The communicative aspect of the sentence and its actual division.
The sentence is a communicative unit, therefore the primary classification of sentences must be based on the communicative principle (aspect). This principle is formulated in traditional grammar as the "purpose of communication". The purpose of communication, by definition, refers to the sentence as a whole, and the structural features connected with the expression of this sentential function belong to the fundamental, constitutive qualities of the sentence as a lingual unit.
In accord with the purpose of communication three cardinal sentence-types have long been recognised in linguistic tradition: first, the declarative sentence; second, the imperative (inducive) sentence; third, the interrogative sentence. Thus, the declarative sentence expresses a statement, either affirmative or negative, and as such stands in systemic syntagmatic correlation with the listener's responding signals of attention, of appraisal (including agreement or disagreement), of fellow-feeling. The imperative sentence expresses inducement, either affirmative or negative. That is, it urges the listener, in the form of request or command, to perform or not to perform a certain action. As such, the imperative sentence is situationally connected with the corresponding "action response" (Ch. Fries), and lingually is systemically correlated with a verbal response showing that the inducement is either complied with, or else rejected. The interrogative sentence expresses a question, i.e. a request for information wanted by the speaker from the listener. By virtue of this communicative purpose, the interrogative sentence is naturally connected with an answer, forming together with it a question-answer dialogue unity.
Alongside of the three cardinal communicative sentence-types, another type - exclamatory sentence can be recognized. In modern linguistics it has been demonstrated that exclamatory sentences do not possess any complete set of qualities that could place them on one and the same level with the three cardinal communicative types of sentences. The property of exclamation should be considered as an accompanying feature which is effected within the system of the three cardinal communicative types of sentences.
The communicative properties of sentences can further be exposed in the light of the theory of actual division of the sentence. The actual division provides for the informative content of the utterance to be expressed with the due gradation of its parts according to the significance of their respective role in the context. But any utterance is formed within the framework of the system of communicative types of sentences. And as soon as we compare the communication-purpose aspect of the utterance with its actual division aspect we shall find that each communicative sentence type is distinguished by its specific actual division features, which are revealed first and foremost in the nature of the rheme as the meaningful nucleus of the utterance.
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Actual division of the sentence – the functional sentence perspective. It expresses the informative meaning of the sentence, immediate semantic contribution, which the sentence ought to have. The functional perspective aims at dividing sentence into 2 sections – the starting point of the sentence, 2 – the new information. The main components – of the actual division of the sentence are the theme (starting points, denotes the subject and phenomenon) and the rheme (the basic informative part of communication – is contextual relevant center of the communication). Other terms: lexical predicated (Smirtinsky) semantic subject, semantic predicate, lexical subject, psychological subject and psychological predicate – Paul.
The theme and the rheme – they are means of expressing a thematic or a rhematic quality of a word or phrase in a sentence to a great extent depend on the grammatical structure of the given language. Theme expresses the starting point of the communication. Rheme expresses the basic informative part of the communication. Between the theme and the rheme are positioned intermediary parts of the actual division. The theme may or may not coincide with the subject of the sentence, as well as the rheme – with the predicate of the sentence. The actual division finds its full expression only in a concrete context of speech. If it is stylistically neutral construction the theme is the subject and the rheme is the predicate and this kind of actual division is direct. The actual division in which the rheme is expressed by the subject is inverted.
In Russian word order is widely used to show the difference between the rheme and the theme – вошел старик, старик вошел – logically the essence is completely different. В английском языке другие способы передачи актуального членения. Language means of expressing the theme and the rheme:
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The theme: - definite article, definite pronominal determiners, a loose parenthesis introduceв by “as to”, “as for”, the direct word order. An old man came – the old man came
The rheme: a particular word order together with a specific intonation
- An emphatic construction with the pronoun it
- a contrastive complex,
- Intensifying particle – Only the children….
- The so called “there pattern” – there is there are
- The indefinite article and the indefinite pronominal determiners
- Ellipsis
- Special graphic means
The actual division of the sentence is types of communicative types of sentences. Each communicative type is somehow connected with the actual division of the sentence. It is emotion that matters. Only the children appeared to know it. Suddenly the door opened and a little elderly woman entered the room.
A declarative sentence expresses a proposition. Its theme makes up the center of some statement, the semantic centre of some statement, the “known data”. Imperative sentence – an inducement, it is the rheme which is informative nucleus expressed implicitly. If the inducement is expressed emphatically - expressed explicitly. In an interrogative sentence the rheme is informationally open because this type of sentence expresses an inquiry about information which the speaker does not possess.
The so called purely exclamatory sentences have “non-communicative nature”. They don’t make uo grammatically predicted sentences which their own informative perspective.
Oh I say (signals of emotion) –
И.Ф.Вардуаль: Division which presents the ‘basic item’ and the ‘nucleus of the message’, ‘theme’ and ‘rheme’, ‘given’ and ‘new’ was called by V.Mathesius “the actual division of the sentence” as distinguished from its “formal division”. Actual division is the result of the influence of context and situation. Intonation is a very important means of actual division. К.Г.Крушельницкая/А.В. де Грот: actual division is the reflection of the speaker’s attitude towards what is said. This point of view is less acceptable.
The means of expressing the rheme :
Lexical meanings – particles (only,even)
Logical stress-
Change of syntactic structure (It was he who did it)
Passive voice.
Means of expressing theme:
Definite article.
Word order.
The point of the actual division of the sentence is in the lingual limitation of the amount of information carried by the message.
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