THE CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES ACCORDING TO FORM
We have classified sentences according to their structure as simple,
complex, compound, partially compound, and complex-compound. There is
another classification made on the basis of form, which gives us three
kinds of sentences,--_declarative_, _interrogative_, _imperative_.
These three forms arise from the fact that there are three modes of
communicating thought; viz., by assertion, by question, by command.
=The Declarative Sentence.=--A declarative sentence is one that states
or declares something,--“Aunt Celia has an intense desire to improve my
mind.”--_Mrs. Wiggin._
This is the commonest kind of sentence, especially in books, for it is
the business of an author to inform his readers of his own thoughts,
not to inquire after theirs. It is the style of sentence best fitted
for relating events, describing objects, or making clear any difficult
subject. Its order is usually the natural one, first the subject and
then the predicate. Variations from this order will be taken up as they
present themselves in connection with different sentence-elements.
=The Interrogative Sentence.=--An interrogative sentence is one that
asks a question,--“Who now reads the ancient authors?”--_F. Harrison._
This kind of sentence is used often in conversation, both oral and
written. It is also common in addresses, such as sermons and lectures,
where the speaker asks questions of his audience, not for the purpose
of getting an answer, but that he may make a more direct appeal to them.
In books we often meet such an interrogative sentence as this,--“What
courage can withstand the ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a
woman’s tongue?”--_Irving._
The purpose of this sentence is not to inquire, to ask a question
of anybody, but to give emphatic expression to a thought. It is a
rhetorical device for making an assertion forcible. The author of the
sentence quoted was so positive of the truth of his thought that,
instead of declaring it, he put it in the form of a question, meaning,
however,--“There is _no_ courage that can withstand, etc.”
Interrogative sentences are of two kinds:
1. Those that can be answered by _yes_ or _no_,--“Can a man weigh off
and value the glories of dawn against the darkness of hurricane?”--_De
Quincey._
These sentences put in question the whole thought, and are usually in
the inverted order, the auxiliary of the predicate verb coming before
the subject.
2. Those that cannot be answered by _yes_ or _no_,--“Why should the
trees be so lovely in Japan?”--_Hearn._
These sentences put in question only one point, either the subject, the
object, an attribute of the subject or object, or some circumstance
of time, manner, place, cause, etc. They usually begin with an
interrogative word, such as the pronouns _who_, _which_, _what_, or the
adverbs _how_, _when_, _why_, _where_.
Interrogative sentences have sometimes the same order and arrangement
of words as declarative sentences. It is only by hearing them spoken
or noting their punctuation that we know they are interrogative; for
example, “Scrooge knew he was dead?”--_Dickens._ This is equivalent
to--“Did Scrooge know that he was dead?”
Before analyzing an interrogative sentence, its order, if inverted,
should be changed to that of the declarative sentence. Motley’s
question,--“When did one man ever civilize a people?” becomes for
analysis,--“One man did ever civilize a people when?” Notice that the
_time_ of an action is the point in question here, and the desired
answer will be this very same sentence with only two changes, the
omission of _ever_ and the substitution of a word or phrase signifying
a definite time, for the word _when_.
=The Imperative Sentence.=--An imperative sentence is one that conveys
a command,--“Tell me why you have brought me to this place.”--_Caine._
The command is frequently so mild that it becomes more a request or
piece of advice,--“Speak as you think, be what you are, pay your debts
of all kinds.”--_Emerson._
Sometimes it is even an entreaty,--“Give us this day our daily bread.”
A very common form of the imperative sentence is that introduced by
the imperative word _let_,--“_Let_ the dessert be served and the fruit
brought.” This generally expresses more of a wish than a command. The
same idea is brought out in such a sentence as the following,--“Come,
sit we down and talk.” Here the present subjunctive _sit_ is employed.
Both of these sentence-forms may be considered as substitutes for the
first and third person imperative, which is lacking in English.
In imperative sentences we use the imperative mood of the verb and so
usually dispense with the subject, the verb becoming thus the first
word in the sentence. For analysis the subject is to be supplied. It is
always a personal pronoun of the second person, _you_, _thou_, or _ye_.
The verb may be a simple imperative, as _go_; an emphatic imperative,
_do go_; or a progressive imperative, _be going_, or _do be going_.
=The Exclamative Sentence.=--Any one of the three forms of sentences
may become exclamative by mode of utterance, but the exclamative
sentence does not communicate thought in a way different from the other
three sentences, nor is it different in form, hence it should not be
considered a fourth kind of sentence.
A declarative sentence made exclamative.--“Alas! the silence which
was then settling on that aged ear was an everlasting silence!”--_De
Quincey._
An interrogative sentence made exclamative.--“Who could have imagined
the whirlwind of passion that was going on within me as I reclined
there!”--_Jefferies._
An imperative sentence made exclamative.--“Sit down, all of you, and
listen to me!”--_Lewis Carroll._
Exercise 4.
Classify the following sentences both as to structure and as to form. A
sentence compound in structure may have members different in form, that
is, one member may be declarative and another interrogative.
1. A wide-spreading, hopeful disposition is your only true umbrella in
this vale of tears.--_Aldrich._
2. What is it to be a gentleman? Is it to have lofty aims, to lead
a pure life, to keep your honor virgin; to have the esteem of your
fellow citizens, and the love of your fireside; to bear good fortune
meekly; to suffer evil with constancy; and through evil or good to
maintain truth always?--_Thackeray._
3. Stay, stay with us--rest, thou art weary and worn.--_Campbell._
4. It is so tedious to live only in one circle and have only a genteel
acquaintance.--_Higginson._
5. Take Winter as you find him, and he turns out to be a thoroughly
honest fellow with no nonsense in him.--_Lowell._
6. In a word, if the world were actually all civilized, wouldn’t it be
too weak even to ripen?--_Warner._
7. Who blows to-day such a ringing trumpet-call to the study of
language as Luther blew?--_C. W. Eliot._
8. With what interest do we look upon any relic of early human
history!--_Agassiz._
9. Do not delude yourself with the idea that you can practice
punctuality by and by, when the necessity of it will be more cogent.
10. Boy as I am, I have seen battles too--
Have waded foremost in their bloody waves,
And heard their hollow roar of dying men;
But never was my heart thus touched before.
Are they from Heaven, these softenings of the heart?
O thou old warrior, let us yield to Heaven.
Come, plant we here in earth our angry spears,
And make a truce, and sit upon this sand,
And pledge each other in red wine, like friends,
And thou shalt talk to me of Rustum’s deeds.
--M. Arnold.
11. Whither can I take wing from the oppression of human
faces?--_Lamb._
12. But the third sister, who is also the youngest--Hush! whisper
whilst we talk of her!--_De Quincey._
13. But after all what religion knits people so closely as a common
sport?--_Stevenson._
14. Shut now the volume of history and tell me, on any principle
of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of
adventurers?--_Everett._
15. The self-made man is the funniest windbag after all!--_Stevenson._
16. There! if the trout has a right to his grasshopper, have I not a
right to the trout!--_Beecher._
17. Let us trace a river to its source.--_Tyndall._
18. Go face the fire at sea, or the cholera in your friend’s house,
or the burglar in your own, or what danger lies in the way of duty,
knowing you are guarded by the cherubim of Destiny.--_Emerson._
19. Oh, child of France! shepherdess, peasant girl! trodden under foot
by all around thee, how I honor thy flashing intellect, quick as God’s
lightning and true as God’s lightning to its mark, that ran before
France and laggard Europe by many a century, confounding the malice of
the ensnarer, and making dumb the oracles of falsehood!--_De Quincey._
20.
Who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise?
--_Byron._