Question
[Link] are sentence marked by one or
more of these three criteria:
+ the placing of the operator immediately in
front of the subject
E.g: Will you marry me?
+ th initial positioning of an interrogative or
wh-element
E.g: What’s your name?
+ rising intonation
You will do it tonight?
2. Question can be devided into three major
class according to the types of answer:
a. yes/no question:
- are usually formed by placing the operator
before the subject and giving the sentence
rising inotation
- if there is no item in the verb phrase that can
function as operator, do and be is introduced
as with negation.
E.g: + John likes candies ~ Does John like
candies?
+ Marry was late ~ Was Marry late?
[Link]-question:
- are formed with the aid of the following
interrogative words (Q-words):
who/whom/whose, what, which, when, where,
why, how
+ the Q element generally comes first in the
sentence
+ the Q words itself take first position in the Q
element
(the only exception: when the Q word occurs
in a prepositional complement to show
informal style.)
E.g: On what did you base your prediction?
(informal style)
What did you base your prediction? (formal
style)
c. alternative question:
There are two types of alternative question
+ the first type differs from a yes/no question
only in intonation
Alternative: Shall we go by BÚS or TRAÌN?
Yes/no: Shall we go by bus or TRAÍN?
+ the seconds type is really a compound of
two separate question: a wh question followed
by an alternative question of the first type.
E.g: Which ice-cream would you LÌKE?
Would you like CHÓcolate, VANÍlla, or
STRÀwberry?
Any positive yes/no questin can be converted
into an alternative question by adding or not or
a matching negative clause.
[Link] types of question
a. Exlamatory question: is a question in form,
but is functionally like an exclamation. The
most characteristic type is negative yes/no
question with a falling instead of rising tone.
E.g: Hasn’t he crown?
b. Rhetorical question: is one which function
as forceful statement. More precisely, a
positive rhetorical question is like strong
negative assertion, while a negative question is
like a strong positive one.
E.g:
+positive: Is that a reason for despair? (Surely
that it is not a reason)
+negative: Is no one going to defend me?
(Surely someone going to defend me)
Commands
[Link] without a subject
We begin with the most common category or
command, that which differs from a statement
in that
It has no subject
It has an imperative finite verb
2. Commands with a subject: It is implied in
the meaning of a command that the omitted
subject of the imperative verb is the 2nd
person pronoun you. This is confirmed by the
occurrence of you as subject of a following tag
question (Be quiet, will you), and by the
occurrence of yourself and of no other
reflexive pronoun as object.
There is, however, a type of command in
which the subject you is retained, differing
from the subject of a finite verb in always
carrying stress
3. Commands with let
First person imperatives can be formed by
proposing the verb let, followed by a subject
in (where relevant) the objective case
The same applies to 3rd person subjects
4. Negative commands
To negate 2nd and 3rd person imperatives, one
simply adds and initial.
5. Persuasive imperatives
A persuasive or insistent imperative is created
by the addition of do (with a nuclear tone)
before the main verb.
Exclamations
Exclamations resemble wh-questions in
involving the initial placement of an
exclamatory wh-element (the X-element). The
syntactic order is therefore upset to the extent
that the X-element (which may be object,
complement, or adverbial, as well as subject)
may be taken from its usual (statement)
position and put into a position of initial
prominence. On the other hand, in contrast to
wh-questions, there is generally no subject-
operator inversion:
X-element as subject:
X-element as object:
X-element as complement:
X-element as adverbial: