SENTENCE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH: AFFIRMATIVES, QUESTIONS, NEGATIVES AND

EXCLAMATIONS.
1. INTRODUCTION.
1.1. Aims of the unit.

Unit 23 is primarily aimed to examine the structure of the sentence regarding positive and
negative statements, questions, commands and exclamations in terms of their main structural
features regarding form, function and main uses in order to provide a relevant and detailed
account of this issue. However, we have dared to include the analysis of commands, though
not stated in the title, because it is included in the traditional classification of sentence
structures.

Then, the study will be divided into nine chapters. Thus, chapter 2 provides a linguistic
framework for sentence structures, by answering questions such as, first, which linguistic levels
are involved in the notion of sentence structure; second, what it describes and how; and third,
which grammar categories are involved in its description at a functional level.

Once we have set up sentence structures within a linguistic framework, we shall continue on
offering the reader in chapter 3 a general introduction to the structure of sentences regarding
some previous considerations which are closely related to the notion of sentence structure and
which prove to be relevant in our analysis in subsequent chapters. Thus, we shall start by
revising some important notions which are closely related to the description of sentence
structures: for instance, (1) the basis to analyse the structure of the sentence: functional vs.
categorial description; and therefore, (2) the difference between phrase, clause and sentence
since these three notions may lead us to misunderstands; (3) the difference between simple,
complex and compound sentences; (4) the sentence structure in terms of word order; (5) a
brief typology of sentence structures following the main grammatical forms and functions in
communication; and finally, we shall offer (6) the main structural features of sentence types
regarding form, function and uses. The latter will be fully described in the subsequent chapters.

Chapters 4, 5 and 7 will offer a descriptive account of the main structural features of the four
sentence structures under study in terms of form, function and uses, namely following
morphological, phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic guidelines. Thus, we shall
examine the structure of statements, questions, commands and exclamations regarding their
form regarding morphology (subject – verb structures) and phonology (pronunciation) whereas
function will be approached in terms of syntax (sentence structure) and semantics (different
meanings = different uses).

Chapter 8 provides an educational framework for the structural features of sentence structure
within our current school curriculum, and chapter 9 draws on a summary of all the points
involved in this study.

2. A LINGUISTIC FRAMEWORK FOR SENTENCE STRUCTURES.

Before examining in detail the notion of sentence structure in English in terms of form, main
functions and uses, it is relevant to establish first a theoretical framework in order to fully
understand the subsequent chapters on the main types of sentence structure regarding
positive and negative statements, questions, commands and exclamations since they must be
described in grammatical terms. In fact, this introductory chapter aims at answering questions
such as, first, which linguistic levels are involved in the notion of sentence structure; second,
what it describes and how; and third, which grammar categories are involved in its description
at a functional level.

2.1. Linguistic levels involved in the notion of sentence structure.

In order to offer a linguistic description of the notion of sentence structure, we must confine it
to particular levels of analysis so as to focus our attention on this particular aspect of language.
Yet, although there is no consensus of opinion on the number of levels to be distinguished, the
usual description of a language comprises four major components: phonology, grammar,
lexicon, and semantics, out of which we get five major levels: phonological, morphological and
syntactic, lexical, and semantic (Huddleston 1988). First, the phonology describes the sound
level, that is, the pronunciation, stress and intonation within the sentence structure. Secondly,
since the two most basic units of grammar are the word and the sentence, the component of
grammar involves the morphological level (i.e. third person singular in positive statements) and
the syntactic level (i.e. word order in the sentence). Third, the lexicon, or lexical level, lists
vocabulary items, specifying items, specifying how they are pronounced, how they behave
grammatically, and what they mean.

Finally, another dimension between the study of linguistic form and the study of meaning is
semantics, or the semantic level, to which all four of the major components are related. We
must not forget that a linguistic description which ignores meaning is obviously incomplete,
and in particular, when dealing with the notion of sentence structure where semantics plays a
very important role in order to express the speaker’s attitude.

Therefore, we must point out that each of the linguistic levels discussed above has a
corresponding component when analysing the notion under study. Thus, phonology deals with
the accent, rhythm and intonation on statements, questions, commands and exclamations (i.e.
You are studying tonight/Are you studying tonight?/study tonight!/Pity you are studying
tonight!); morphology deals with certain morphological features in the formation of
statements either positive (i.e. third person singular in positive statements) or negative (i.e. the
auxiliary ‘doesn’t’), interrogative (i.e. Does he usually cook?) and so on; and syntax deals with
those combinations of words which constitute grammatical strings and those which do not (i.e.
NOT: the dog she for a walk takes always BUT She always takes the dog for a walk).

On the other hand, lexis deals with the wide range of grammatical categories involved in
sentence structure (i.e. verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and so on); and finally,
semantics deals with meaning where syntactic and morphological levels do not tell the
difference (i.e. Would you like some coffee? = where a positive answer is expected).

2.2. On defining the notion of sentence: what and how.

On defining the notion of sentence structure, we must link this notion (what it is) to the
grammar categories which express it (how it is showed). Traditionally, on answering What is a
‘sentence’?, we would define it as ‘the largest unit of grammatical description since it does not
function in the structure of a unit higher than itself’, that is, on treating the sentence as the
highest unit implies that we do not take into account larger stretches of language such as
paragraphs and texts since this is the domain of text grammar or discourse analysis.

Regarding how multi-word verbs are realized, we must examine the grammar categories
related to them, that is, open vs. closed classes which are fully examined in next section.

2.3. Grammar categories involved: open vs. closed classes.

So far, in order to confine the notion of sentence structure to particular grammatical
categories, we must review first the difference between open and closed classes since the
structure of the sentence involve both. Yet, grammar categories in English can be divided into
two major sets called open and closed classes. The open classes are verbs, nouns, adjectives
and adverbs, and are said to be unrestricted since they allow the addition of new members to
their membership, whereas the closed classes are the rest: prepositions, conjuncts, articles
(definite and indefinite), numerals, pronouns, quantifiers and interjections, which belong to a
restricted class since they do not allow the creation of new members. Yet, as we shall see,
sentence structures shall deal with both classes.

3. A GENERAL INTRODUCTION OT THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

Once we have set up sentence structures within a linguistic framework, we shall continue on
offering the reader a general introduction to the structure of sentences regarding some
previous considerations which are closely related to the notion of sentence structure and
which prove to be relevant in our analysis in subsequent chapters.

Thus, we shall start by revising some important notions which are closely related to the
description of sentence structures: for instance, (1) the basis to analyse the structure of the
sentence: functional vs. categorial description; and therefore, (2) the difference between
phrase, clause and sentence since these three notions may lead us to misunderstands; (3) the
difference between simple, complex and compound sentences; (4) the sentence structure in
terms of word order; (5) a brief typology of sentence structures following the main
grammatical forms and functions in communication; and finally, we shall offer (6) the main
structural features of sentence types regarding form, function and uses. The latter will be fully
described in the subsequent chapters.

3.1. The structure of the sentence: categorial vs. functional description.

Generally, linguistic units are considered to be constituents of larger structures within the
rankscale (sounds-morpheme-word-phrase-sentence-text) and also linguistic objects in their
own right. According to Aarts (1988), “with the exception of the sentence, every unit, at every
level of analysis can be considered either as an element that plays a role in a larger structure,
or as something that has its own individual characteristics”.

Hence, if we view a linguistic unit as an element that plays its role in a larger linguistic
structure, we are concerned with its function. On the contrary, if we view it as something that
has individual characteristics which it shares with other units of the same kind, we are
concerned with the category or class to which it belongs, and sometimes, with the type of
phrase it is embedded in (noun phrase, verb phrase, etc).

In other words, when we assign some sort of meaning to each word in a sentence individually,
we have to do it in order to make sense of the sequence as a whole. We shall therefore say
that, if a sequence of words is to constitute a sentence, it must be meaningful. Apart from
being internally coherent, these groups also stand in a certain relation to each other. We refer
respectively to the main constituents in a sentence and their syntactic functions in it, that is,
the sentence word order.

This duality (function-category) is relevant in our study since sentences are best described in
functional and cateogrial terms at the same time, and the notions of phrase and clause
(examined in next section) come into force regarding categorial description. This description
specifies not only the category of the constituents of which the sentence is composed (i.e.
noun phrase, verbal phrase, adjectival phrase, prepositional phrase) but also it shows what
function these constituents have (i.e. subject, predicator, complement, etc).

Therefore, for our purposes, sentences shall be described in two ways: first, in terms of
functional description and second, in terms of categorial description, where we shall review
both the sentence constituents (categorial) and their word order within the sentence structure
(functional).

3.1.1.Categorial description: main sentence constituents.

Regarding a categorial description we shall provide information about the categories to which
their constituents belong since sentences can also be described in terms of the phrases of
which they are made up (i.e. function: object = category: noun/noun phrase). The main
constituents we find in a sentence structure (1) subject, (2) predicate (i.e. The moon rose), and
(3) adverbial constituents (i.e. The moon rose at midnight). These three elements are function-
labels denoting the relation between the constituents bearing these labels and the sentence as
a whole. In other words they are function-labels for immediate constituents of the sentence.

Further on, within the predicate we find (a) predicator and (b) complement. Moreover, within
the latter one, we find different elements:

1. direct object (i.e. Many students enjoyed the concert = NP – VP – NP); the direct object may
be a noun (i.e. I like fruit) or a noun phrase (i.e. They’ve sold their car); a bare infinitive (i.e. He
dared not speak to her) or a ‘to-infinitive’ (i.e. He didn’t want to die); and -ing form (i.e. I like
swimming); or a subordinate clause (i.e. I saw him do it).

2. indirect object (i.e. the firm has sent him an e-mail = NP – VP – NP – NP); the indirect object
may be a pronoun (i.e. He gave him a book); a noun (i.e. He gave Peter a boor); or a noun
phrase (i.e. He gave my brother a book).

3. benefactive object (i.e. My boss has bought his daughter a flat = NP – VP – NP – NP); this
type of object is similar to the indirect object.

4. subject attribute (i.e. That solution seems easy = NP – VP – AdjP); with verbs such as ‘to be,
appear, lie, look, feel, remain, seem, smell, taste, sound, stay, stand’, and so on or ‘become, fall,
get, go, grow, turn’, we may add: a noun or noun phrase (i.e. He became a lawyer; she’s a very
good nurse); an adverb or adverbial phrase (i.e. She’s there; she in in Berlin); a subordinate
nominal clause (i.e. It seems that we are wrong; the truth is that nobody likes you).

5. object attribute (i.e. Susanne will make her husband very happy = NP – VP – NP – AdjP); the
object attribute may be: an adjective (i.e. You’ll make me angry; they left it empty; serve the
beer cold) or participle (i.e. I had the car repaired; I got dressed); or a noun (i.e. They elected
him Minister) or a noun phrase (i.e. He was appointed Foreign Minister).

6. and predicator complement (i.e. This street reminds me of New York = NP – VP – NP –

PrepP).

Some verbs such as ‘say, ask, explain, cost, buy, cook, get, give, and so on’ may be formed with
certain prepositions when accompanying the indirect object at the end of the sentence (i..e I
said it to him; I bought a present for him).

3.1.2.Functional description: main syntactic functions.

We also need a functional description because a description of a sentence in terms of its
constituents phrases is obviously inadequate because many constructions consist of identical
strings of phrase (NP-VP-NP-NP) as it is the case of these two sentences “My boss bought her
lover a flat” and “The firm has offered me a job”, being the formed a Subject-Predicate-
Benefactive Object-Direct Object type, and the latter a Subject-Predicate-Indirect Object-Direct
Object type, respectively.

So we shall specify the functions of the different constituents we find in a sentence structure in
a similar way to categorial description (i.e. subject + predicate (predicator; complement –
direct object, indirect object, subject attribute, object attribute, etc) + adverbial) where subject
and predicate are the two obligatory parts of the sentence. Thus:

1. The function of subject: it may be attributed to a constituent of a sentence on the basis of

the following criteria: (a) position (precedes the verb phrase in statements and questions, and
follows the first word of the verb phrase in yes/no questions, questions introduced by ‘when,
where, why, how and their compounds in -ever’ and in questions introduced by ‘who(m),
whose, what, which and their compound in -ever’; (b) concord (it is associated with that
constituent which accounts for the presence of a sibilant suffix in the verb phrase (i.e. Peter
hates me) or with plural constituents (i.e. Boys love adventure); (c) passivization, since in
passive sentences it occurs in the by-phrase (i.e. The pope excommunicated the Cardinal vs The
Cardinal was excommunicated by the Pope); (d) repetition in tag-questions, where the subject
is pronominalized (i.e. Peter hates cats, doesn’t he?).

2. The function of predicate is the other obligatory part of the sentence. It consists of two
internal parts: predicator or complement, where the former is obligatory and the second is
optional (i.e. Birds sin vs Birds sing at night). Let us concentrate on complements, which can be
segmented into six types (already mentioned above): (1) direct object which follows
immediately a verb phrase; the indirect object, which may be substituted by a to-phrase
following the direct object; benefactive object, which resembles the direct object and preces
immediately the direct object; the subject attribute after certain verbs such as copula verbs;
the object attribute, formed by two noun phrases (indirect + direct object); and predicator
complement, which makes reference to those constituents that obligatorily complement the
verb.

3. The adverbial function is associated with a constituent which occupies a position on the
same level as the subject and predicate constituents (prepositions, noun phrases, adverbs).
They have two main features: they are optional and they are movable.

With the exception of the function predicator, which is invariably realized by a verb phrase,
sentence functions can be realized in a variety of ways. Thus the functions subject and direct
object can be realized by noun phrases (John; last week) but also, for example, by finite and
non-finite clauses, as in “That the men are unwilling to compromise is obvious” and “I regret
being unable to come tonight” (Aarts, 1988).

3.2. Phrase, sentence and clause structure.

“So far we have assumed that the sentence, being the largest unit of grammatical description,
does not function in the structure of a unit higher than itself. Units at not always consistently
composed of units of the next lowest rank. Quite frequently, a unit of a given rank functions as
a constituent of a unit of the same rank or even of a unit which is one step lower down the
rankscale. We refer to two further possibilities within sentence formation: first, when a
sentence can function in the structure of another sentence, that is in the structure of a unit of
the same rank; and secondly, when a sentence can function in the structure of a phrase, that is
in the structure of a unit lower than itself” (Aarts 1998).

We refer to the distinction between phrase, sentence and clause structure at a functional level
where they will function first, in terms of single units of syntactic description within the
structure of the phrase (noun phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, etc) and second, in terms
of larger units as part of the structure of the sentence (subject and predicate) or embedded in
the sentence structure, that is, clauses (subordinate). Following Aarts (1988), these larger
structures are, apart from the morpheme and the word, “two major units of grammatical
description”. But let us examine their differences.

3.2.1.The phrase structure.

The phrase structure is defined as a constituent which can be identified on the basis of the
word class membership of at least one of its constituent words which is called the ‘head’ of the
phrase (i.e. a noun phrase is a phrase which has a noun as its most important constituent and
similarly with and adjective or adverbial phrase). Note that the other elements show a relation
of dependency or subordination to the head (in noun phrases we find: determiners which are
divided into pre-central-post determiners and modifiers: pre or post modifiers).

However, the factors which determine which of the words of a phrase constituents its principal
part are not the same for all five phrase types. Thus, in three types, the noun, adjective and
adverb phrase, the dominant element is that which can replace the whole phrase without
affecting the structure of the sentence (i.e. We like medieval stories = we like stories). However,
a fourth type of phrase, the verb phrase differs from the former in that the essential element,
mainly taken from semantic considerations, cannot replace the whole phrase without causing
serious harm to syntactic structure (i.e. John has phoned Cristine vs John phoned Cristine).

On the other hand, the fifth type of phrase, the prepositional phrase, differs from the rest in
that the element that gives its name to the phrase cannot be called its head since it cannot
replace the whole phrase. In addition, only one of its constituents is a preposition and
therefore, its relation is not one of subordination but one of government.

3.2.2.Sentence vs. clause structure.

In order to clarify the difference between sentence and clause syntactic differences, we must
review the hierarchy of units of linguistic description when dealing with this duality. For
instance, we observe that morphemes function as constituents of words, words function as
constituents of phrases and phrases as constituents of sentences. Bur then, what is the
difference between sentence and clause structure? Aren’t they the same?

The sentence is actually identifiable on the basis of the relations holding among its immediate
constituents (subject, predicate, direct/indirect object, complement, adverbial, and so on). Yet,
“the sentence is placed at the other extreme of the rank scale and regarded as the largest unit
of grammatical description since it does not function in the structure of a unit higher than
itself” (Aarts 1998:79).

Once we have assumed hat the sentence is the largest unit of grammatical description and that
it does not function in the structure of a unit higher than itself, we are ready to understand the
duality sentence vs. clause by means of two further possibilities. First, when a sentence
functions in the structure of another sentence of the same rank (i.e. I believe that he is quite
loyal; what she says is false); and secondly, when a sentence functions in the structure of a
phrase, that is in the structure of a unit lower than itself (i.e. as postmodifier: the man that
came yesterday was a politician; she is afraid of what may happen here).

Hence, when sentences are embedded in the structure of other sentences or in the structure of
phrases we call them ‘clauses’, which usually corresponds to the notions of subordination (or
embedding) and coordination. Note that clauses can have other clauses embedded in them, as
in ‘That she is rich is obvious’ or ‘The problem is that they have no money left’.

3.3. Simple, complex and compound sentences.

Up to this point, we shall approach the notion of sentence regarding the established typology
between simple, complex and compound sentences since quite often, the sentence has been
described as an indeterminate unit in the sense that it is difficult to establish where one
sentence ends and another begins. Some grammarians (Jesperson, Allerton, Huddleston, Aarts)
affirm that a sentence is a unit capable of occurring itself as long as there is not change in
prosodic patterns (accent, intonation) in spoken English (i.e. I told him. I won the lottery vs I
told him (that) I won the lottery) and that it may be formed by one or more words (i.e. Stop! =
Can you stop, please?).

3.3.1.Simple sentences.

Simple sentences can be defined as “a sentence in which none of the functions are realized by
a clause” (Aarts 1988), that is, a simple sentence does not contain an embedded (or
subordinate) sentence as realization of one of its functions (i.e. He likes science fiction films). In
addition, a simple sentence is always an independent sentence which can occur on its own (i.e.
John is a bachelor vs He says that John is a bachelor).

3.3.2.Complex sentences.

On the other hand, the complex sentence is defined as “those sentences in which one or more
sentence functions are realized by a clause (finite or non-finite)” (Aarts 1988). Then a complex
sentence (or a clause) may contain one or more clauses in a relationship of coordination (i.e. I
believe that she is English) or subordination (i.e. I wonder if you would tell me where my keys
are). As sentences show, clauses can, in turn, contain more deeply embedded clauses (i.e. She
was angry because he went away).

Hence clauses can be classified in two ways. First, from a structural point of view by
distinguishing three types: finite clauses (i.e. We discovered who sent the e-mail); non-finite
clauses (i.e. I don’t remember saying that); and verbless clauses (i.e. A staunch liberal, George
did not believe in state ownership). Secondly, in terms of the functions they play in the
structure of the sentence: subject clauses (i.e. Having a hot shower is rather nice), direct object
clauses (i.e. He didn’t know what to say), indirect object clauses (i.e. She gave whoever came in
an angry look), benefactive object clauses (i.e. She bought whoever came in a drink), subject
attribute clauses (i.e. My feeling is that she doesn’t want to study), object attribute clauses (i.e.
I call that killing two birds with one stone), predicator complement clauses (i.e. I promised to
come back) and adverbial clauses (i.e. To speak frankly, I don’t like this soup).

3.3.3.Compound sentences.

Following Aarts (1988), compound sentences are defined as “a sentence in which two or more
sentences (called conjoins) have been coordinated”. Note that each of the conjoins is
independent since there is no question of embedding. Coordination may be then asyndetic, in
which case it is not marked overtly (i.e. She was an odd woman, her life was always a mystery);
or syndetic (quite frequent) where at least two sentences are involved, being indicated by
means of one of the coordinators ‘and, or, for, but’ (i.e. He got up at six o’clock but he still
missed the bus).

To sum up, a compound sentence may consist of (1) two (or more) simple sentences (i.e. Oil is
now more expensive and that will affect our economy); (2) a combination of simple and
complex sentences (i.e. If he believes that, he must be mad); and (3) two (or more) complex
sentences (i.e. He must believe what I say about the case and that is what matters now).

3.4. The notion of ‘collocation’: sentence word order.

Word order is closely related to the way verbs and particles are combined and therefore, to the
notion of sentence structure. However, word order is not the only fact that determines, but the
way words co-occur together and their varying degrees of exclusivity. We refer to “the
tendency of two or more words to co-occur in discourse” (Schmidt 2000:76). These degrees of
exclusivity refer to specific types of collocations which, in our case, refer to the way sentence
elements may be combined, for instance obligatory or optional elements.

Following Quirk et at. (1973) “the other in which the elements appear is common but by no
means fixed. It is a principle of sentence organization that what is contextually familiar or
‘given’ information comes relatively early, while the part which needs to be stressed or which
seems to convey the greatest information is given the special prominence of ‘end-focus’.
Therefore, they suggest the following word order: subject + predicator + complement (OI+OD)
+ adverbials (process-place-time).

3.5. Main types of sentence structure.

Once we say that in terms of their structural complexity sentences can be divided into three
types: simple, complex and compound, this section will deal with the main types of sentence
structures based on their grammatical form and their function in communication (also called
the illocutionary force), that is, from their syntactic structures and their association with one
particular function in speech functions.

Therefore, concerning the sentence grammatical form, the classification comprises four types:
declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, imperative sentences and exclamatory
sentences whereas the classification concerning their function in communication shows that
declarative sentences are chiefly used to make statements, interrogative sentences to ask
questions, imperative sentence to give commands and exclamatory sentences to make
exclamations, depending on the way speakers express their attitude through phonological,
syntactic and semantic uses.

Within this classification, the first four types are named under the grammatical category of
adjectives: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences whereas the
communicative functions are named under the grammatical category of nouns (i.e. statement,
question, command and exclamation, respectively). Yet, the grammatical form of sentences
shall establish the main morphological and syntactic features under the scope of simple
sentencens, whose use correlates with different communicative functions.

It must be born in mind that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the grammatical
form of a sentence and its function in communication. This means that sentences with the
same grammatical properties need not have the same illocutionary force and, conversely, that
grammatically different sentences can have the same illocutionary force. Thus, the following
request to have a pizza can be expressed in a variety of ways: ‘Let’s have a pizza’, ‘Shall we have
a pizza?’, ‘Why don’t we have a pizza?’, ‘Would you like to have a pizza?’

3.5.1.Sentences and their grammatical form.

The main grammatical forms of declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory

sentences are as follows:

(1) Declarative sentences always have a subject, which precedes the verb (i.e. Madrid is the
capital of Spain; in 1954 my parents emigrated to France) and usually correlate with the
communicative function of ‘stating facts’ either positive or negative. Hence, the verb, as an
obligatory element, may appear in positive or negative form (i.e. London is not the capital of
Spain; in 1954 my parents did not emigrate to France).

(2) Interrogative sentences make reference to the communicative function of ‘asking for
information’ or ‘questions’. They contain a subject and can open the sentence with an auxiliary
verb or a WH- word depending on the type of answer we expect. Then, they can be divided
into three major classes. For instance, (a) yes-no questions, where the operator is in front of
the subject (i.e. Will you come? / Does he live in Bristol?), included question-tags; (b) WH-
questions, where they open with a WH- word and this is positioned initially (i.e. Where do you
live?); (c) alternative questions (i.e. Are you going to have milk or coffee?), which are similar to
the structure of yes/no questions.

In addition, there are other minor types of questions, such as questions (i.e. You go to the
cinema?); exclamation questions (i.e. Wasn’t it amazing?); rhetorical questions (i.e. Can anyone
avoid loving this woman?); and echo questions (i.e. Have a look at this! – Have a look at
what?).

(3) Imperative sentences contain a verb in the imperative mood. If a subject is present, it is
usually ‘you’, but as a rule the subject is lacking (i.e. Shut that door, please/You go in first). This
type of sentences are known as commands in their communicative function.

(4) Finally, in exclamatory sentences the subject precedes the verb. They are introduced by
phrases opening with the words ‘how’ + adjective or ‘what’ + a(n) + (adjective) + noun (i.e.
How beautiful she is! / What a wonderful day!). Their communicative function is namely to
emphasize how much somebody likes something or appreciates a
situation/thing/person/animal/etc.

3.5.2.Sentences and their main functions in communication.

When we deal with sentences and their main functions in communication, we refer to their
respective discourse function in the sentence, for instance, statements are namely used to
convey information in an assertive or non-assertive way; questions are used to ask for
information, sometimes yes/no answers and sometimes specific data; commands are namely
used to order somebody to do something; and exclamations are primarily used to express
emphasis on the part of the speaker.

Again, we insist on the fact that there is no fix correspondence between their grammatical
form and their communicative function. The speaker moves on morphological, phonological,
syntactic and semantic guidelines in order to state the difference, for instance, a sentence like
“She turned down my invitation” is at first sight a declarative sentence (morphologically and
syntactically speaker). However, if the speaker deals with phonological and semantic features,
suddenly this sentence may turn into a question, both phonologically and semantically
speaking (i.e. She turned down my invitation?).

Then, different types of sentence structures presented above are going to be examined more in
detail in the subsequent chapters, which shall analyse each type in order to express the
speakers’ attitude in speech.

3.6. Main structural features of sentence types: form, function and use.

With respect to the main structural features of the four sentence structures under study, they
will be analysed in terms of form, function and uses, namely following morphological,
phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic guidelines. Thus we shall examine the
structure of statements, questions, commands and exclamations regarding their form regarding
morphology (subject-verb structures) and phonology (pronunciation) whereas function will be
approached in terms of syntax (sentence structure) and semantics (different meanings =
different uses).

4. STATEMENTS.
4.1. Statements: morphology and syntax.

As stated above, statements can be positive or negative, that is, assertive or non-assertive.
Hence, in case we want to construct a declarative sentence in the negative form, we may do it
by: (a) adding the negative particle ‘not’ to: (i) auxiliary verbs ‘be, have, shall, will, etc’ (i.e. He
is not; You are not), with the possibility of contracted forms (isn’t; aren’t); (ii) modal auxiliary
verbs ‘must, can, could, may, etc’ (i.e. You must not = you mustn’t); (iii) the first person plural of
the imperative form (i.e. Let us play = Let’s play); (b) with (i) the primary auxiliary verb ‘do +
not’ and ‘does + not’ (i.e. I don’t like it/He doesn’t like it); (ii) with the second person singular
or plural of the imperative (i.e. Don’t speak); (iii) by using ‘did + not’ = ‘didn’t’’ when talking in
the past tense; (c) with the verb ‘to fail’ (i.e. I fail to understand your ideas); (d) with any
negative particle, such as ‘never, nobody, none, etc’. We must bear in mind that we cannot use
a negative particle when the verb is in the negative form (i.e. NOT: There isn’t nobody at home
BUT: There isn’t anybody at home/There is nobody at home).

4.2. Statements: phonology and semantics.

Statements can convey messages in a variety of ways, for instance, by asserting or not (i.e. He
is/isn’t my brother); by making predictions (i.e. I am going to have a baby); by offering
apologies (i.e. I am sorry about being late); by stating facts (i.e. I think you are right); etc.
Declarative sentences may convey the meaning of (1) statements (i.e. I will be 32 in January);
commands (i.e. You have to leave this room now); requests (i.e. I would love a martini); and
warning (i.e. That plate is really hot).

Within each type, one of the most important syntactic devices that play a role in the
representation of a message is the focusing of information. Yet, English sentences normally
have end-focus, which means that the last open-class item in the sentence is often the most
prominent (i.e. Robert is driving to LONDON), usually marked by accent in speech. However, if
the context requires this, it is possible to depart from the normal pattern by shifting the focus
to other words where again, pronunciation, will play an important role (i.e. Robert is driving TO
London = and not FROM London). This is called the contrastive focus. Note how this syntactic
device is so closely related to the phonological one.

As Gimson (1980:274) states, “The grammatical and attitudinal function of intonation, in

addition to its function of providing a means of accentuation, may also serve to distinguish
sentence types (i.e. statement vs question) and to indicate the emotional attitude of the
speaker. Such functions apply equally to utterances consisting of more than one word and to
those of a single word. In these cases, it is not so much the situation of the nucleus which is of
importance, but rather the type of nucleus employed, for instance, whether a fall, rise-fall, or
rise, or fall-rise is used”.

Thus, for our purposes, a statement form of words may be made into a questions if a rise is
used instead of a fall, for instance, “He is ‘not here” (statement) vs “He is ,not ‘there?”
(question). In addition, Palmer (1960) mentions a case in the sentence “He doesn’t lend his
books to anybody” which may have two meanings according to whether ‘anybody0 is said with
a falling nucleus (i.e. he lends them to nobody) or with a falling-rising nucleus (i.e. he does lend
them to some people). This semantic function also applies to the rest of sentence types as we
shall see in subsequent sections.

5. QUESTIONS.
5.1. Questions: morphology and syntax.

As stated above, questions are mainly used to ask for information, but depending on the
answer we can expect on the part of the speaker, they can be divided into three major classes.
For instance, (a) yes-no questions, where the operator is in front of the subject (i.e. Will you
come? / Does he live in Bristol?); (b) WH-questions, where they open with a WH- word and this
is positioned initially (i.e. Where do you live?). Question-tags are included in this type as a
minor type of questions; and (c) alternative questions (i.e. Are you going to have milk or
coffee?), which are similar to the structure of yes/no questions.

5.2. Questions: phonology and semantics.

As Gimson (1980:274) stated above, the grammatical and attitudinal function of intonation
may serve to distinguish statement vs. question sentence types and to indicate the emotional
attitude of the speaker when asking for information (low-falling nuclei: curt, impatient, test,
insistence, etc; rising nuclei: politeness, pleading, suspicion, etc; falling-rising: forceful,
encouraging, prompting; rising intonation). In these cases, it is not so much the situation of the
nucleus which is of importance, but rather the type of nucleus employed, for instance, whether
a fall, rise-fall, rise, or fall-rise is used.

Questions, as statements, can convey messages in a variety of ways, for instance, questions (i.e.
Who is the President of Spain?); requests (i.e. Can you sing us a nice song?); exclamations (i.e.
Isn’t that wonderful?); and commands (i.e. What are you laughing at?). The structures in which
they are embedded in are:

(1) Yes/no questions (which are usually formed by placing the verb before the subject or by
auxiliary + subject + verb) expect an assertive or non-assertive answer (i.e. Have you seen this
film?) by using the rising intonation. On the one hand, yes/no questions expecting positive
answers are generally neutral, but if they have positive items in between (i.e. Would you like
some ice-cream?/Do you really want to leave now?) they lead us to positive answers in fact. On
the other hand, yes/no questions with negative items in between will lead us to negative
answers (i.e. Don’t you believe me? = Of course, I don’t believe you). A further and minor type
of yes/no questions are question-tags, which can convey the meaning of presupposing
agreement calmly (i.e. It is lovely, isn’t it?) when pronounced with low-falling nucleus or
demanding agreement when pronounced with high-falling nucleus (i.e. She doesn’t believe me,
does she?).

(2) Secondly, when questions are open with WH- pronouns (what, when, where, why, how,
who, etc) or nouns sometimes (i.e. What kind of…/What time…/How often…), these WH- items
are positioned initially (i.e. What did you do?) and they are called WH- questions. They expect
a wide range of answers according to the different meanings of WH- items (place, manner,
time, action, duration…). Unlike yes/no questions, they are pronounced with falling intonation
(i.e. How did you do it?).

(3) Thirdly, alternative questions (i.e. Are you going to have milk or coffee?), which are similar
to the structure of yes/no questions, may expect both assertive and non-assertive answers,
one out of two options (i.e. Which car is yours, the red or the blue one?). However, unlike
yes/no questions, this type of questions do not carry a rising intonation but a falling one.

(4) In addition, there are other minor types of questions, such as declarative questions (i.e. You
go to the cinema?) which have the syntactic construction of a declarative sentence but have a
question intonation, that is, a final rising intonation (i.e. You’ve got the keys); exclamation
questions (i.e. Wasn’t it amazing?), which are interrogative in structure but has the
illocutionary force of an assertive exclamation, within a final falling intonation (i.e. Hasn’t she
said I am wrong?); rhetorical questions (i.e. Can anyone avoid loving this woman?), which have
a normal rising intonation of a yes/no question, but combine the interrogative structure and
the assertive declarative (i.e. Is that a reason for leaving now?). finally, we find echo questions,
whose main communicative function is to repeat part of the previous question in order to get
confirmation of it (i.e. The Smiths are moving tonight? – Tonight?).

6. COMMANDS.
6.1. Commands: morphology and syntax.

As stated before, commands are embedded in the structure of imperative sentences, which
contain a verb in the imperative mood, that is, a bare infinitive in initial position (if assertive)
and the operator “Don’t + bare infinitive” in initial position (if non-assertive). If a subject is
present, it is usually ‘you’, but as a rule the subject is lacking (i.e. Shut that door, please/You go
in first). They differ from declarative sentences or statements in that they have no subject and
are placed in initial position.

6.2. Commands: phonology and semantics.

This type of sentences are known as commands in their communicative function because they
are namely used to order somebody to do something. If we want to convey the meaning of
calm or detachment, we use it with falling intonation (i.e. Count them. Get it then). However, if
we want to express gentle command or request, we shall use the rising intonation (i.e. Wait.
Hold it). Sometimes, this type of sentence structure is embedded within the exclamation type,
but Aarts (1988) and Quirk et al. (1973) are in favour of examining it separately.

7. EXCLAMATIONS.
7.1. Exclamations: morphology and syntax.
As mentioned above, in exclamatory sentences the subject precedes the verb. They are
introduced by phrases opening with the words ‘how’ + adjective/adverb/statement (i.e. How
beautiful she is!/How fast you drive!/How I used to like chocolate!) or ‘what’ + a(n) +
(adjective) + noun/noun phrase (i.e. What a wonderful day!/What a wonderful day we have
had today!). The syntactic order is therefore changed to the extent that the WH- item (who or
what) may be taken from its usual position (i.e. statements) to initial prominence to express
emphasis. Another structure is “such/so” + (adjective) + noun (i.e. He is such a good
student!/They are so nice to me!).

7.2. Exclamations: phonology and semantics.

Their communicative function is namely to emphasize how much somebody likes something,
appreciates a situation/thing/person/animal/etc or to express how impressed the speaker is by
something. These expressions are quite common in everyday usage and we can find them in
many different patterns, both formal and informal ones. For instance, the formal ones, “How
quickly you run!” or “What a nice time we had today!”, when pronounced with falling
intonation, they may convey the meaning of boredom, unconcerned, or even sarcastic (i.e.
How annoying the film is!). Foten used in ordinary colloquial speech, they may convey the
meaning of strong surprise or indignation (i.e. What a surprise!). On the other hand, informal
ways of exclamations in colloquial speech are “Really!; Damn!; Bloody dog!; Oh, my God!; Good
heavens!; Shit!”; and so on.

8. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.

The different verbal paradigms dealt with in this study are so relevant to the learning of a
foreign language since differences between sentence structures related to different patterns in
the learner’s native language (L1) and that of the foreign language (L2) may lead to several
problems, such as the incorrect use of verbal structures, especially because of the syntactic,
morphological, and semantic processes implied in these categories.

This study has looked at the structure of the sentence structure in terms of form and function,
that is, regarding morphological and phonological forms and syntactic and semantic functions,
all those related by the relevance of usage in everyday speech. This study is mainly intended
for teachers to help Spanish-speaking students establish a relative similarity between the two
languages that would find it useful for communicating in the European framework we are living
in nowadays.

According to Thomson & Martinet (1986), a European student may find especially troublesome
the sue of sentence structure, and particularly those which have double pattern, that is,
declarative sentences which are interrogative. In fact, when communicating in English our
students must know the specific construction a verb needs or not in affirmative, interrogative,
imperative or exclamatory structure (i.e. Is he a student?/Does he go to school?) and, second,
which sentence structure to use when certain situations are given depending on the speaker’s
attitude (command, questions, surprise, incredulity, and so on) and on top of that, how to
place noun, adverbs, adjectives in this type of structures (i.e. He is such a good swimmer).

This choice becomes problematic for our Spanish students when they desal with the wide
range of sentence structures and their semantic offer. For instance, the most common mistakes
for Spanish students, both at ESO and Bachillerato level, is to construct the negative and
interrogative forms of English modal verbs as the ordinary verbs do (i.e. Does she be able to
pay her debts?) or to use incorrectly question-tags (i.e. He never comes alone, does he?) or
sometimes by omitting certain elements (i.e. He lives in New York?). Often, they make serious
grammatical mistakes.

It has been suggested that a methodology grounded in part in the application of explicit
linguistic knowledge enhances the second language learning process. In the Spanish curriculum
(BOE 2002), the use of different sentence structures is envisaged from earlier stages of ESO in
the sue of simple structures (subject + predicate + complement) to talk about their everyday
life or any specific topic, up to higher stages of Bachillerato, towards more complex sentence
structures, such as exclamations to express emphasis (subject + predicator + object +
complement + etc – i.e. My mum is such a good friend that I can’t help loving her a crazy).

So, the importance of how to handle these sentence structures cannot be understated since
you can communicate but not successfully because of the relevant distinction of meaning
between them to express different nuances: asking for things, showing surprise, stating your
likes, etc. We must not forget that Spanish students are likely to use the imperative form to ask
for things rather than using structures such as ‘Can I use the phone?’, ‘Could you tell me the
way to the gym?’, ‘Shall I copy this?’ and so on.

Current communicative methods foster the ‘teaching’ of this kind of specific linguistic
information to help students recognize the main differences with the L2 words. Learners
cannot do it all on their own. Language learners, even 2 nd year Bachillerato students, do not
automatically recognize similarities which seem obvious to teachers; learners need to have
these associations brought to their attention.

So far, we have attempted in this discussion to provide a broad account of sentence structures
by means of form, function and use within verb phrase morphology, phonology, syntax,
semantics and usage in order to set it up within the linguistic theory, going through the
localization of sentence structures at the core of syntax studies, to a broad presentation of the
main grammatical categories involved in it. We hope students are able to understand the
relevance of handling correctly the different sentence structure to successful communicate in
everyday life.

9. CONCLUSION.

The notion of “sentence structure” implies a broad description of the structure of the sentence
in terms of form, function and use so as to get to the paradigms of morphology, phonology,
syntax, semantics and use which, combined, give way to the study we have presented here.
The appropriate answer suitable for students and teachers, may be so simple if we are dealing
with ESO students, using simple sentence structures or more complex if we are dealing with
Bachillerato students, who must be able to handle with high-level structures.

So far, in this study we have attempted to take a fairly broad view of sentence structures since
we are also assuming that there is an intrinsic connexion between its learning and successful
communication. Yet, we have provided a descriptive account of Unit 23 dealing with Sentence
structure: positive and negative statements, questions, commands and exclamations whose
main aim was to introduce the student to the different paradigms that shape the whole set of
sentence structures in English regarding their form and function.

In fact, the correct construction of sentence structures (simple, complex or compound), is

currently considered to be a central element in communicative competence and in the
acquisition of a second language since students must be able to use and distinguish these
forms in their everyday life in many different situations. As stated before, the teaching of them
comprises four major components in our educational curriculum: phonology, grammar, lexicon,
and semantics, out of which we get give major levels: phonological, morphological and
syntactic, lexical, and semantic.

Therefore, it is a fact that students must be able to handle the four levels in communicative
competence in order to be effectively and highly communicative in the classroom and in real
life situations, now we are part of the European Union. The expression of these verbal
paradigms in form and function, proves highly frequent in our everyday speech, and
consequently, we must encourage our students to have a good managing of it.