Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-ksp62 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-05T18:18:46.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sentence Structure as a Statement Calculus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Robert E. Longacre
Robert E. Longacre*
Affiliation:
Summer Institute of Linguistics
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sentence (as opposed to clause) structure involves a combination of predications into larger units much as in the statement calculus of formal logic, but requires a richer apparatus. An over-all taxonomic scheme—relevant to sentence structures in many parts of the world—is presented. After showing how structurally distinct parts of the sentence are relevant to the structure of paragraphs and discourses, a detailed classification of English sentence types is presented. The parameters of the resulting over-all system are suggestive of universal parameters of relation and contrast among sentences.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , December 1970 , pp. 783 - 815
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ballard, Lee. 1968. Inibaloi sentence structure. Unpublished ms.Google Scholar
Engel, Ralph, and Longacre, Robert. 1963. Syntactic matrices in Ostuacan Zoque. UAL 29. 331–44.Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. 1968a. The case for case. Universais in linguistic theory, ed. by Bach, Emmon and Harms, Robert, 1–90. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. 1968b. The grammar of hitting and breaking. To appear in Studies in English transformational grammar, ed. by Jacobs, R. and Rosenbaum, Peter. Waltham, Mass.: Ginn-Blaisdell.Google Scholar
Forster, Jannette. 1964. Dual structure of Dibabawon verbal clauses. Oceanic Linguistics 3. 26–48. , and Myra L. Barnard. 1968. A classification of Dibabawon verbs. Lingua 20. 265-8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, William C. 1969. A classification of Siocon Subanon verbs. Anthropological Linguistics 2:7.209–15.Google Scholar
Lind, John. 1964. Clause and sentence level syntagmemes in Sierra Populuca. IJAL 30. 341–54.Google Scholar
Longacre, Robert E. 1967. The notion of sentence. Georgetown University monograph series on languages and linguistics, 20 (ed. by E. L. Blansitt, Jr.), 15-25.Google Scholar
Longacre, Robert E. 1968. Discourse, paragraph and sentence structure in selected Philippine languages. 3 vols. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Final Report, Contract No. 0-8-062838-0391. (Vols. 1-2 now published as SIL publications in linguistics and related fields, 21; Santa Ana, Calif., [1970].)Google Scholar
Longacre, Robert E. 1969. A hierarchical look at the English verb phrase (what it is—what it isn’t). Paper read at the Conference on the English Verb, Martin’s Ferry, April, 1969.Google Scholar
McLachlin, Betty, and Blackburn, Barbara. 1968. An outline of Sarangani Bilaan discourse and paragraph structure. Unpublished ms.Google Scholar
Miller, Jeanne. 1964. The role of verb stems in the Mamanwa kernel verbal clauses. Oceanic Linguistics 3. 87–100.10.2307/3622941CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, F. R. 1965. A linguistic study of the English verb. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Pike, Kenneth L. 1964. Discourse analysis and tagmeme matrices. Oceanic Linguistics 3. 5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Aileen, Bishop, Ruth, Button, Ella; and Longacre, Robert. 1968. Totonac: from clause to discourse. (Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics and related fields, 17.) Norman, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Reid, Lawrence A. 1966. An Ivatan syntax. (Oceanic Linguistics, special publications, 2.) Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Ross, John. 1968. Gapping and the order of constituents. Unpublished ms.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, Francis A. 1968. The God who is there. Downers Grove, 111.: Inter-Varsity Press.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, Francis A. 1969. Death in the city. Downers Grove, 111.: Inter-Varsity Press.Google Scholar
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1969. Smith of Wooten Major. New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Williams, Joseph M. 1966. Some grammatical characteristics of continuous discourse. Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar