The basic elements of the statement are prayer, form and intention. The statement is the basic unit of discourse and constitutes the unit of analysis of pragmatics (auxiliary discipline of linguistics that is responsible for studying speech, ie the language in use).
Usually, a sentence is considered to be equal to a sentence. However, this idea is erroneous, because a statement can be a sentence, less than a sentence (a word, a phrase) or more than a sentence (a text, a speech).
All of the following are examples of statements:
-Is hot. (Sentence)
-Hello! (Less than a sentence)
-"It is said in Imardin that the wind has a soul and that when sweeping the narrow streets of the city he laments what he finds in his path. The day of the Purge, he whistled among the masts that swayed in the Harbor, crossed the West Gates and howled among the buildings. (More than a sentence).
In this sense, statements can be a word or a set of words that are emitted in a given syntactic and grammatical form (interrogation, exclamation, statement) and that has an intention (to ask, to inform, to describe, to order, to commit, to express feelings ). Form and intention are the basic elements of a statement.
Examples of statements and their basic elements
1-"It is said in Imardin that the wind has a soul and that sweeping the narrow streets of the city mourns for what lies in its path. On the day of the Purge he whistled among the masts that swayed in the Harbor, across the West Gates, and howled among the buildings. Then, overwhelmed by what he had seen, it was transformed into a faint moan."
(Chronicles of the Black Magician"by Trudi Canavan).
- Statement: More than a sentence.
- Form: Declarative.
- Intention: Inform, describe.
"Mother,"said Olhado,"is not what the bishop said. It's good.
Novinha answered him with his most scathing sarcasm.
- Since when are you skilled in gauging good and evil?
(The Voice of the Dead"by Orson Scott Card).
- Statement: Same as a sentence.
- Interrogative form.
- Intent: Zaherir.
3-"The girl was called Anatema Device. It was not amazingly beautiful. All her features, one by one, were extremely beautiful, but the whole of her face gave the impression of being mounted in a hurry, without order or concert, no agreement of any scheme. Probably the most appropriate word is"attractive,"though those who knew what it meant and wrote it without spelling mistakes would have added"vivaracha,"although this term oozes the fifties, so perhaps they would not have done so."
(Good Omen"by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman).
- Statement: More than a sentence.
- Form: Declarative.
- Intent: Describe.
4 -"- I left everything ten years ago! What happy times! He exclaimed,
(Dr. Moreau's Island"by H. G. Wells).
- Statement: More than a sentence.
- Form: Exclamative.
- Intention: Inform, express nostalgia.
5-"If you are interested in stories with a happy ending, you'd better read another book. In this, not only is there no happy ending, but there is no happy beginning and very few happy events in between."
This is because there were not many happy things happening in the lives of the three young Baudelaires. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming and witty, and they had nice features, but they were extremely unfortunate, and most of the things that happened to them were full of misery, misery, and despair. I'm sorry to have to tell you, but that's how the story goes."
(A series of unfortunate events: A Bad Beginning"by Lemony Snicket)
- Statement: More than a sentence.
- Form: Declarative.
- Intention: Inform, warn.
6-"I admit I fired six bullets at my best friend's head . Now, in spite of this confession, I intend to prove that I can not consider myself a murderer. Many will say that I am mad perhaps a lot madder than the man I killed in one of Arkham's asylum cells. I hoped that my readers will judge the elements that I will relate, contrast them with the known evidence and wonder if anyone could have had a behavior different from mine in the face of a horror like the one I had to experience, before that being on the threshold" .
(Being on the Threshold"by Howard Phillip Lovecraft).
- Statement: More than a sentence.
- Form: Declarative.
- Intention: To inform, to expose, to clarify.
7-"Appreciated Mr. Carter. I am obliged to ask for your help in the most difficult circumstances, appealing to the friendship that I know she has joined my late husband for more than ten years. During that time, my husband spared no praise for his honesty and the extraordinary confidence you have always inspired. For this reason, I beg you to heed my plea, strange as it may seem to you, with great urgency and, if possible, with the greatest of secrets."
(The Palace of the midnight"of Carlos Ruiz Zafón).
- Statement: More than a sentence.
- Form: Declarative.
- Intention: Ask, request, request.
8-"Fairy Oak was a delightful town. The stone houses had verandas and flower gardens protected by walls covered with blackberries and wild roses. The inhabitants were almost all very friendly and there were many, many children. But something in particular made the people really special: because of an ancient enchantment, or perhaps because of the desire of the northern stars, Fairy Oak was the only place in all worlds, real or enchanted, where humans and creatures Magicians lived together in perfect harmony long ago."
(Fairy Oak: The Secret of the Twins"by Elisabetta Gnone).
- Statement: More than a sentence.
- Form: Declarative.
- Intention: Inform, describe.
"You are too generous to make fun of me. If your feelings are still the same as last April, tell me right away . My affection and my desires have not changed, but with one word of yours I will not insist."
(Pride and Prejudice"by Jane Austen).
- Statement: Same as a sentence.
- Form: Declarative.
- Intention: Inquire, ask.
References
- What are the basic elements of a sentence? Retrieved on June 26, 2017, from academicanswers.waldenu.edu.
- Sentence elements. Retrieved on June 26, 2017, from es.slideshare.net.
- Elements of a sentence construction. Retrieved June 26, 2017, from webapps.townson.edu.
- Basic sentence structure. Retrieved on June 26, 2017, from butte.edu.
- Components of a sentence. Retrieved June 26, 2017, from boundless.com.
- Basic Patterns and Elements of a Sentence. Retrieved on June 26, 2017, from tu-chemnitz.de.
- Statement elements. Retrieved on June 26, 2017, from faculty.mdc.edu.