
Propositions and Presuppositions
Proposition

● Whereas a sentence is a surface strings of words that can be observed (or heard) and an
utterance is a pairing of a sentence with a context, a proposition is more abstract. A
proposition is the meaning expressed by a sentence when it is used to make a statement about
some state of affairs in the world. Therefore, propositions are either true or false. The same
proposition BERYL APPLAUDED JOHN is conveyed by both the active sentence (1) and the
passive sentence (2).

● (1) Beryl applauded John

● (2) John was applauded by Beryl
 Does a sentence always contain the same
proposition?

Not
Not always.
always. Meaning
Meaning maymay depend
depend on
on context.
context. For For example
example "My
"My father
father is is
German"
German" isis aa sentence
sentence that
that describes
describes different
different states
states of
of affairs
affairs depending
depending
on
on who
who the
the speaker
speaker is.
is. If
If Hannah
Hannah says
says it,
it, itit conveys
conveys aa proposition
proposition that
that is
is
true
true (HANNAH's
(HANNAH's FATHERFATHER IS IS GERMAN).
GERMAN). ItIt may may nono longer
longer be
be true
true ifif
you
you say
say it.
it.
Proposition

● The propositional content of a sentence is the part of its meaning that can be

framed as a proposition. Semanticists talk about the propositional content of
statements like (1) and (2) as well as questions like (3):

(3) Did Beryl applaud John?

● According to one view, the interrogative sentence in (13) is said to have the same
propositional content as (11) and (12). A speaker uttering (11) or (12), however, would
be asserting the truth of the propositional content BERYL APPLAUDED JOHN,
whereas a speaker uttering the question in (13) would be questioning whether it is
true that BERYL APPLAUDED JOHN.
 Presupposition

Presupposition
Presupposition is is what
what the
the speaker
speaker assumes
assumes
to
to be
be the
the case
case prior
prior to
to making
making anan utterance.
utterance.
Entailment,
Entailment, which
which is
is not
not aa pragmatic
pragmatic concept,
concept,
is
is what
what logically
logically follows
follows from
from what
what is
is asserted
asserted
in
in the
the utterance.
utterance. Speakers
Speakers have
have
presuppositions
presuppositions while
while sentences,
sentences, not
not
speakers,
speakers, have
have entailments
entailments
Presupposition

● Presupposition, broadly conceived, is a type of inference associated with

utterances of natural-language sentences.
● Presuppositional inferences are distinguished from other kinds of
inferences, especially from at-issue inferences (a.k.a. assertive contents),
in that they generally convey backgrounded, uncontroversial information
with respect to the context of utterance.
● For example, an utterance of “John forgot to call Mary” typically has a
presuppositional inference that John was supposed to call Mary. It is
intuitively clear that this is not the main point the speaker wants to make by
the utterance. Rather, the at-issue content is that John didn’t call Mary
(despite the fact that he was supposed to).
 Esistential
1
Existential Presupposition Entities
named by the speaker are assumed
TYPES OF to be present. It is the assumption
of the existence of the entities
PRESUPPOSITION named by the speaker. 1.Noun
phrase. 2.Possessive constructions.

Example: Example:
Examples (Noun Phrase) “The Cold
Examples (Possessive constructions)
War has ended” Presupposes that the
"Tom’s car is new” We can
existence of the entities it refers to, in
presuppose that Tom exists and that
this case the "Cold War". “The Car
he has a car. “Your Book is new”
was broken” Presupposes that the
We can presuppose that You exist
existence of the entities it refers to, in
and that you have a book.
this case the “Car".
 TYPES OF
PRESUPPOSITION
FACTIVE
2 Example:
It is the assumption that
something is true due to the
presence of some verbs
such as "know" , "realize"
and “glad” etc.
She didn’t realize he was ill. (>>
He was ill) We regret telling
him. (>> We told him) I wasn’t
aware that she was married. (>>
She was married) It isn’t odd
that he left early. (>> He left
early) I’m glad that it’s over.
(>> It’s over)
 TYPES OF
PRESUPPOSITION

NON-FACTIVE
3 Example:

 I dreamed that I was rich. (>> I

It is an assumption referred to
was not rich) We imagined that
something that is not true. For
we were in London. (>> We
example, verbs like "dream",
were not in London) He
"imagine“ and "pretend" are
pretends to be ill (>> He is not
used with the presupposition
ill)
that what follows is not true.
 TYPES OF
PRESUPPOSITION

LEXICAL
4 Example:
It is the assumption that,
in using one word, the
speaker can act as the
another meaning (word)
will be understood.
 Mary stopped running. (>>She used
to run.) You are late again. (>> You
were late before.) Are you still such
a bad driver? (>> You were a bad
driver) "stop“, "again“ “still” are
taken to presuppose another
(Unstated ) concept.
 TYPES OF
PRESUPPOSITION

STRUCTURAL
5 Example:
 It is the assumption associated with
the use of certain structures. Wh-
question constructions. The listener
perceives that the information
presented is necessarily true, or
intended as true by the speaker..
 When did she travel to the
USA? ( >> she travelled) •
Where did you buy the book?
(>> you bought the book) •
When did he leave? (>> he left)
• Where did you buy the bike?
(>> You bought the bike)
 TYPES OF
PRESUPPOSITION
COUNTERFACTUAL
5 Example:
 It is the assumption that what is
presupposed is not only untrue, but is
the opposite of what is true, or
contrary to facts. For instance, some
conditional structures, generally called
counterfactual conditionals,
presuppose that the information, in the
if- clauses, is not true at the time of
utterance.
 If you were my daughter, I would not
allow you to do this. ( >> You are not my
daughter) If I were rich I would buy a
Ferrari. (>> I’m not rich) If he hadn’t
made such a terrible mistake, we would be
very happy now. (>> He made a terrible
mistake) They wish they could go on
vacation now. (>> They cannot go on
vacation now) I wish I had studied
medicine. (<< I did not study medicine.)
Lesson 4:
Illocution, Perlocution, Locution
 Performing
Performing action
action by
by producing
producing an an
utterance
utterance has
has three
three kinds
kinds of
of related
related acts.
acts.
Those
Those are:
are:

Locutionary Act
An utterance that produces literal
meaning

Illocutionary Act Perlocutionary Act

An utterance which has social function An utterance that gives an effect to do
in mind. something
 EXAMPLE

“It’s hot here”

● Locutionary act: The speaker feels hot in his place.
● Illocutionary act: The utterance has two possible meanings inside • An
indirect request for someone to open the window. • An indirect refusal
to close the window because someone is cold
● Perlocutionary act: The hearer will open/close the window
PREPARED BY

MA. MICKAELA
MIRASOL M. DIMAANO
Master of Arts in Education-
Major in English
THANK YOU!