Week 2

Question 1

The main variants of sentence types and examples

Answer 1

1. Declarative: “King Charles opened his speech in French.”
2. Interrogative: “Which policies should the government abandon?”
3. Imperative: “Watch out for snowball-firing robots!”
4. Exclamative: “How observant of you!”

Question 2

Sentence types can be defined by…

Answer 2

1. Their structure (syntax)
2. Their use (pragmatic) - ‘speech acts’

Question 3

Speech acts

Answer 3

An action performed with words in (interpersonal) communication.

Question 4

Sentence type

Answer 4

A grammatical form paired with a conversational use to express a speech act.

Question 5

Declarative (example and use)

Answer 5

Example:
“It’s very cold today.”
“I don’t like pizza.”

Use:
Asserting, claiming.

Question 6

Interrogative (examples and use)

Answer 6

Example:
“How smart is she?”
“Is she smart?”

Use:
Inquiring, questioning.

Question 7

Imperative (examples and use)

Answer 7

Example:
“Go home!”
“Don’t eat too much!”

Use:
Directing, ordering, requesting.

Question 8

Exclamative (examples and use)

Answer 8

Example:
“What a big house this is!”
“How sweet of you!”

Use:
Expressing surprise (positive).

Question 9

Characteristics/syntax of the sentence types

Answer 9

1. Declarative
   • Subject-predicate (SVO) order
   Charles opened his speech in French.
2. Interrogative
   • Yes/no: Can they make a comeback?
   • WH: Which policies should the government abandon?
3. Imperative
   • Lack an overt subject
   Ø Watch out for snowball-firing robots!
4. Exclamative
   • Initial constituents with what or how
   What nonsense this is!
   How observant of you!

Question 10

Illocutionary force

Answer 10

Speech acts have illocutionary force (what the utterance of a sentence does). For example, the (standard) illocutionary force of a question is asking for information.

Question 11

How are there potential mismatches between syntax (sentence meaning) and pragmatics (speaker meaning)?

Answer 11

“I hear you’re making a film.”
Syntax: declarative
Pragmatics: question

“Why don’t you just go home?”
Syntax: interrogative
Pragmatics: directive

Question 12

Syntax

Answer 12

Structure/form, sentence meaning

Question 13

Pragmatics

Answer 13

Use/function, speaker meaning

Question 14

Subject-auxiliary inversion (SAI)

Answer 14

It changes the meaning of a sentence from declarative to interrogative.

1. The government should abandon harmful policies (declarative).
2. Should the government abandon harmful policies? (Yes/no-interrogative).
3. Which policies should the government abandon? (WH-interrogative)

Question 15

How to change the meaning of a sentence from declarative to interrogative?

Answer 15

Apply subject-auxiliary inversion.

“The government should abandon harmful policies” (declarative) to “Which policies should the government abandon?” (WH-interrogative).

Question 16

What are two ways to trigger syntactic movement?

Answer 16

Some items perform two syntactic roles simultaneously (it’s called a double function).

Passivisation
“Bob stole my idea.”
“My idea was stolen by Bob.”

Yes/no-question formation
“The boy will laugh.”
“Will the boy laugh?”

Question 17

What positions do auxiliaries move to in questions?

Answer 17

“The boy will • laugh.”

When auxiliaries switch places with the subject, they move to a structural position that precedes the subject in the sentence.

Movement leaves a gap (•) in the original position of the moved constituent.

“Will the boy laugh?”

Question 18

Types of yes/no-questions

Answer 18

Neutral questions
1. Does John like pancakes?
2. Have you eaten your lunch yet?

Biased questions
1. John likes pancakes, doesn’t he? (positive bias)
2. John doesn’t like pancakes, does he? (negative bias)

Alternative questions
1. Are you baking a cake or is something burning?
2. Would you like coffee or tea?

Question 19

WH-movement (or WH-fronting)

Answer 19

I wonder who Susie saw yesterday.

Who did Susie see • yesterday?”

Question 20

Pied-piping

Answer 20

The process of WH-moving a phrase containing more material than just a WH-word.

Who did John go swimming with yesterday?

Which person did John go swimming with yesterday?

Question 21

How is WH-movement restricted in English?

Answer 21

Only one WH-phrase can undergo WH-movement per clause.

Question 22

A language with no WH-movement

Answer 22

Chinese

Question 23

Languages with more than one WH-movement

Answer 23

Bulgarian

Question 24

Languages with WH-movement

Answer 24

English

Question 25

Does WH-movement and auxiliary-inversion take place in main questions with WH-subjects?

Answer 25

Yes, the movement doesn’t change the word order.

Someone has eaten the cake; who has eaten the cake?

Question 26

WH-clauses

Answer 26

Clauses that contain at least one WH-word (who, what, where, how, why).

Question 27

Variations of WH-clauses

Answer 27

1. Echo WH-question
   John went swimming with who yesterday?
2. Main WH-question
   Who did John go swimming with yesterday?
3. Subordinate WH-question
   I wonder who John went swimming with.
4. Restrictive relative clause
   The man who John swims with is here.
5. Non-restrictive relative clause
   Paul, who John swims with is here.

Question 28

Alll uses for sentence types

Answer 28

1. Asserting, claiming
2. Inquiring, questioning
3. Directing, ordering, requesting
4. Expressing surprise

Question 29

Passivisation of “Bob stole my idea.”

Answer 29

[NP: My idea] was stolen • by Bob.

Question 30

Mixed language

Answer 30

French