THE CREATION OF SIMPLE SENTENCES

INDEX
1.

Introduction

2.

Introduction to sentences

3.

Units that create a sentences

4.

Simple sentences

5.

Conclusion

6.

Biblioraphy

1. INTRODUCTION
It has always been an intriguing subject of study how does the human race interact. From the
simplest form of language as a simple letter or a gesture to more complex units of words that
contain a lot of information.
I decided to look into this topic a little deeper because it is fascinating, how troughout the years the
philologists have been able to make language evolve in such way that we can say that, nowadays,
that depending on how we put words together we can transmit all the information we want them to.
In this reserarch paper, I would like to go further from that shallow interest we display towards a
very important part of our everyday's life to try to understant why and how our innate ability to
communicate can actually be put into words.
What is a sentence? What differentiates a sentence to any ohter unit of words? These are some of
the questions I have tried to answer, in order to provide an accurate text that we can read in order to
understand everything a little better. Of course it is a topic that is studied at school, but it is also a
topic that most kids fail to understan. I thought maybe, through this research paper, they could
follow a line that would lead them to understand the most simple structures of sentences.
For this to be possible, I will focus on the most characteristical structures of the most simple
sentences we use in our everyday's life.

2. Introduction to sentences
A sentence is a grammatical unit composed by one or more words that have a minimal syntantic
relation to the words that preced and follow it. Words grouped meaningfully can express statements,
questions, exclamations, requests, commands and suggestions.
A sentence represents an eventuality. What does this mean? In the sentence, there is something that
is, or something that happens. The manin verb is the eventuality, so that in each sentence there is an
eventuality in which are involved several abstract or concrete things.
For example: I jumped into the swimming pool.
"Jumped" is the eventuality; to spring off the grass by a muscular effort of my legs.
"I" is the noun, is telling you who did the eventuality.
"Into the swimming pool" is and adverb of place, it is just information about where to did the noun
jump to.
2.1 Types of sentences
2.1.1 Simple sentences
Also known as independent clauses, are compound by a subject and a verb. It expresses a complete
thought, which means that is complete and with a meaning.
Joanna and Rachel go ice-skating every thursday.
2.1.2 Compound Sentences
Compound sentences are mainly two independent clauses that are joined by a coordinator (and, but,
for, nor, or so). These coordinators are usually preceded by a comma, excludin the cases in which
the sentences are too short.
My brother wanted to go to the cinema, so he took the car and I stayed at home.
2,1,3 Complex sentences
Complex clauses are formed by an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses. As the
name says, the second one is introduced by a subordinator (after, because, since..) or a relative
pronoun (who, which, that..).
I went to see Anna, whose dad is actually my literature teacher.

2,2 The parts of the sentence.

Adjective: Provides qualities or states of the noun.
Adverb: Modifies or alters the meaning of the verb.
Article: The (definite) a, an (indefinite); precedes a noun.
Conjuction: Joins words and sentences.
Interjection: Used to express emotion or sentiment.
Noun: Denotes person, thing, place or idea.
Preposition: Introduces words or phrases in the sentence.
Pronoun: pronouns are used to avoid repetition, being used in place of a noun.
Verb: The action of the eventuality.
2,3The notion of completeness
There are sentences whose meaning has to be gathered from the sentence right before. They are
called elliptical sentences.
In this first case, the most simple one, the adjective missing is to be understood by the reader.
They were asleep. Certainly I was (asleep).
In another context, the reader can imagine from the text the verb or adverb that is missing.
They were having fun. Certainly I was (having fun).
Finally, even clauses can be omitted if the sentence before gives enough information to the reader
so that he can deduce the meaning which is not written.
I don't know if they were where they were supposed to. Certainly I was (where I was supposed to
be).
3. Units that create a sentence
Merging is the simplest sentence formation process, though most of them are considered
incomplete; binary merger operations that combines two constituents to form a larger one result in
phrases.
Phrases are the principal constituent of sentences, even if they are just one word, as phrases are
given a syntactical function in the union of the sentence. A conjunction of several phrases form
clause, because phrases do not count on a subject and predicate, so they need to unite to several
others in order to compound a complete independent clause.

A clause is the smallest grammatical unit that contains both subject and predicate, thoguh cannot
always be considered a full grammatical sentence. Clauses can be either subordinate (dependent) or
main clauses (indepentent).
Dependent: Because I'm older than my brother, I drive him to school.
Independent: My brother, who is younger than me, has to be driven to school.
4.Simple sentences
There are five basic sentence patters; all of them involve a subject and a verb, and from this point,
object and complements can be added.
Declarative sentences
- Subject+Verb
Catherine is sleeping.
- Subject+Verb+Object
Catherine enjoys her job.
- Subject+Verb+Adjective
Catherine is very impulsive.
- Subject+Verb+Adverb
Catherine lives in Kathmandu.
- Subject+Verb+Noun
Catherine is a doctor.
Interrogative sentences
Interrogative simple sentences are usually those that ara answered by yes or no. The main
characteristic is that they all start with an WH- pronouns. Once the WH- word is in the first position
in the sentence, verb and pronoun swap places. It is also very common the use of do/does/did and
forms of the verb to be.
What is Catherine doing? Catherine is sleeping.
Is Catherine very impulsive? Yes, Catherine is very impulsive.
Does Catherine enjoy her job? Yes, Catherine enjoys her job.
Emphatic sentences
Relatively simple, do/does/did must be put in front of the verb. Therefore, the emphasis is made on
it. As it is a simple sentence and there is no more than one verb, there will not be any problems at
the time of placing it.

Catherine does enjoy her job.

Imperative sentences
The sentence subject will be ellyptic, as it will be understood that the order is direct to the reader or
hearer. The verb goes into the first position in infinitive without the "to".
Enjoy your job.
Be very impulsive.
Exclamatory sentences
In exclamatory sentences a "how" or "what" will be put in the first position of the sentences, and it
will emphasize a remarcable quality of the subject or object, not the verb (as in emphatic sentences).
How impulsive Catherine is!

5. CONCLUSION
We have observed that even if they all belong to the group of "simple sentences", there are degrees
of complexity to be taken into account at the time of studying each sentence. Most of the times, a
simple sentence is equal to a clause, so the simplicity level is at its peak.
For example, the clause Andrea is an actress. The sentence has the form of a clause, but as it can
stand by itself and it is an independent clause, it is turned into a complete sentence.
Therefore, we could say that even if throught the phenomenon of merging, the clauses or the
phrases, the sentence is the minimal syntactical union of words that, with the puntuation sign at the
end, has a complete meaning by itself.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Syntax, by P.H Matthews
Cambridge textbooks in linguistics. 1981
Sentence Structure, by Nigel Fabb
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 1995
English Syntax, by Andrew Radford
Cambridge University Press. 2004
http://free-english-study.com/grammar/basic-sentence-structure.html