Sentence Classification: Types and Structures Explained

Posted on Feb 25, 2025 in Linguistics and Applied Languages

Sentence Classification: Types and Structures

Sentences can be classified based on several criteria:

  1. According to the Speaker’s Attitude:
  • Declarative: Report a fact, affirming or denying something.
  • Interrogative: Ask a question. These can be direct (total or partial) or indirect (total or partial).
  • Exclamatory: Express the speaker’s feelings or emotions.
  • Optative: Express a desire.
  • Hesitant: Express doubt.
  • Hortatory: Express a request or encouragement.
  • Imperative: Express a command or mandate.
According to the Internal Structure:
  • Bimembre (Complete): Consist of a subject and a predicate.
  • Unimembre (Impersonal): Lack a subject. These can be:
    • Natural: Constructed with verbs denoting natural phenomena.
    • Grammaticalized: Formed with verbs like ‘be,’ ‘do,’ ‘have’ in the 3rd person singular.
    • Reflex: Constructed with the reflexive pronoun ‘se’ and a verb in the 3rd person singular.
According to the Nature of the Predicate:
  • Attributive (Copular): Consist of a copula (linking verb), a core word, and a term adjacent to the predicate.
  • Predicative (Verbal): Consist of a verbal nucleus (the center of the predicate) and adjacent terms. These can be:
    • Transitive: Take a direct object (CD).
    • Intransitive: Do not take a direct object (no CD).
    • Passive: Consist of a patient subject, a verb in the passive voice (be + past participle), and an agent complement.
    • Passive Reflex: Constructed with ‘se’ + verb in the 3rd person singular or plural. The verb can be put in the passive voice, and the phrase makes sense.
    • Impersonal Reflex: Constructed with ‘se’ + verb in the 3rd person singular. There is no subject, and the sentence is meaningless if put in the passive voice.
    • Reflexive: Use reflexive pronouns (me, te, se) and the verb agrees in person and number with the subject, reinforcing the action on oneself.
    • Reciprocal: Subject and verb are only in the plural, mutually reinforcing the action.

Subordinate Clauses (Propositions)

Subordinate clauses are sentences that lack syntactic independence and do not constitute a statement on their own. They form part of another linguistic unit.

Coordinated Clauses (Propo Coord)

Two or more clauses are coordinated when each can function independently without altering its meaning or the other. These can be:

  • Copulative: Express a relation of addition or sum (y, e, o).
  • Alternative: Express a relation of exclusion (o, u).
  • Adversative: Express opposition or contrariety, which can be total or partial. These propositions are incompatible with one another (but, more than).
  • Distributive: Express a relation of alternation (well…well, ya…ya).
  • Explanatory: Express a relation of equivalence (i.e., that is).