Introduction. Syntax is 1 a system of rules and means of creating

part of conversation. A statement may be positive (affirmative) or negative.
Grammatically, statements are characterized by the subject-predicate
structure with the direct order of words. They are mostly two-member
sentences, although they may be one-member sentences. Statements usually
have a falling tone; they are marked by a pause in speaking and by a full stop in
writing.
In conversation, statements are often structurally incomplete, especially
when they serve as a response to a question asking for some information, and
the response conveys the most important idea. Thanks to their structure and
lexical content, declarative sentences are communicatively polyfunctional.
Thus, besides their main function as information-carriers, statements may be
used with the force of questions, commands and exclamations.
Interrogative sentences contain questions. Their communicative function
consists in asking for information. They belong to the sphere of conversation
and only occasionally occur in monological speech.
All varieties of questions may be structurally reduced to two main types,
general questions (also called “yes-no” questions) and pronominal
questions (otherwise called “special” or “wh” - questions). Both are graphically
identified by a question mark. The two main types have a number of structural
and communicative modifications.
Sentences belonging to the different types differ from each other in some
grammatical point. Thus, interrogative sentences are characterised by a special
word order. In interrogative sentences very few modal words are used, as the
meanings of some modal words are incompatible with the meaning of an
interrogative sentence. It is clear that modal words expressing full certainty,
such as certainly, surely, naturally, etc., cannot appear in a sentence expressing
a question. On the other hand, the modal word indeed, with its peculiar shades
of meaning, is quite possible in interrogative sentences, for instance, Isn't so
indeed? (Shakespeare).
Imperative sentences also show marked peculiarities in the use of modal
words. It is quite evident, for example, that modal words expressing possibility,
such as perhaps, maybe, possibly, are incompatible with the notion of order or
request. Indeed, modal words are hardly used at all in imperative sentences.
The notion of exclamatory sentences and their relation to the three
established types of declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences
presents some difficulty. On the one hand, every sentence, whether narrative,
interrogative, or imperative, may be exclamatory at the same time, that is, it
may convey the speaker's feelings and be characterised by emphatic intonation
and by an exclamation mark in writing. This may be seen in the following
examples: Bat he can't do anything to you! (R. West). On the other hand, a
sentence may be purely exclamatory, that is. it may not belong to any of the
three types classed above. This would be the case in the following examples:
"Well, fiddle-dee-dee!" said Scarlett. (M. Mitchell) Oh, for God's sake, Henry!
(Idem)
From the point of view of their structure, sentences can be:
1. Simple or composite (compound and complex).
2.Complete or incomplete (elliptical).
3.Two-member (double-nucleus) or one-member (single-nucleus).
These three classifications are based on different approaches to the
structural organisation of sentences and reflect its different aspects. The
difference between the simple sentence and the composite sentence lies in the
fact that the former contains only one subject-predicate unit and the latter
more than one. Subject-predicate units that form composite sentences are
called clauses.
Honesty is the best policy. (one subject-predicate unit)
Still waters run deep. (one subject-predicate unit)
You can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink (two
subject-predicate units, or two clauses)
You never know what you can do till you try. (three subject-predicate
units, or three clauses)
The difference between the compound and complex sentences lies in the
relations between the clauses that constitute them. Complete and incomplete
(or elliptical) sentences are distinguished by the presence or absence of wordforms in the principal positions of two-member sentences. In a complete
sentence both the principal positions are filled with word-forms.
When did you arrive? I came straight here.
In an incomplete (elliptical) sentence one or both of the main positions
are not filled, but can be easily supplied as it is clear from the context what is
missing. Elliptical sentences are typical of conversational English.
Cheerful, aren’t you?
Ready?
Could’ve been professional.
Wrong again.
One-member and two-member sentences are distinguished by the number
of principal parts (positions) they contain: two-member sentences have two
main parts - the subject and the predicate, while one-member sentences have
only one principal part, which is neither the subject nor the predicate.
Two-member sentences:
The magpie flew off.
We are going to my house now.
One-member sentences:
An old park.
To live alone in this abandoned house!
The relations between the two classifications should now be considered.
A simple sentence can be either declarative, or interrogative, or
imperative. But things are more complicated with reference to composite
sentences. If all the clauses making up a composite sentence are declarative, the
composite sentence as a whole is of course declarative too. And so it is bound
to be in every case when all the clauses making a composite sentence belong to
the same type of communication. Sometimes, however, composite sentences
are consist of clauses belonging to different types of communication. In this
case it may be problematic to state the communicative type of the composite
sentence as a whole.
Actual division of the sentence. By actual division we mean dividing a
sentence into two sections, one of which contains that which is the starting
point of the message –"the theme", and the other –the new information for
which the sentence has been spoken or written –"the rheme".
The two terms are Greek in origin: "theme" comes from the Greek root the-
"to set", "to establish" and means "that which is set or established". The term
"rheme" is derived from the root rhe- "to say" or "tell" and means "that which
is said or told about".
Between the theme and the rheme are positioned intermediary, transitional parts of the actual division of various degrees of informative value
(these parts are sometimes called "transition"). The theme of the actual division
of the sentence may or may not coincide with the subject of the sentence. The
rheme of the actual division, in its turn, may or may not coincide with the
predicate of the sentence either with the whole predicate group or its part, such
as the predicative, the object, the adverbial.
Thus, in the following sentences of various emotional character the theme
is expressed by the subject, while the rheme is expressed by the predicate:
Max bounded forward. Again Charlie is being too clever! Her advice can't be
of any help to us.
In the first of the above sentences the rheme coincides with the whole
predicate group. In the second sentence the adverbial intro-ducer again can be
characterized as a transitional element, i.e. an element informationally
intermediary between the theme and the rheme, the latter being expressed by
the rest of the predicate group. The main part of the rheme-the "peak" of
informative perspective-is rendered in this sentence by the intensified
predicative too clever. In the third sentence the addressee object to us is more
or less transitional, while the informative peak, as in the previous example, is
expressed by the predicative of any help.
In the following sentences the correlation between the nominative and
actual divisions is the reverse: the theme is expressed by the predicate or its