Sentence function: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:37, 18 July 2022

Revision as of 09:25, 8 August 2022

Line 1:

{{no footnotes|date=February 2022}}

In [[linguistics]], a sentence '''function''' refers to a speaker's purpose in uttering a specific sentence, phrase, or clause. Whether a listener is present or not is sometimes irrelevant. It answers the question: "Why has this been said?" The four basic sentence functionsforms in(or the"structures") world'sin languagesEnglish includeare the ''declarative'', ''interrogative'', ''exclamative'', and the ''imperative''. These correspond to athe discourse functions ''statement'', ''question'', ''exclamation'', and ''command'' respectively. Typically,The adifferent sentenceforms goesinvolve fromdifferent one function to the next through a combination of changescombinations in word order, intonation, the addition of certain auxiliaries or particles, or other times by providing a special verbal form. The fourThere mainis categoriesno clear one-to-one correspondence between the forms/structures and their discourse functions. For example, a declarative form can be furtherused specifiedto asask beinga eitherquestion, ''communicative''and orinterrogative ''informative''form can be used to make a statement.

For instance, the following sentence has declarative form: from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/clauses/discours.htm)

You need some help

But when this is spoken with a rising intonation, it becomes a question:

You need some help?

Conversely, rhetorical questions have the form of an interrogative, but they are really statements:

Who cares? ( = I don't care)

The four main categories can be further specified as being either ''communicative'' or ''informative'', although this is somewhat simplistic.

== Communicative vs. informative ==

While [[communication]] is traditionally defined as the transfer of [[information]], the two terms, under present context, are differentiated as follows below:

Line 61 ⟶ 74:

* George Yule, ''The Study of Language''. 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-521-54320-0}}

* Steven Pinker, ''The Language Instinct''. 1994 {{ISBN|0-06-095833-2}}

* https://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/clauses/discours.htm

[[Category:Semantics]]