Languages & Linguistics
Declarative
Declarative refers to a type of sentence that makes a statement or declaration. In linguistics, it is used to describe a sentence that conveys information without posing a question or giving a command. Declarative sentences typically end with a period and are the most common type of sentence in everyday communication.
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eBook - PDFWorking with English Grammar
An Introduction
- Louise Cummings(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
In the study of sentence function, grammar must rub shoulders very closely indeed with pragmatics (the branch of linguistics that studies how these wider aspects of context affect mean- ing and communication). We will see further examples of this loose correspond- ence between sentence structure and function in the sections which follow. In the meantime, to get you thinking further about this important relationship, you should attempt Exercise 7.1. EXERCISE 7.1 LARA AND SENTENCE FUNCTION The following sentences (utterances) were produced by Lara when she was just over 3 years old. For each sentence, identify its structure as a Declarative or an interrogative. Also, state the function of the sentence. The function may be a statement, question or a directive. If you identify the function as a directive, you should further indicate if the sentence is a type of request, or permission to the hearer to do something: (a) I’m cleaning you. (b) I get down? (c) Is Emily not at work? (d) Can you get Amy a duvet? (e) What did she do? (f) You can have that. (g) My doggy’s going. (h) Are they very hard pants? (i) Can you put them away? (j) This is cards again. (k) I hoovering your house with your hoover? (l) Can I have that bag? (m) Amy can come in my bed. (n) I’m reading a book to you. (o) Can you pick it up? (p) Amy can play with them. (q) Can I play with it? (r) Can I have more breadstick please? (s) You’ve only got a little bit. (t) Can you get one out for me? Sentences 258 7.2 Declaratives Probably the most common sentence type in English (or indeed any language) is the Declarative. It is not difficult to see why this is the case. One of the pri- mary purposes of any language is to produce statements about people, places and events in the world. Declarative sentences are the vehicle by means of which statements are expressed. 7.2.1 Structure of Declaratives Declaratives have a two-part structure that consists of a subject noun phrase fol- lowed by a predicate verb phrase.
eBook - PDFLanguage in Time and Space
A Festschrift for Werner Winter on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday
- Brigitte L.M. Bauer, Georges-Jean Pinault, Brigitte L.M. Bauer, Georges-Jean Pinault, Brigitte L. M. Bauer, Georges-Jean Pinault(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
A Declarative sentence is simply a kind of sentence. Each particular sentence will be treated here as an individual, concrete, non-repeatable lingual object, which can be characterized in terms of structures of various kinds. A sentence, if conceived of in this way should be called an actual sentence, and should be kept distinct from a sentence as an abstract entity. The set of all actual sentences will be denoted by the symbol Sen, and the set of all Declarative sentences by the symbol Dec. The formulae s e Sen and s e Dec read, respectively, as: s is an actual sentence and s is an actual Declarative sentence. However, since only actual lingual objects will be dealt with here, the adjective 'actual' will be sometimes omitted, if the context provides unambiguous information. All actual sentences con-vey messages and they function in communication as certain wholes, that is, they are communicatively indivisible. However, looked at from dif-ferent angles, units of various kinds can be distinguished within them. Dictons and syntagmas, among others, belong to such units. 42 Jerzy Banczerowski The concept of dicton has already been characterized on various occa-sions (cf. Banczerowski 1999: 19). Nevertheless, for the sake of quick refer-ence, it should be reiterated that each particular dicton, as a part of an actual sentence, is also an individual, concrete, non-repeatable unit. It conveys both lexical and semical (grammatical) meaning. Or, more cor-rectly, it is already capable of both lexification and semification. Dictons may be linearly continuous or discontinnous. No synsemantical unit can be regarded as a dicton but it forms a corresponding dicton with an appro-priate autosemantic word. The set of all dictons will be denoted as Die, and the formula χ e Die reads: χ is a dicton. A lingual unit consisting of at least two dictons will be termed an actual syntagma. However, syntagmas as such are of no special concern here.
eBook - PDFLinguistic Analysis
From Data to Theory
- Annarita Puglielli, Mara Frascarelli(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
In English, Italian and Tagalog, Declarative force is only signaled with prosodic and intonational means; the Declarative sentence has a downgrading contour 2 and represents the unmarked construction (§ 6.3.1.) in these languages. In Somali, on the other hand, along with a downgrading contour (Frascarelli & Puglielli 2007), a marker (waa) is needed to signal the Declarative force of the sentence. Let us now consider yes-no questions. 3 In English, interrogative force requires a specific syntactic construction where the auxiliary precedes the subject, and intonation may be downward, as in Declaratives, or change (according to varieties; see Brown 1983). In Italian, the same constituent order is used as in Declaratives; as a consequence, the difference in illocutionary force is only expressed by the intonational contour (upward at the end). Finally, in Somali and Tagalog, specific morphological markers are needed: Ma in Somali (in the same position that waa occupies in the corresponding Declarative sentence; see [9b]), ba in Tagalog (following the topicalized constituent; see [10b]). As regards the sentences in (c), orders lack overt subject in the languages examined (regardless of whether they are null subject languages), and the verb appears in a particular form, often identical to its base form. 4 Information structure in Declarative clauses 223 A more extensive and detailed description of speech acts will be presented in Chapter 7, where it will also be discussed how types of sentences corresponding to different speech acts relate to each other, and how information is distributed among them. For the moment, we simply wish to emphasize that illocutionary force is crucial in discussing information structure, and to show its main characteristics. Next, we will examine the mechanisms used in languages to codify the distribution of information, starting with Declarative clauses. 6.3. Information structure in Declarative clauses Each sentence has an information content.
eBook - PDF- Charles N. Li, Sandra A. Thompson(Authors)
- 1981(Publication Date)
- University of California Press(Publisher)
CHAPTER4 Simple Declarative Sentences By simple sentence we mean any sentence that has just one verb in it. By contrast, sentences with more than one verb are called complex sentences —several types of complex sentences are discussed in chapters 20—24. In this chapter, we will introduce the basic properties of simple Declarative sentences in Mandarin by discussing the elements that comprise them. These elements include the topic, the subject, the noun phrase, and the verb phrase. 4.1 Topic and Subject In chapter 2 the topic-prominent nature of Mandarin sentences was discussed as a feature that distinguishes Mandarin typologically from many other languages. In this section, the concepts of topic and subject will be presented in more detail. 4.1.1 Characterization of Topic What is a topic? In chapter 2 the topic was characterized as what the sentence is about. Although it may be an intuitive matter to determine all of the implications of what the sentence is about, this is essentially a correct characterization. Another way of talking about what the sentence is about is to say that a topic sets a spatial, temporal, or individual framework within which the main predication holds. 1 In addition, the topic always refers either to something that the hearer already knows about—that is, it is definite —or to a class of entities—that is, it is generic (see section 4.2.5 of this chapter for a discussion of definite and generic noun phrases). Whereas in English nouns are usually marked by articles, which signal whether they are definite or indefinite, in Mandarin this distinction does not need to be 86 SIMPLE Declarative SENTENCES marked at all, though nei-'that' may be used to signal definiteness and y/-'one' may be used to signal indefiniteness.
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