Studies On The Linear Instantiations Of Sentence Functions

Sentence function is an important concept in grammar. The previous studies on sentence function focus on its pragmatic and semantic aspects, which has deviated from grammar and is not conductive to its deep research. Xu.(2010)puts forward the theory that the study on sentence function should be redirected to its syntactic aspect. Sentence function, by its definition, is a sentential functional category, forcing the independent expressive units to form a sentence, and meanwhile, as a functional feature with no phonetic forms, being realized through three sensitive positions and limited syntactic means and marking itself in language forms.The central arguments are as follows:1.The sentence function which is realized in language forms is the sentence function in the sense of syntax. Sentence function is the peculiar function of the sentence, thus sentence function is the "difference between independent sentence and expressive clause". In syntax, sentence function lies in [C, CP] on top of the sentence, governs the whole sentence and decides the nature of the sentence. However, sentence function and the complementizer are not the same category. They display a lot of differences and should be treated differently, thus this can solve some disputable issues as the complementizer in China is head-initial or head-final, wh-in-situ in embedded interrogatives in English. In addition, sentence function is also different from the mood. Sentence function can be roughly described as the expressive mood. In syntax, sentence function can force clauses to become independent sentences.2.The criteria according to which sentence function is defined should be:1. Formally, sentence function must be realized through limited syntactic means in three sensitive positions and also must be represented in syntactic forms.2. In syntax, sentence function can force syntactic structure to become independent sentence.3. Different sentence functions must be in a substitute and complementary position. Different sentence functions cannot occur in the same sentence. Starting from these criteria, it is found that topic and focus cannot work on the whole sentence and thus they are not sentence function; tense and negation cannot force structures to become independent sentences and cannot be regarded as sentence function; Declaratives and exclamatives are not realized through limited syntactic means in three sensitive positions and thus are not sentence functions in syntax.3. The question feature can force structures to become independent sentence and can be realized through limited syntactic means in three sensitive positions and thus is sentence function in syntax. The instantiations of the question feature are the different interrogatives in surface structure. The singularity of English interrogatives and the variety of Chinese interrogatives can be explained as the different parameters set in the instantiations of the question feature in languages and this phenomenon can be predicated. The research on the generative mechanisms of interrogatives can also resolve the issues as the classification of interrogatives and the nature of "KVP" question.4. Imperative is a sentence function in syntactic sense as it can force structures to become independent sentence and can be realized through limited syntactic means in three sensitive positions. The differences in English imperatives and Chinese imperatives as there are no tense and subject in English imperatives and there may be subjects in Chinese imperatives can be derived as the superficial phenomenon as the instantiation of the imperative feature gives rise to the deletion of the tense feature and different parameter-setting in these sentence functions.5.Hypothetical feature as the sentence function in syntactic sense. The hypothetical feature works on the whole sentence, though it only brings out the existence of the embedded sentence in hypothetical sentences, it can be realized as through the limited syntactic means in three sensitive positions, and the hypothetical sentences are thus formed. The Chinese hypothetical marker "ruguo" can occur in "sentence-initial" and "predicate-initial", but it cannot occur in "sentence-final", while another Chinese hypothetical marker "dehua" can only occur in "sentence-final" instead of other sensitive positions. This can be explained as the different parameter-setting of sentence functions and the different instantiations of the hypothetical feature. The wh-words fail to question in hypothetical question, which by nature, is because the question feature and the hypothetical feature are both sentence functions, and thus they dispel each other and the question feature of the wh-words are restrained.