 This unit is about the highest ranking unit in syntax, the sentence. We will proceed according to the following steps. We will first of all analyze sentence types, find out what types of sentences there are. Then we will draw a distinction between major and minor sentences. And finally we will deal with a phenomenon called ellipsis. So what sort of sentence types are there? Well in general we define two sentence types, so called minor sentences and major sentences. They can be distinguished via three central criteria. Criterion one is the availability of what you might want to call a subject predicate structure. So that's the first criterion. A second one is a test which is often used in linguistics, the so called substitution test. And the third criterion is a test which moves around elements within the sentence, the transformation test. So these are the three criteria which we are going to apply. In addition to these two sentences, to the minor and major types of sentences, there are sentences, there are major sentences that are incomplete. They are referred to as elliptical sentences and will be dealt with later. Let's first of all look at minor sentences. Here we have a first of all some examples. Down with Smith, this is an example where well you wouldn't have a subject predicate structure. Where is the predicate? There is no verb even in this sentence and what about the subject? It's simply not there. The sooner the better is another example. Well what can we do with this sentence? We cannot move elements around the better the sooner or something like that. It simply doesn't work. How are you is one of these questions we ask 25 times per day where we don't even want an answer. It's some sort of common phrase, some fixed phrase which we often use in order to open a conversation. But we wouldn't normally ask something like how is he? We can't replace any elements by other elements in this sentence so it's fixed. There is no, well here we have a subject predicate structure but we cannot transform this sentence in any way. We cannot substitute elements. And finally we look at Merry Christmas. Well Merry Christmas is one of these examples where you don't even know where is the verb again. So there's no subject predicate structure. You cannot rearrange the elements. No transformation possible. What would that be if we transform that into a passive? Merry Christmas is wished by me. No, you can't do that. And you can't even substitute any elements. You cannot say great Christmas. Well it works to some extent with some adjectives but not normally. So due to their behavior as fixed units that cannot be rearranged, that cannot be moved around. These minor sentences are often referred to as fixed phrases. Their use is mostly restricted to comment function or it is connected with specific communicative purposes. Let's contrast this with major sentences. Now major sentences typically have a subject predicate structure. That is, and sometimes they're even preceded by a so-called operator. So here's one example. The cat sat on the mat where the cat is a subject and the predicate is sat on the mat. The predicate may even contain some arguments here, an object for example. Now you can easily move these things around in questions like did the cat sit on the mat or the dog sat on the mat or a dog sat on the mat or a tiger sat on the carpet and so on and so forth. So here is another example where we have a mistake. John gave Merry a book. This must be. So here I prepared something wrongly. Gave Merry a book. And again we have a subject and a predicate. So it's just the same. Now here we have something with an operator. Has he done his homework? Subject he predicate, done his homework and has been moved to the beginning of the sentence. Inversion is the operation where we have an operator, a subject and a predicate. Well and we can even use our Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas but now it is embedded within a major sentence with a subject and a predicate structure. Ellipsis. Now we have major sentences where elements have been omitted. So ellipsis means grammatical omission. In contrast to other omissions, types of omissions in language for example phonological loss or you can clip words. You can, there are various types of omission possible in language. Now in general ellipsis explains why some normally obligatory element of a grammatical sentence is missing. So here is an example. Let's take the following. If he works hard. If he works hard, I won't have to. And what is missing here of course at the end is I don't have to work hard. Well especially important in ellipsis is the principle of word by word of verbatim recoverability. That is the actual words who are missing must be implicitly understood. Thus they must be recoverable. Strict ellipsis then requires that when the missing words are inserted the meaning doesn't change. So if he works hard I won't have to work hard the meaning is exactly the same. Now depending on the type of recoverability, so we don't need this anymore. Let's wipe it off. We have several types of ellipsis which are here. Situational ellipsis, structural ellipsis and textual ellipsis. Let's use one example per type of ellipsis. So here we have the classical case got it. Now this looks like a minor sentence but it isn't because got it. We could say something like it's got the letter. We recover the words the letter. Or we even replace got by understood. Understood it. Did you understand it? So this is called situational ellipsis because the interpretation depends on the knowledge of a precise extra linguistic context. The second one is often used in headlines. We can have something like US so typical newspaper headline US heading the United States heading heading well for what can they had for new slump. So this sort of block language which is used in headlines is referred to a structural ellipsis where the interpretation depends on the knowledge of the grammatical structure. So the element that is missing here is certainly is or are depending on how you define the United States as singular or plural. So here the verb is missing. And then finally we have textual ellipsis where the interpretation depends on what is said or written in the linguistic context. So an example could be I am happy if you are and of course we know that the missing element must be happy. Well so ellipsis then is really a special case of major sentence where the missing elements can be recovered relatively unambiguously. Well let's summarize what we've done. The focus of syntax is then major sentences. We do not really deal with minor sentences but major sentences constitute the core of syntactic analysis. In present day English there are four types of major sentences. There are so called declaratives or declarative sentences. We have imperative sentences or imperatives. We have interrogative sentences or interrogatives. And finally we have exclamatory sentences or exclamations. There are also alternative terms used for these. Let's quickly write them down. Declaratives are also called statements. Imperative sentences are called commands. Interrogatives well that's known to everyone are called questions. Well and here we have exclamations as an alternative term for exclamatory sentences. Their precise internal structure will be explained in another unit.