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A simple complete sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. The subject is typically a noun phrase, though other kinds of phrases (such as gerund phrases) work as well, and some languages allow subjects to be omitted. The predicate is a finite verb phrase: it's a finite verb together with zero or more objects, zero or more complements, and zero or more adverbials. See also copula for the consequences of this verb on the theory of sentence structure.
These are very similar to yes/no questions, but they offer a choice of answer.
| Did it happen on
Monday or Tuesday? Should I ring up, or should I write? |
|
Tag questions are statements with a question tag at the end.
Tag questions, a peculiarity of English, are usually spoken rather than written.
| It's a lovely day, isn't it? He can swim well, can't he? You wouldn't want to spoil it, would you? It wasn't much of a film, was it? |
The intonation pattern used indicates whether these are in fact genuine questions (requiring a "yes" or "no" answer) or are really statements (requiring only agreement).
| She passed all her exams, didn't she?
(With a rising tone on the tag, this can be answered "yes"
or "no".) It was a terrible thing to do, wasn't it. (With a falling tone on the tag, this can only be answered "yes".) |
The form of tag questions is quite regular.
If the statement is positive,
the tag will be negative:
He's an inspiring teacher, isn't he?
If the statement is negative,
the tag will be positive:
He isn't an inspiring teacher, is he?
|
The effect of a tag question can also be a softening of a statement.
| It was a good film. It was a good film, wasn't it? |
This way of softening a statement is called hedging. It is a bit like "hedging your bets". Other ways of hedging can be to add words like "rather" or "sort of".
Tag questions are socially important in English. It has been suggested that women use them more than men and that this use reflects underlying insecurity and a need for confirmation.
Professor Janet Holmes, of Victoria University, has shown that tag questions have an important function in conversation and that they have more functions than just asking for information. They can be used to bring someone into the conversation and to establish conversational rapport. She suggests that it is for this function that women use tag questions more than men.
Problems with questions and tag questions
Some non-standard varieties use "isn't it" for all tag questions. This is a feature of some Welsh dialects.
You'll be leaving us, isn't it?
Foreign learners of English often use this invariable isn't it. This is because many foreign languages have an unchanging tag expression for all tag questions. Compare these French sentences with their English translations:
| Vous nous quitterez,
n'est-ce pas? You'll be leaving us, won't you?
Elle les a quitté, n'est-ce pas? She's left them, hasn't she? Ils me quittent, n'est-ce pas? They're leaving me, aren't they? Je le quittais, n'est-ce pas? I was leaving him, wasn't I? |
It can be tricky for foreign learners of English to respond to tag questions. This is a problem, for example, for native speakers of Polynesian languages. A negative statement followed by a positive tag is not necessarily a straightforward yes/no question. It can be a question that requires the listener to agree.
| It never snows in Auckland, does it?
(Surely not!) No (you're right). (indicating agreement) Yes (it does snow sometimes). (indicating disagreement) |
Speakers of some languages tend to use "no" and "yes" the opposite way round.
| Yes (you're right). No (it does snow sometimes). |
Similar misunderstandings can arise with replies to negative questions:
| Didn't you like the film? (I don't
think you did.) No, I didn't. (confirming the questioner's belief) Yes, I did. (contradicting the questioner's belief) |
Again, speakers of some languages will say "yes", meaning, "Yes, it's true that I did not like the film," where a native English speaker would say "no".
| Didn't you like the film? English speaker: No (I didn't). Polynesian speaker: Yes (I didn't like it). |
Asking and answering questions
for Mãori and Samoan speakers:
Native speakers of English have a habit of asking negative (and double
negative) questions that require a fair bit of unravelling before answering:
for instance, "You don't want that, do you?"; "You don't
want to lose your coat, do you?"; "You don't have a brother,
do you?" To complicate matters, Pakeha ideas of whether to answer
such questions with "yes" or "no" are often the
exact reverse of what comes naturally to Maoris or Samoans. A Pakeha
would say: "No, I don't want that", "No, I don't want
to lose my coat", and "Yes, I do have a brother", where
Maoris and Samoans would say: "Yes, I don't want that", "Yes,
I don't want to lose my coat", and "No, I do have a brother",
giving assent or dissent to the whole proposition.
Metge and Kinloch: Talking Past Each Other
Sentence types: exclamations
These are also referred to as exclamative sentences or exclamatives (Latin exclamare : "to call or cry out").
These are used to express strong feelings.
They can begin with "what" or "how":
| What a naughty dog he is! What an amazing game that was! How well everyone played! |
Sentence Types and their Functions
In this book, we use the terms statement, command, question, and exclamation for the main sentence types rather than the terms declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamative, which are given as alternatives. We chose to use these terms because they are more familiar and are probably the most suitable at primary school level.
However, strictly speaking, terms like statement, command, question, and exclamation are the "end results", or functions, of using a certain kind of sentence. In other words, the sentence "Are you coming to town?" has the function of asking a question. But there are sentences with the structure of a statement that actually ask a question:
| "I want someone to tell me what happened." The form is a statement, but the end result, or function, is a question. |
Linguists use the terms declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamative for the syntactic forms, and they use statement, command, question, and exclamation for the functions - the end results. Thus, declarative sentences usually have the function of making statements, interrogative sentences usually ask questions, and so on.
Sometimes a sentence of a given kind has a different function from the usual one.
Declarative sentences:
| The race will start at three o'clock.
(statement) All competitors must be in position by 2.55. (command or instruction) I want to know the answer! (question) |
Interrogative sentences:
| What time will Sharon get here? (question) Could you open the window? (command or request) Wasn't the band great! (statement) Isn't he handsome! (exclamation) |
So the same function can be fulfilled by sentences of more than one type. For example, the following sentences could all be used to make the same request:
| You're making far too much noise.
(declarative) Could you keep the noise down? (interrogative) What a terrible din! (exclamative) Be quiet. (imperative) Pour me a cup of tea, please. (imperative) I'd love another cup of tea. (declarative) Is there any more tea in that pot? (interrogative) How I'd love another cup of tea! (exclamative) |
It is part of a native speaker's knowledge of the language and language use to understand the purpose of these different sentences. "Is there any more tea in that pot?" has the form of a yes/no question, but the answer "Yes" would be considered inappropriate.
Making Sentences More Complex
So far, we have described only simple sentences.
| Frank burned the toast. The sun melted the snow. |
Many sentences are more complex than these.
| Frank burned the toast while he was
on the phone. The sun melted the snow, and in an hour it had vanished. |
These sentences are like two sentences joined together.
The technical term for each of the two parts of these sentences is clause.
Sentence:
|
The terms sentence and clause can be a little confusing because a simple sentence is the same thing as a clause.
| My car | had | a puncture. | |
| S | V | O |
This is both a simple sentence and a clause.
When we describe the structure of a simple sentence (such as SVO), we are also describing the structure of a clause.
A clause must have a verb. A clause can also have a subject, object, complement, and adverbial element.
We keep the term sentence for the unit that is standing alone.
The term clause is used when there are two or more clauses inside a complex sentence.
It would be rather boring if we only ever used simple sentences, as in this example:
| Karen left the house. She saw the bus coming. She ran after it. She missed it. She was late for school again. |
One way of making the text more interesting and cohesive is by joining some of these simple sentences together.
| As Karen left the house, she saw the bus coming. Although she ran after it, she missed it, and so she was late for school again. |
Next: Conjunctions (Sentences continued)
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