19. Tennyson delights to sing of heroic deeds and to celebrate noble souls.
CHAPTER IV
THE CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES ACCORDING TO FORM
We have classified sentences according to their structure as simple, complex, compound, partially compound, and complex-compound. There is another classification made on the basis of form, which gives us three kinds of sentences,—declarative, interrogative, imperative. These three forms arise from the fact that there are three modes of communicating thought; viz., by assertion, by question, by command.
The Declarative Sentence.—A declarative sentence is one that states or declares something,—“Aunt Celia has an intense desire to improve my mind.”—Mrs. Wiggin.
This is the commonest kind of sentence, especially in books, for it is the business of an author to inform his readers of his own thoughts, not to inquire after theirs. It is the style of sentence best fitted for relating events, describing objects, or making clear any difficult subject. Its order is usually the natural one, first the subject and then the predicate. Variations from this order will be taken up as they present themselves in connection with different sentence-elements.
The Interrogative Sentence.—An interrogative sentence is one that asks a question,—“Who now reads the ancient authors?”—F. Harrison.
This kind of sentence is used often in conversation, both oral and written. It is also common in addresses, such as sermons and lectures, where the speaker asks questions of his audience, not for the purpose of getting an answer, but that he may make a more direct appeal to them.
In books we often meet such an interrogative sentence as this,—“What courage can withstand the ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue?”—Irving.
The purpose of this sentence is not to inquire, to ask a question of anybody, but to give emphatic expression to a thought. It is a rhetorical device for making an assertion forcible. The author of the sentence quoted was so positive of the truth of his thought that, instead of declaring it, he put it in the form of a question, meaning, however,—“There is no courage that can withstand, etc.”