English Language - Exploring Language - Sentences (Full Version)

interrogative sentence

a question

declarative sentence

a statement - a sentence which gives information in a fact like manner (e.g. ‘this is a chicken’)

imperative sentence

a command

exclamatory sentence

an exclamation

vocative sentence

a sentence that direct addresses someone via their name

rhetorical interrogative sentence

a question in which the asker does not intend to receive an actual response

quaestitio

a rhetorical device - a question followed by another question - a list of questions

minor sentence

an incomplete sentence that still makes sense without all the necessary information

tag question

a statement that is converted into a question by an __appended__ __interrogative__ formula (e.g. *it's nice out, isn't it?*)

conditional clause

a clause within a sentence that expresses one thing is contingent on something else (e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled.")

complex sentence

a sentence with two or more clauses, one of which is a subordinate clause

compound sentence

two simple sentences that can stand on its own, but has been made one with the use of the conjunctions ‘and’ or ‘but’

simple sentence

a sentence that has only one clause (in other words a sentence with a subject and a main verb)

periodic sentence

a sentence that has been deliberately structured to place the main point at the end

fronted co-ordinating conjunction

when the three main coordinating conjunctions ('and', 'but' and 'or') start the sentence

anaphora

a rhetorical device - repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of multiple clauses or sentences

epiphora

a rhetorical device - repetition of a word or a phrase at the end of multiple clauses or sentences

syntactic parallelism

a rhetorical device - repetition among adjacent sentences or clauses

left-branching sentence

a sentence places the main clause of the sentence at the end

pre-modification

modification that comes before the head noun

post-modification

modification that comes after the head noun

triadic listing

a list of three

syndetic listing

listing which is joined by a conjunction (usually ‘and’)

asyndetic listing

listing where there is no use of conjunctions

verb phrase

a phrase consisting of a verb plus another word that further illustrates the verb tense, action, and tone

parenthesis

a word or phrase inserted as an explanation or __afterthought__ into a passage which is grammatically complete without it, in writing usually marked off by brackets, dashes, or commas

antithetical clauses

seeming contradiction of ideas reinforced by clauses, sentences within a balanced grammatical structure

anadiphosis

a rhetorical device - repeating something at the end of one sentence and the beginning of another to make it seem more logical (e.g. ‘so what is a zebra? a zebra is …’)

apophasis

a rhetorical device - bringing up a subject by denying the subject should be brought up at all (e.g. ‘I’m not going to talk about what happened in the Geography department’)

noun phrase

a group of words built around a noun

head noun

the main noun in a phrase

main verb

the verb that carries the main meaning or process in a verb phrase

primary auxiliary verb

an auxiliary verb that joins with a main verb to show tense - these are the three verbs most commonly learnt (‘to be’, ‘to have’ and ‘to do’)

modal auxiliary verb

an auxiliary verb that joins with the main verb to express possibility, ability, permission, or necessity

epistemic auxiliary

a modal auxiliary verb that emphasise prediction or possibility

deontic auxiliary

a modal auxiliary verb that emphasises duty or obligation

subject

the noun that is doing the action in a sentence

object

the noun that is the thing being acted on in a sentence

direct object

the part of the clause that is directly acted upon by the subject

indirect object

the part of the clause that receives the action

complement

a phrase that is the attribute of a subject in a relation verb process ('e.g. ‘I was tired’)

copular verb

a verb that takes a complement

adverbial phrase

a phrase that identities the circumstances of a verb process in terms of time, place or manner

clause

a group of words centred around a verb phrase (there needs to be a verb to be a clause)

main clause

the part of a sentence which can stand on its own grammatically

subordinate clause

a clause that depends on the main clause of the sentence to make any sense in the context

coordination

the joining of two clauses that gives them equal weighting

subordination

the joining of two clauses that gives one more weighting than another

adverbial clause

a subordinate clauses that functions as an adverbial

noun clause

a subordinate clause that functions as a subject, object or complement

active voice

the person doing the action (agent) is in the position of the subject, usually in the present or past tense (e.g. ‘she hit the ball’)

passive voice

the person doing the action (agent) is omitted or placed in any position that is not the subject, formed by the infinitive ‘to be’ and then a participle form (e.g. ‘the ball was hit by her’)

orthographic sentence

a ‘sentence’ marked by a capital letter and full stop, but containing no verb (e.g. ‘A bump in the night.’)

catenative

a chain-like structure in a sentence (e.g. ‘so we… and then we… and then we…’)

adjacency pair

a pair of utterances in a conversation that are usually seen together (e.g. greeting and greeting, question and reply etc.)

valediction

an expression of farewell