Syntactic independent sentence without illocutive force

Abstract

   The article deals with the factors which influence the illocutionary force of the sentence. The syntactically independent sentences are in the focus of the discussion. It is shown that illocutionary force is formed by three factors: communicative binary, semantics of the sentence and temporal reference. They are universal. At the level of the deep structure, sentences, which have illocutionary force include three components: topic, focus and modality. The presence of modal component is not possible without the topic. Sentences without any illocutionary force do not have topicalized components and are incompatible with modal indicators. At the level of the surface structure the absence of illocutionary force is marked by the displacement of the predicate to the initial position, the position of the subject after the predicate or the monomial structure of a sentence. Sentences devoid of illocutionary force in the Russian language are always marked. In German the word order is fixed, therefore, in communicatively monomial sentences, the “shift” of the verb to the first position and the displacement of the referential subject is carried out by using the formal subject es in the preposition. In English, in this case, the initial elements there or it can be used. In proposals of this type, local and time indicators are often shifted to the initial position. Neither local nor temporal indicators can be the subject of a statement: at the beginning of a sentence they mark the absence of illocutionary force. Sentences devoid of illocutionary force serve as the background of the main narrative in the text or initiate the text. At the level of semantics, the sentences of this type are characterized by providing descriptions of nature, weather, situation, state, or act as introductory sentences in microtext or text. When describing states and characteristics, we mostly refer to permanent signs or properties of objects/objects/phenomena in the environment. The factors that shape the illocutionary force of a sentence are universal.