Types of Sentences According to Structure

I a) Simple sentences containing one predication (subject-predicate relationship)

b) Composite sentences containing one or more predications Composite sentences are divided into compound and complex sentences.

II. Simple sentences and main clauses may be two-member and one-member sentences.

The two-member sentence pattern is typical of the vast majority of sentences in English. It is a sentence with full predication. (The Sun shines. She walks fast).

If a simple sentence contains the subject and the predicate only, it is called unextended. E.g. spring came.

If a sentence comprises secondary parts besides the main parts, it is called extended. E.g. Dick came home late.

The one-member sentence contains only one principle part, which is neither the subject nor the predicate. E.g. Thieves! Fire! A cup of tea, please! A one-member sentence sometimes resembles a two-member sentence. E.g. No birds singing in the dawn. It may be complex in structure: e.g. And what if he had seen them embracing in the moonlight?

Imperative sentences with no subject also belong here: Get away from me!

If the main part is expressed by an infinitive, such a one-member sentence is called an infinitive sentence: Oh, to be in England!

The exclamatory character is a necessary feature of these sentences. Infinitive sentences are very common in represented speech.

Types of One-member Sentences in English

1) Nominative (substantive) E.g. Another day of fog.

2) Verbal

a) Imperative: Don’t believe him!

b) Infinitive: Only to think of it!

c) Gerundial: No playing with fire!

3) Adjectival one-member sentences: Splendid! How romantic!

Types of Sentences According to their Completeness

a. Complete (non-elliptical) sentences.

b. Incomplete (elliptical) sentences.

Elliptical sentences are such sentences in which one or several parts are missing as compared with analogous sentences where there is no ellipsis. Elliptical sentences may freely be changed into complete sentences, the missing part of the sentence being supplied from the preceding or following context, by means of intonation: e.g. I sat near the window, he – near the door (= he sat near the door). Playing, children? (= are you playing, children?) Cf. A small but cosy room (a one-member sentence); in the background stands/ is a little writing table (an elliptical two-member sentence). The main sphere of elliptical sentences is of course dialogue.

Parts of the Sentence

It is common in grammatical theory to distinguish between main and the secondary parts of the sentence. There are two generally recognized main parts of the sentence – the subject and the predicate, which make predication. As to the secondary parts which expand predication, their numbers varies slightly. The traditional classification of parts of the sentence is open to criticism, because there are many inconsistencies in it: no part of the sentence is properly defined, and many words of a sentence, such as prepositions, conjunctions, parenthetical words are not considered as parts of the sentence.

Nowadays many scholars classify parts of the sentence according to the combinability of words in the phrase. They divide them into the head-words and their adjuncts, the latter into attributes, complements and extensions. Thus the subject and the predicate are head-words, while words attached to them on depending on them are their adjuncts (attributes, adverbial modifiers, extensions, predicatives).

The seminotional words connecting words and clauses are connectives (prepositions, conjunctions). The seminotional words used to specify words and their combinations are called specifiers (articles, particles).

Main Parts of the Sentence

The vast majority of sentences in the English contain both a subject and a predicate (two-member sentences). [Where are you? – I am coming.]

The subject and the predicate make predication, they are tied by correspondence of forms, i.e. the form of number and person of the verb-predicate corresponds to the form of number and person of the subject. [Two families live in their apartment].

There are some nouns in English, which are always followed by the verb-predicate in the plural: cattle, clergy, gentry, militia, police, poultry, etc.

Alongside of the form of the predicate, word order is used as an important means of expressing the connection between the subject and the predicate. The subject precedes the predicate in a declarative sentence and it follows the predicate in an interrogative sentence.

The Subject

The subject is defined in traditional grammar as the thing we speak about. But it’s a logical definition rather than a grammatical one.

Syntactically the subject is the independent member of a two-member predication containing the person component of predicativity. It can be expressed by a word or a group of words.

When it is expressed by a notional word, it combines the notional and the structural subjects, but when the structural and the notional subjects are separated, which occurs often in M.E. , the former is expressed by a syntactical word-morpheme (it, there) and the latter, by a complex or a group of words: e.g. it is necessary for him to come. There is somebody in the room. It is awfully hard work doing nothing.

English impersonal sentences contain the structural subject only. [It is cold].In impersonal subject neither denotes nor points to any person or thing. It serves only as a structural element of the sentence. The impersonal subject is always expressed by ‘it’.

The semantic classification of the subject is as follows:

1) definite personal (The sun is down)

2) indefinite personal (They say that… One must be careful, you never know…)

3) impersonal (It is cold).

The Subject

It may be expressed by different parts of speech; the most frequent one is noun in the common case, a personal noun in the nominative case, a demonstrative pronoun, a substantivized adjective, a numeral, an infinitive, a gerund.

It may be expressed by a group of words or a clause.

Structurally the subject may be simple and complex. Complex subjects are usually expressed by means of predicative constructions with verbals, which imply the idea of secondary predication. E.g. For him to come would be fatal. Her coming up awoke me.

Professor Smirnitsky suggested the following classification of the personal subjects:

1. The personal subject proper: They finished their meal in silence.

2. The indefinite personal subject: They say the film is good.

3. The demonstrative subject: That is my sister.

4. The negative subject: Nothing can be done.

5. The interrogative subject: Who lives here?

The Predicate

The predicate is a member of predication denoting the action or property of the thing expressed by the subject and containing the mood and tense components of predicativity. There are several types of predicates. Structurally the predicates are divided into simple and compound, morphologically – into verbal and nominal.

The simple verbal predicate is expressed by one word-form that may be either a synthetical or analytical form of the verb, i.e. a verb in any tense, voice and mood. E.g. You will be given all the information when you come. He had been sleeping for 6 hours.

The phraseological unit predicate is a subdivision of the simple predicate expressed by a phraseological unit whose components denotes one idea and form an indivisible unit. E.g. He had a smoke. They had a wash. She gave a cry. I took leave of them.

There is another view according to which it is a subdivision of the compound predicate. Some English grammarians call it ‘a group-verb predicate’. The simple verbal predicate may coincide in form with the compound nominal predicate: The house is painted. – The house is painted every year.

Compound predicates may be subdivided into nominal and verbal.

1. The compound nominal predicate consists of a link verb and a predicative, also called a nominal part, which may e expressed by various parts of speech. It denotes the state or quality of the person or the thing expressed by the subject or the class of persons or things to which the object belongs. E.g. She is a student. He became angry.

2. The compound verbal predicate can be divided into types according to the meaning of the finite verb:

a) The compound verbal modal predicate may consist of a modal verb or a verbal phrase with a modal meaning and an infinitive or a gerund. This predicate shows whether the action expressed by a non-finite form is possible, obligatory, necessary, desirable, etc. E.g. I could not go to the theatre.

b) The compound verbal aspect predicate consists of the finite form of the verb, which indicates the beginning, repetition, duration or end of the action denoted by the infinitive or gerund. Here belong such verbs as: to begin, to continue, to start, to keep on, to go on, to stop, to give up, to finish, etc. Also the combinations “would + infinitive” and “used + infinitive”, which express repeated habitual actions in the past belong here: e.g. He began to study properly. She stopped crying. He used to sit on the sofa and read.

There may be mixed types.

1) Compound nominal modal: We can be teachers.

2) Compound nominal aspective: We begin to be teachers.

The double predicate is a subtype of the compound predicate where the role of the link verb connecting the subject with the predicative is performed by the verb of the full meaning, i.e. a notional verb: She married young. He came home tired.

The notional verb may be in the passive voice: e.g. He was found guilty. He was reported dead.

Professor Smirnitsky’s semantic predicates are:

1) Processing: The doctor arrived.

2) Qualifying: He is a doctor.

3) Objective: He has many friends.

4) Adverbial: He is in London (here).