WHAT IS A GRAMMATICAL SENTENCE?

[Buddhaheart]

The question of what is a sentence or more precisely what constitutes an acceptable, complete, well-formed or grammatical sentence and how it should be properly defined has been discussed and analyzed in different ways by many authors and scholars. Traditional grammar defines sentence mostly based on meaning which according to modern grammarians is inadequate and too vague. Some say a sentence requires to express a complete thought. Others say it is a group of words strung together that makes complete sense or it is a group of words containing a subject and a predicate and expressing a complete thought. It is also suggested it is a complete expression of a single statement of some sort. It is a complete unit of meaning. It usually contains a finite verb with a subject and tense. A sentence may start with a capital letter and ends in a punctuation mark. It must have a subject and a predicate. It has 2 parts: The topic is the subject and what is said about the subject is the predicate. It is a basic unit of discourse and therefore the basic unit for the study of syntax. It is a group of words that makes a statement and can be followed by a period, a question or an exclamation mark. It is strongly believed a sentence must have both the subject and the verb. It is a grammatical unit through which people communicate. A simple sentence may consist of just one clause or must contain an independent clause. It may include only one act of predication. You may even define it based on your perspective or preference and indeed many authors and scholars do just that. Spoken language poses special difficulties. Most of us agree a sentence is a notoriously difficult thing to define.

Modern grammar approaches the subject quite differently. Modern grammar defines sentence in terms of its form and syntactic structure and formal properties and not just meaning alone. It analyses sentence in terms of its constituents or parts, constituent categories and how constituents are syntactically arranged and function and uses phrase marker, sentence tree diagram or labeled bracketing to describe it They talk about its linear, hierarchical and categorial properties. A simple sentence may consist of a single independent clause. A clause may be thought of as a construction with two phrase constituents, namely the noun phrase and the verb phrase or the predicate phrase. The subject is the noun phrase. A sentence consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase each of which can itself combine to form other categories. It is a linguistic entity or syntactic unit consisting of a noun phrase and a predicate or a verb phrase. Rigorous structural analysis, like traditional grammar, seems to defy satisfactory result.

It has been argued that traditional definition of a grammatical sentence is ambiguous, unsatisfactory, unworkable and wrong. It is well known that some sentences in English do not contain both a subject and a predicate. The notion that a sentence must express a complete thought is specially
difficult. One must agree on the definition of a complete thought before we could apply that to a sentence. Frequently the completeness of thought of a sentence depends very much on what precedes or follows it. Sometime a sentence does not start with a capital letter and end in a punctuation mark.

Consider the following constructions:
1. Danger!
2. He is tall.
3. The snow is falling.
4. It is snowing.
5. Jane was married to John.
6. To see you is nice.
7. It is nice to see you.
8. It would be okay if you left tomorrow.
9. No parking.

Is 1. a complete sentence? Where is the subject? Does 1. express a complete thought? 2. and 3. contain subjects that do not perform. “is” in 2. and 3. does not express any action or activity but rather a state of affair and it is merely a linking or corporal verb. Is “it” in 4. the subject of the sentence? It is merely a grammatical term: It is an expletive. Is James the subject or Jane in 5. ? Who is the “doer” or “performer” here? Traditional grammar might lead you to think John is. Modern grammar will argue that Jane is the correct answer based on certain structural tests. What or who is exactly the subject in 6. & 7.? Modern grammar says “To see you” is the subject in both sentences. Does this sound puzzling and odd? Is “you” the subject in 8.? Is 9. a sentence or a just a phrase?

How do you teach your students about English sentences? What is your view on the subject?

[metal56]

<Is 1. a complete sentence? >

It's a minor sentence - what some would call a sentence fragment. I prefer the latter name.