Classification of simple sentences

Simple sentences are classified according to:

(1) the purpose of utterance[3];

According to the purpose of utterance there may be:

(a) declarative (affirmative or negative) sentences (statements);

(b) interrogative sentences (questions);

(c) imperative sentences (commands);

(d) exclamatory sentences (exclamations).

Examples are:

(a) I live In Kyiv. I don't speak Spanish.

(b) Where do you live?

(c) Come up to the blackboard.

(d) What a noise you are making!

(2) the structure.

According to structure sentences may be:

(a) two-member sentences having both the subject and the predicate explicitly expressed, e.g.:

I am a student. I study at the Kyiv State Linguistic University.

(b) two- member elliptical sentences in which either the subject, or the predicate, or both of them are deleted but may be easily reconstructed from the context, i.e. the principal parts are implied (or expressed implicitly), e.g.:

- Where do you live? (a two-member complete sentence)

- In London (a two-member elliptical sentence: the subject and the predicate I live are implied).

Two-member elliptical sentences occur mostly in dialogues.

(c) one-member sentences which have one principal part only. This part combines the qualities of the subject and the predicate. One-member sentences may be nominal and infinitive and occur in descriptions (e.g. in directions to plays) and in emotional speech. E.g.:

Night. A lady's bed-chamber in Bulgaria, in a small town near th e Dragoman Pass, late in November in the year 1885.

To be alive. To have youth and world before one.

Imperative sentences with no subject expressed are also classified among one-member sentences (see: Ильиш, 1965: 260). E.g.:

Get away from me!

Simple sentences (two-member and one-member) which contain only the principal parts are called unextended and those containing also secondary parts (objects, adverbial modifiers and attributes) are called extended. Thus, I am reading should be described as being a simple, declarative, affirmative, two-member, complete, unextended sentence; I am reading an English book now as a simple, declarative, affirmative, two-member, complete, extended sentence; A dark, deserted street (if asked in description) as a simple, declarative, affirmative, one-member, extended sentence.

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