Understanding Sentence Structure, Communication, and Narrative Texts
Impersonal Sentences
Impersonal sentences are sentences without a subject.
- X-shaped potential: Transitive or intransitive verb in the 3rd person plural. Example: Knock at the door.
- One-person: Phenomena of nature, e.g., rain.
- Grammaticalized: Constructed with verbs be, do, and have.
- Reflex: Constituted by ‘se’ + active verb, e.g., life is good.
Attitude or Intention in Sentences
A sentence’s attitude or intention can be:
- Declarative: Informs objectively about an event.
- Affirmative: Claims content.
- Negative: Denies content.
- Interrogative: Can be direct (formulated as a question) or indirect (interrogative form without being a total interrogation). Can be total (yes/no) or partial.
- Exclamatory: Expresses emotions.
- Mandatory or Hortatory: Expresses a request or mandate.
- Optative or Optional: Expresses desire.
- Hesitant: Expressing doubt.
Grammatical Sentences
A grammatical sentence is the smallest unit of communication that has full meaning, is independent, and has intonation.
- Non-Grammatical Sentences: The smallest unit of communication that takes full effect, is independent and has intonation.
- Statements can be sentences or not.
- Non-Sentences: Those without a subject-verb structure. Example: Peter, come from?
- Sentences: Communicates a message with full meaning, intends to communicate something. It is independent and does not belong syntactically to another unit.
- A unit that has intonation because it’s separate from the sentence that preceded and followed by two breaks.
Sentence Structure
A sentence has a subject noun phrase (SN) and a verb phrase (SV).
There must be grammatical agreement in person and number between the subject and verb.
Communication
Communication is the exchange of experiences and information between people through various languages.
Functions of Language
The functions of language refer to the communicative intention or objective proposed by the sender to produce a message.
- Emotive Function: Dominates the subjective; the sender expresses feelings, emotions, mood, etc.
- Conative Function: Oriented toward the receiver; the sender seeks to modify their behavior through petitions, orders, mandates, etc.
Narrative Text
Narrative text presents factual or fictional events, characters, space, and time.
External Structure
Paragraphs: Short stories. Chapters: Novels. Parts: Plays. Discussed: Narratives. Books: Narratives. Sequences: Films. Events and Scenes: Drama. Headline: News and features.
Internal Structure
According to content: Approach and denouement.
Logical chronological order according to which it occurs: In media res (the story begins in the middle of the narrative), flashback (back to the past), flash-forward (advance into the future), and counterpoint (alternation between different narrative sequences).
Elements of Narrative
- Argument: Set of facts in chronological order.
- Plot: Facts as the author organizes them.
- Narrator: The person who tells the facts.
- Narratee: Fictional character to whom the story is addressed.
- Different Voices: Polyphony of different perspectives.
Viewpoint in a Narrative
- Omniscient Narrator: Knows all of the characters, can anticipate events, and take part in the fact and comment as narrator of the story.
- External Observer: This narrator single sample, is characteristic of nov.negra and single notes.
- Internal Narrator: Narrator-protagonist tells the story from their perspective; supporting character narrator as witness to the facts; point of view or kaleidoscope where different characters tell a story.