Unit 29 Sentence Structure in English: Affirmative, Questions, Negatives

and Exclamations
1. Introduction
2. A Linguistic Framework for Sentence Structures
2.1. Linguistic Levels Involved in the Notion of Sentence Structure
2.2. On Defining the Notion of Sentence: What and How
2.3. Grammar Categories Involved: Open vs. Closed Classes
3. A General Introduction to the Structure of Sentences
3.1. The Structure of the Sentence: Categorial vs. Functional Description
3.2. Phrase, Sentence and Clause Structure
3.3. Simple, Complex and Compound Sentences
3.4. The Notion of “Collocation”: Sentence Word Order
3.5. Main Types of Sentence Structure
3.6. Main Structural Features of Sentence Types: Form, Function and Use
4. Statements
4.1. Statements: Morphology and Syntax
4.2. Statements: Phonology and Semantics
5. Questions
5.1. Questions: Morphology and Syntax
5.2. Questions: Phonology and Semantics
6. Commands
6.1. Commands: Morphology and Syntax
6.2. Commands: Phonology and Semantics
7. Exclamations
7.1. Commands: Morphology and Syntax
7.2. Commands: Phonology and Semantics
8. Educational Implications
9. Conclusion
10. Bibliography

1. Introduction
Unit 29 is aimed to examine the English structure of the sentence regarding positive and negative
statements, questions, commands and exclamations in terms of their main structural features
regarding form, function, and main uses to provide a relevant account of this issue.
The study will be divided into nine chapters.
Chapter 2 provides a linguistic framework for sentence structure, by answering questions such as,
first, which linguistic levels are involved in the notion of sentence structure; second, what it
describes and how; and third, which grammar categories are involved in its description at a
functional level.
Chapter 3 will offer a general introduction to the structure of sentences. We will start by revising
some important notions which are closely related to the description of sentence structures: for
instance, (1) the basis to analyse the structure of the sentence: functional vs. categorial
description; and (2) the difference between phrase, clause and sentence; (3) the difference
between simple, complex and compound sentences; (4) the sentence structure in terms of word
order; (5) a brief typology of sentence structures following the main grammatical forms and
functions in communication; and (6) the main structural features of sentence types regarding form,
function and uses.
Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 will offer a descriptive account of the main structural features of the four
sentence structures in terms of form, function and uses following morphological, phonological,
syntactic, semantic and pragmatic guidelines. I will examine the structure of statements,
questions, commands and exclamations in terms of their form regarding morphology (subject-verb
structures) and phonology (pronunciation) whereas function will be approached in terms of syntax
(sentence structure) and semantics (different meanings = different uses).
Chapter 8 provides an educational framework for the structural features of sentence structure
within the curriculum, and Chapter 9 draws on a summary of all the points involved in the study.
Finally, in Chapter 10 bibliography will be listed.

2. A Linguistic Framework for Sentence Structures

This introductory chapter aims at answering questions such as, first, which linguistic levels are
involved in the notion of sentence structure; second, what it describes and how; and third, which
grammar categories are involved in its description at a functional level.
2.1. Linguistic Levels Involved in the Notion of Sentence Structure
The usual description of a language comprises four major components: phonology, grammar,
lexicon, and semantics, out of which we get five major levels: phonological, morphological and
syntactic, lexical and semantic
First, the phonology describes the sound level, that is, the pronunciation, stress, intonation within
the sentence structure.
Second, since the two most basic units of grammar are the word and the sentence, the component
of grammar involves the morphological level (ex: third person singular in positive statements) and
the syntactic level (ex: word order in the sentence).
Third, the lexical level lists vocabulary items; specifying how they are pronounced, how they
behave grammatically, and what they mean.
Semantics is the dimension to which all four of the major components are related. A linguistic
description which ignores meaning is incomplete, and in particular, when dealing with the notion of
sentence structure where semantics plays a very important role in order to express the speaker’s
attitude.
Each of the linguistic levels has a corresponding component when analysing the notion under
study. Thus, phonology deals with the accent, rhythm and intonation on statements, questions,
commands and exclamations (ex: You are studying tonight/Are you studying tonight?/Study
tonight!/Pity you are studying tonight!); morphology deals with certain morphological features in
the formation of statements either positive (ex: third person singular in positive statements) or
negative (ex: the auxiliary “doesn’t”), interrogative (ex: Does he usually cook?) and so on; and
syntax deals with those combinations of words which constitute grammatical strings and those
which do not (ex: NOT: the dog she for a walk takes always BUT she always takes the dg for a
walk).
Lexis deals with the wide range of grammatical categories involved in sentence structure (ex:
verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and so on); and finally, semantics deals with
meaning where syntactic and morphological levels do not tell the difference (ex: Would you like
some coffee? = where a positive answer is expected).
2.2. On Defining the Notion of Sentence: What and How
Traditionally, on answering What is a “sentence”?, we would define it as “the largest unit of
grammatical description since it does not function in the structure of a unit higher than itself”, that
is, on treating the sentence as the highest unit implies that we do not take into account larger
stretches of language such as paragraphs and texts since this is the domain of text grammar or
discourse analysis.
2.3. Grammar Categories Involved: Open vs. Closed Classes
In order to confine the notion of sentence structure to particular grammatical categories, we must
review first the difference between open and closed classes. The open classes are verbs, nouns,
adjectives and adverbs, and are said to be unrestricted since they allow the addition of new
members to their membership, whereas the closed classes are the rest: prepositions,
conjunctions, articles (definite and indefinite), numerals, pronouns, quantifiers, and interjections,
which belong to a restricted class since they do not allow the creation of new members. As we will
see, sentence structures will deal with both classes.

3. A General Introduction to the Structure of Sentences

We will start by revising some important notions which are closely related to the description of
sentence structures: for instance, (1) the basis to analyse the structure of the sentence: functional
vs. categorial description; and (2) the difference between phrase, clause and sentence; (3) the
difference between simple, complex and compound sentences; (4) the sentence structure in terms
of word order; (5) a brief typology of sentence structures following the main grammatical forms and
functions in communication; and (6) the main structural features of sentence types regarding form,
function and uses.
3.1. The Structure of Sentences: Categorial vs. Functional Description
According to Aarts, “with the exception of the sentence, every unit, at every level of analysis can
be considered either as an element that plays a role in a larger structure, or as something that has
its own individual characteristics”.
If a linguistic unit plays its role in a larger linguistic structure, we are concerned with its function.
On the contrary, if it is something that has individual characteristics which shares with other units
of the same kind, we are concerned with the category or class to which it belongs.
When we assign some sort of meaning to each word in a sentence, we have to do it to make
sense of the sequence as a whole. Therefore, if a sequence of words is to constitute a sentence, it
must be meaningful. Apart from being internally coherent, these groups also stand in a certain
relation to each other. We refer to the main constituents in a sentence and their syntactic functions
in it, the sentence word order.
Therefore, sentences will be described in two ways: first, in terms of functional description and
second, in terms of categorial description, where we will review both the sentence constituents
(categorial) and their word order within the sentence structure (functional).
Categorial Description: Main Sentence Constituents
We will provide information about the categories to which their constituents belong since
sentences can also be described in terms of the phrases of which they are made up (ex: function:
object = category: noun/noun phrase). The main constituents we find in a sentence structure are
(1) subject, (2) predicate (ex: The moon rose), and (3) adverbial constituents (ex: The moon rose
at midnight).
Within the predicate we find (a) predicator and (b) complement. Within the latter one, we find
different elements:
1. Direct Object (ex: Many students enjoyed the concert = NP – VP – NP); the direct object
may be a noun (ex: I like fruit) or a noun phrase (ex: They’ve sold their car); a bare infinitive
(ex: He dared not speak to her) or a “to-infinitive” (ex: He didn’t want to die); an -ing form
(ex: I like swimming); or a subordinate clause (ex: I saw him do it).
2. Indirect Object (ex: The firm has sent him an e-mail = NP – VP – NP – NP); the indirect
object may be a pronoun (ex: He gave him a book); a noun (ex: He gave Peter a book); or a
noun phrase (ex: He gave my brother a book).
3. Benefactive Object (ex: My boss has bought his daughter a flat = NP – VP – NP – NP); this
type of object is similar to the indirect object.
4. Subject Attribute (ex: That solution seems easy = NP – VP – AdjP); with verbs such as “to
be, appear, lie, look, feel, seem, smell, taste, sound, and so on” or “become, fall, get, go,
grow, turn”, we may add: a noun or noun phrase (ex: He became a lawyer; she’s a very
good nurse); and adverb or adverbial phrase (ex: She’s there; She is in Berlin); a
subordinate nominal clause (ex: It seems that we are wrong; the truth is that nobody likes
you).
5. Object Attribute (ex: Susanne will make her husband very happy = NP – VP – NP – AdjP);
the object attribute may be: an adjective (ex: You’ll make me angry) or a participle (ex: I had
the car repaired); or a noun (ex: They elected him Minister) or a noun phrase (ex: He was
appointed Foreign Minister).
6. Predicator Complement (ex: This street reminds me of New York = NP – VP – NP – PrepP).
Functional Description: Main Syntactic Functions and Word Order
We need a functional description of a sentence because a description in terms of its constituents
is inadequate because many constructions consist of identical strings of phrases (NP – VP – NP –
NP) as it is the case of these two sentences “My boss bought her lover a flat” and “The firm has
offered me a job”, being the former a Subject – Predicate – Benefactive Object – Direct Object
type, and the latter a Subject – Predicate – Indirect Object – Direct Object type.
We will specify the functions of the different constituents we find in a sentence structure in a
similar way to categorial description (ex: subject + predicate (predicator; complement – direct
object, indirect object, subject attribute, object attribute, etc.) + adverbial) where subject and
predicate are the two obligatory parts of the sentence. Thus:
1. The function of subject: it may be attributed to a constituent of a sentence on the basis of
the following criteria: (a) position; (b) concord (third person singular, plural constituents); (c)
passivization (it occurs in the by-phrase); (d) repetition in tag-questions, where the subject
is pronominalized (ex: Peter hates cats, doesn’t he?)
2. The function of predicate. It consists of two internal parts: predicator or complement, where
the former is obligatory and the second optional (ex: Birds sing vs. Birds sing at night).
Complements can be segmented into six types: direct object, indirect object, benefactive
object, the subject attribute, after copula verbs; the object attribute, formed by two noun
phrases (indirect + direct object); and predicator complement, which makes reference to
those constituents that obligatory complement the verb.
3. The adverbial function is associated with a constituent which occupies a position on the
same level as the subject and predicate constituents (prepositions, noun phrases, adverbs.
They have two main features: they are optional and they are movable.
 3.2. Phrase, Sentence and Clause Structure
We have assumed that the sentence, being the largest unit of grammatical description, does not
function in the structure of a unit higher than itself. A unit of a given rank functions as a constituent
of a unit of the same rank or even of a unit which is one step lower down the rank-scale. I refer to
two possibilities within sentence formation: first, when a sentence can function in the structure of
another sentence, that is in the structure of a unit of the same rank; and second, when a sentence
can function in the structure of a phrase, that is in the structure of a unit lower than itself.
We refer to the distinction between phrase, sentence and clause structure at a functional level
where they will function first, in terms of single units within the structure of the phrase (noun
phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, etc.) and second, in terms of larger units as part of the
structure of the sentence (subject and predicate) or embedded in the sentence structure, that is,
clauses (subordinate). Main differences.
The Phrase Structure
The phrase structure is defined as a constituent which can be identified on the basis of the word
class membership of at least one of its constituent words which is called the “head” of the phrase.
The other elements show a relation of dependency or subordination to the head (determiners;
modifiers).
However, the factors which determine which of the words of the phrase constitutes its principal
part are not the same for all five phrase types. Thus, in three types, the noun, adjective and
adverb phrase, the dominant element is that which can replace the whole phrase without affecting
the structure of the sentence (ex: We like medieval stories = we like stories). A fourth type of
phrase, the verb phrase, differs from the former in that the essential element, mainly from
semantic considerations, cannot replace the whole phrase without causing serious harm to
syntactic structure (ex; John has phoned Christine vs. John phone Christine).
The fifth type of phrase, the prepositional phrase, differs from the rest in that the element that
gives its name to the phrase cannot be called its head since it cannot replace the whole phrase
and it has a function of government.
Sentence vs. Clause Structure
The sentence is actually identifiable on the basis of the relations holding among its immediate
constituents (subject, predicate, direct/indirect object, complement, adverbial and so on).
Once assumed that the sentence is the largest unit of grammatical description and that it does not
function in the structure of a unit higher than itself, we are ready to understand the duality
sentence vs. clause by means of two further possibilities. First, when a sentence functions in the
structure of another sentence of the same rank (ex: I believe that he is quite loyal); and secondly,
when a sentence functions in the structure of a phrase, that is in the structure of a unit lower than
itself (ex: as postmodifier: the man that came yesterday was a politician).
Hence, when sentences are embedded in the structure of other sentences or in the structure of
phrases, we call them “clauses”, which usually corresponds to the notions of “subordination” (or
embedding) and “coordination”.
3.3. Simple, Complex and Compound Sentences
Some grammarians (Jespersen, Aarts, Huddleston) affirm that a sentence is a unit capable of
occurring itself as long as there is no change in prosodic patterns (accent, intonation) in spoken
English (ex; I told him. I won the lottery vs. I told him (that) I won the lottery) and that may be
formed by one or more words (ex: Stop! = Can you stop, please?).
Simple Sentences
A simple sentence can be defined as “a sentence in which none of the functions are realized by a
clause, that is, a simple sentence does not contain an embedded (or subordinate) sentence as
realization of one of its functions (ex: He likes science fiction films).
Complex Sentences
The complex sentence is defined as “those sentences in which one or more sentence functions
are realized by a clause (finite or non-finite)”. Then a complex sentence (or a clause) may contain
one or more clauses in a relationship of coordination or subordination (ex: I wonder if you would
tell me where my keys are). As the example shows, clauses can, in turn, contain more deeply
embedded clauses.
Clauses can be classified in two ways. First, from a structural point of view by distinguishing three
types: finite clauses (ex: We discovered who sent the e-mail); non-finite clauses (ex: I don’t
remember saying that); and verbless clauses (ex: A staunch liberal, George did not believe in
state ownership). Second, in terms of the functions they play in the structure of the sentence:
subject clauses (ex: Having a hot shower is rather nice), direct object clauses (ex: He didn’t know
what to say), indirect object clauses (ex: She gave whoever came in an angry look), subject
attribute clauses (ex: My feeling is that she doesn’t want to study), object attribute clauses (ex: I
call that killing two birds with one stone), predicator complement clauses (ex: I promised to come
back) and adverbial clauses (ex: To speak frankly, I don’t like this soup).
Compound Sentences
Compound sentences are defined as “a sentence in which two or more sentences (called cojoins)
have been coordinated”. Each of the cojoins is independent since there is no question of
embedding. Coordination may be asyndetic (not market) (ex: She was an odd man, his life was
always a mystery); or syndetic (quite frequent) where at least two sentences are involved, being
indicated by means of one of the coordinators “and, or, for, but” (ex: He got up at six o’clock but he
still missed the bus).
To sum up, a compound sentence may consist of (1) two (or more) simple sentences (ex: Oil is
now more expensive and that will affect our economy); (2) a combination of simple and complex
sentences (ex: If he believes that, he must be mad); and (3) two (or more) complex sentences (ex:
He must believe what I say about the case and that is what matters now).
3.4. Word Order and Sentence Structure
Word order is closely related to the way verbs and particles are combined and therefore, to the
notion of sentence structure. We refer to “the tendency of two or more words to co-occur in
discourse”. Following Quirk “the order in which the elements appear is common but by no means
fixed. It is a principle of sentence organization that what is contextually familiar comes relatively
early, while the part which needs to be stressed or seems to convey the greatest information is
given the special prominence of “end-focus”. He suggests the following word order: subject +
predicator + complement (OI+OD) + adverbials (process – place – time).
3.5. Main Types of Sentence Structure
This section will deal with the main types of sentence structures based on their grammatical form
and their function in communication (also called the illocutionary force), that is, from their syntactic
structures and their association with one particular function in speech situations.
Concerning the sentence grammatical form, the classification comprises four types: declarative,
interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences whereas the classification concerning their
function in communication shows that declarative sentences are chiefly used to make statements,
interrogative sentences to ask questions, imperative sentences to give commands and
exclamatory sentences to make exclamations, depending on the way speakers express their
attitude.
It must be borne in mind that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the grammatical
form of a sentence and its function in communication. This means that sentences with the same
grammatical properties need not have the same illocutionary force and, conversely, that
grammatically different sentences can have the same illocutionary force. Thus, the following
request to have a pizza can be expressed in a variety of ways: “Let’s have a pizza”, “Shall we
have a pizza?”, “Why don’t we have a pizza?”, “Would you like to have a pizza?”.
Sentences and their Grammatical Form
The main grammatical forms of declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences
are as follows:
(1) Declarative sentences always have a subject, which precedes the verb and usually
correlates with the communicative function of “stating facts” either positive or negative.
(2) Interrogative sentences make reference to the communicative function of “asking for
information” or “questions”. They contain a subject and can open the sentence with an
auxiliary verb or a WH-word depending on the type of answer we expect. They can be
divided into three major classes. (a) yes-no questions, where the operator is in front of the
subject (ex: Will you come?), question-tags included; (b) Wh-questions, where they open
with a WH-word and this is positioned initially (ex: Where do you live?); (c) alternative
questions (ex: Are you going to have milk or coffee?), which are similar to the structure of
yes/no questions; in addition, there are other minor types of questions, such as (ex: You go
to the cinema?); exclamation questions (ex: Wasn’t it amazing?); rhetorical questions (ex:
Can anyone avoid loving this woman?)
(3) Imperative sentences contain a verb in the imperative mood. If the subject is present, it is
usually “you”, but as a rule the subject is lacking (ex: Shut that door, please). This type of
sentences is known as commands in their communicative function.
(4) In exclamatory sentences the subject precedes the verb. They are introduced by phrases
opening with the words “how” + adjective or “what” + a(n) + (adjective) + noun (ex: How
beautiful she is!). Their communicative function is to emphasize how much somebody likes
something or appreciates a situation/thing/person/animal/etc.
Sentences and their Main Functions in Communication
We refer to their respective discourse function in the sentence, for instance, statements are used
to convey information in an assertive or non-assertive way; questions are used to ask for
information, sometimes yes/no answers and sometimes specific data; commands are used to
order somebody to do something; and exclamations are used to express emphasis on the part of
the speaker.
3.6. Main Structural Features of Sentence Types: Form, Function and Use
We will examine the structure of statements, questions, commands and exclamations regarding
their form regarding morphology (subject-verb structures) and phonology (pronunciation) whereas
function will be approached in terms of syntax (sentence structure) and semantics (different
meanings = different uses).

4. Statements
4.1. Statements: Morphology and Syntax
Statements can be positive and negative. In case we want to construct a declarative sentence in
the negative form, we may do it by:
(a) Adding the negative particle “not” to:
(i) Auxiliary verbs “be, have, will etc”, with the possibility of contracted forms
(ii) Modal auxiliary verbs “must, can, could, may, etc”
(iii) The first person plural of the imperative form (ex: Let us play = Let’s play)
(b) With
(i) The primary auxiliary verb “do + not” and “does + not”
(ii) With the second person singular or plural of the imperative (ex: Don’t speak)
(iii) By using “did + not” = “didn’t” when talking about the past.
© With the verb “to fail” (ex: I fail to understand your ideas)
(c) With any negative particle, such as “never, nobody, none, etc.”
We must bear in mind that we cannot use a negative particle when the verb is in the negative
form.
4.2. Statements: Phonology and Semantics
Statements can convey messages in a variety of ways, for instance, by asserting or not; by
making predictions; by offering apologies; by stating facts; opinions; etc. Declarative sentences
may convey the meaning of statements; commands; requests; and warning.
Within each type, one of the most important syntactic devices is the focusing of information.
English sentences normally have end-focus, which means that the last-open class item in the
sentence is often the most prominent (ex: Robert is driving to LONDON), usually marked by
accent in speech.
As Gimson states, “The grammatical and attitudinal function of intonation, in addition to its function
of providing a means of accentuation, may also serve to distinguish sentence types (ex: statement
vs. question) and to indicate the emotional attitude of the speaker.
Thus, for our purposes, a statement form of words may be made into a question if a rise is used
instead of a fall, for instance, “He is not here” (statement) vs. “He is not there?” (question).

5. Questions
5.1. Questions: Morphology and Syntax
Questions are mainly used to ask for information, but depending on the answer we expect on the
part of the speaker, they can be divided into three major classes. For instance, (a) yes – no
questions, where the operator is in front of the subject (ex: Will you come?); (b) Wh – questions,
where they open with a WH – word and this is positioned initially (ex: Where do you live?); (c)
alternative questions (ex: Are you going to have milk or coffee?), which are similar to the structure
of yes/no questions. Question – tags are included in this type as a minor type of questions.
5.2. Questions: Phonology and Semantics
The grammatical and attitudinal function of intonation may serve to distinguish statement vs.
question sentence types and to indicate the emotional attitude of the speaker when asking for
information.
Questions, as statements, can convey messages in a variety of ways, for instance, questions (ex:
Who is the President of Spain?); requests (ex: Can you sing us a nice song?); exclamations (ex:
Isn’t that wonderful?); and commands (ex: What are you laughing at?). The structures in which
they are embedded in are:
 (1) Yes/No questions (which are usually formed by placing the verb before the subject or by
auxiliary + subject + verb) expect an assertive or non-assertive answer. Yes/No questions
expecting positive answers are generally neutral, but if they have positive items in between
(ex: Would you like some ice-cream?) they lead us to positive answers. On the other hand,
Yes/No questions with negative items in between will lead us to negative answers (ex:
Don’t you believe me? = Of course, I don’t believe you). A further and minor type of Yes/No
questions are question-tags, which can convey the meaning of presupposing agreement
(ex: It is lovely, isn’t it?) when pronounced with falling intonation or demanding agreement
when pronounced with rising intonation (ex: She doesn’t believe me, does she?)
(2) When questions are open with Wh – pronouns (What, When, Where, Why, How, Who, etc.)
or nouns sometimes (What kind of…/What time…/How often…), these Wh – items are
positioned initially (ex: What did you do?) and they are called Wh – questions. They expect
a wide range of answers according to the different meanings of Wh – items (place, manner,
time, action, duration,…), Unlike Yes/No questions, they are pronounced with falling
intonation.
(3) Alternative questions (ex: Are you going to have milk or tea?), which are similar to the
structure of Yes/No questions, may expect both assertive and non-assertive answers.
However, unlike Yes/No questions, this type of questions does not carry a rising intonation
but a falling one.
(4) There are other minor types of questions, such as declarative questions (ex: You go to the
cinema?) which have the syntactic construction of a declarative sentence but have a
question intonation, that is, a final rising intonation; exclamation questions (ex: Wasn’t it
amazing?), which are interrogative in structure but has the illocutionary force of an assertive
exclamation; rhetorical questions (ex: Can anyone avoid loving this woman?), which have a
normal rising intonation of a Yes/No question, but combine the interrogative structure and
the assertive declarative. Finally, we find echo questions, whose main communicative
function is to repeat part of the previous question to get confirmation of it (ex: The Smiths
are moving tonight? – Tonight?).

6. Commands
6.1. Morphology and Syntax
Commands are embedded in the structure of imperative sentences, which contain a verb in the
imperative mood, that is, a bare infinitive in initial position (if assertive) and the operator “Don’t +
bare infinitive” in initial position (if non – assertive). If a subject is present it is usually “you”, but as
a rule the subject is lacking (ex: Shut that door, please). They differ from declarative sentences or
statements in that they have no subject and are placed in initial position.
6.2. Phonology and Semantics
This type of sentences are known as commands in their communicative function because they are
used to order somebody to something. If we want to convey the meaning of calm and detachment,
we use it falling intonation (ex: Count them). However, if we want to express gentle command or
request, we will use the rising intonation (ex: Wait. Hold it).

7. Exclamations
7.1. Morphology and Syntax
In exclamatory sentences the subject precedes the verb. They are introduced by phrases opening
with the words “How” + adjective/adverb/statement (ex: How beautiful she is! / How fast… / How I
used to…) or “What” + a(n) + (adjective) + noun/noun phrase (ex: What a wonderful day!). The
syntactic order is changed to the extent that the Wh – item (How or What) may be taken from its
usual position (ex: statements) to initial prominence to express emphasis. Another structure is
“such/so + (adjective) + noun (ex: He is such a good student!)
7.2. Phonology and Semantics
Their communicative function is to emphasize how much somebody likes something, appreciates
a situation/thing/person/animal/etc. or to express how impressed the speaker is by something.
These expressions are quite common in everyday usage and we can find them in many different
patterns, both formal and informal ones. For instance, the formal ones, “how quickly you run!” or
“What a nice day we had today!”. When pronounced with falling intonation, they may convey the
meaning of boredom or unconcerned (ex: How annoying the film is!). Often, used in colloquial
speech, they may convey the meaning of strong surprise or indignation (ex: What a surprise!).
Informal ways of exclamations in colloquial speech are “Really!”; “Damn!”; “Oh my God!”; “Good
heavens!”; “Shit!”; and so on.

8. Educational Implications
The different verbal paradigms dealt with in this study are relevant to the learning of a foreign
language since differences between sentence structures related to different patterns in the
learner’s native language (L1) and that of the foreign language (L2) may lead to several problems,
such as the incorrect use of verbal structures, especially because of the syntactic, morphological
and semantic processes implied in these categories.
This study has looked at the structure of the sentence in terms of form and function, that is,
regarding morphological and phonological forms and syntactic and semantic functions, all those
related by the relevance of usage in everyday speech.
According to Thomson and Martinet, a European student may find especially troublesome the use
of sentence structure, and particularly those which have double pattern, that is, declarative
sentences which are interrogative. The choice becomes problematic for students when they deal
with the wide range of sentence structures and their semantic offer.
It has been suggested that a methodology grounded in part in the application of explicit linguistic
knowledge enhances the second language learning process.
So, the importance of how to handle these sentence structures cannot be understated since you
can communicate but not successfully because of the relevant distinction of meaning between
them to express different nuances: asking for things, showing surprise, stating your likes etc. (ex:
Can I use the phone?, Could you tell me the way to…?, Shall I copy this?).
Current communicative methods foster the “teaching” of this kind of specific linguistic information
to help students recognize the main differences with L2 words.
So far, I have attempted in this discussion to provide a broad account of sentence structures by
means of form, function and use within verb phrase morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics
and usage to set it up within the linguistic theory, going through the location of sentence structures
at the core of syntax studies, to a broad presentation of the main grammatical categories involved
in it. Students should be able to understand the relevance of handling correctly the different
sentence structure to successfully communicate in everyday life.

9. Conclusion
The notion of “sentence structure” implies a broad description of the structure of the sentence in
terms of form, function and use to get the paradigms of morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics
and use which, combined, give way to the study I have presented here.
In fact, the correct construction of sentence structures (simple, complex, compound), is currently
considered to be a central element in communicative competence and in the acquisition of a
second language since students must be able to use and distinguish these forms in many different
situations.
It is a fact that students must be able to handle the four levels in communicative competence to be
effectively and highly communicative in the classroom and in real life situations.

10. Bibliography
 Council of Europe (1998) Modern Langua A Common European Framework of Reference.
 Quirk & Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English
 Thomson, A.J. & Martinet, A.V. A Practical English Grammar
 Leech & Svartvik, A Communicative Grammar of English