Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Lecture 10 
Different classifications of sentences 
1.
 
Communicative types of sentences 
The sentence is a communicative unit, therefore the primary classification of sentences 
should be based on the communicative principle, that is according to the purpose of communi-
cation. Every sentence, whatever its concrete meaning might be, has one of the three goals: 

giving information:
The book is interesting
.

asking for information:
Is the book interesting?

expressing inducement:
Give me the book!
According to the purpose of communication sentences are classified into three main types: 
declarative, interrogative and imperative sentences. These communicative sentence types stand 
in strict opposition to each other, and their inner properties of form and meaning are imme-
diately correlated with corresponding features of the listener’s responses.
The declarative sentence expresses a statement, either affirmative or negative, and as such 
stands in syntagmatic correlation with the listener’s responding signals of attention. 

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof. 
Nino Kirvalidze
70
The imperative sentence expresses inducement (
წაქეზება
). That is, it urges the listener, in 
the form of request or command, to perform or not to perform a certain action. As such, the 
imperative sentence is situationally connected with the corresponding verbal or action response 
from the addressee, showing that the inducement is either fulfilled or rejected. Cf.: 
“Let’s go and sit down up there, Dinny.”
“Very well.”
“Shut the piano and let’s go.” 
Diana closed the piano without noise and rose. 
The interrogative sentence expresses a question, i.e. a request for information wanted by 
the speaker from the listener. By virtue of this communicative purpose, the interrogative 
sentence is naturally connected with an answer, forming together with it a question-answer 
adjacency pair.
“Did you know about it?” 
“You’d better ask he about it.” 
There are four main types of questions in English. They are differentiated from each other 
on the basis of the type of reply they expect. These types of questions are: 

YES-NO questions that expect affirmation or negation in answer:
“Have you brought my book?” – “Yes.”/ “No.” 

Wh-queastions which are formed with the help of one of the following interrogative
words such as 
who/whom/whose/, what, which, when, where, how, why
, and which 
expect a reply from an open range of replies. 
“What’s your name?” - “Nick”/ “Ann”/ “David.” 
“How old are you?” - 18/20/52. 

ALTERNATIVE questions which expect a reply to one of two or more options pre-
sented in the question: 
“Would you like to go for a walk or stay at home?” 
“I’d rather stay at home.” 

TAG questions in which maximum induciveness is expressed by a tag question added 
to a statement in the form of a declarative; 

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof.