Difference between words word combinations and sentences

The
theory of phrase or word combination in linguistics has a long
tradition going back to the 18-th century. According to Russian
scholars the term ‘word combination’ (словосочетание)
can be applied only to such groups of words which contain at least
two notional words forming a grammatical unit. Thus Soviet linguists
restrict the use of the term ‘word combination’ to combination of
notional words. Western scholars hold a different view of the
problem. They consider that every combination of two or more words
constitutes a unit which they term ‘phrase’. In other words,
western linguists do not limit the term ‘phrase’ to combination
of notional words and do not draw a sharp distinction between the two
types of word-groups such as ‘wise men’ and ‘to the
lighthouse’. The first and the most important difference of opinion
on the question between soviet and western scholarsconcerns the
constituents of the word groups forming grammatical units.

Another
debatable problem in soviet linguistics was whether a predicative
combination of words forms a word combination.

It
is generally known that a sentence is based on predication and its
purpose in communication. A word combination has no such aim. Word
combinations are more like words because they are employed for naming
things, actions, qualities and so on. In contrast with soviet
linguists some western scholars make no difference between subject –
predicate combinations of words and other word combinations, though
some western theories bear considerable resemblance to Russian ideas.

There’s
no traditional terminology in the works of English and American
scholars discussing combinations of words; and different terms are
used to express the same idea (phrase, combination of words, cluster
of words, word group).

9. The Sentence

When
we speak or write we convey our thougths through sentences. A
sentence is the only unit of language which is capable of expressing
a communication containing some kind of information. But linguistics
is at difficulty to define it. One of the definitions is ‘the
sentence is the smallest communication unit expressing a more or less
complete thought and having a definite grammatical structure and
intonation’. In most sentences intonation functions as part of a
whole system of formal characteristics.

The sentence and the word group (phrase)

Neither
words no word groups can express communication. Cf. the arrival of
the delegation is expected next week (a sentence). It is a structure
in which words are grouped (arranged) according to definite rules
(patterns).

Another
difference between the sentence and the phrase is predicativity.
Predicativity comprises tense and mood components. The sentence
together with predicativity expresses a fact, while a phrase gives a
nomination without time reference:

The
doctor arrived. The doctor’s arrival.

Predication
is a word or combination of words expressing predicativity. Thus the
essential property of sentence is predicativity and intonation.

Classification of Sentences

Sentences
are classified 1) according to the types of communication and 2)
according to their structure.

In
accordance with the types of communication sentences are divided
into:

Declarative
(giving information). E.g. the book is interesting (statement).

Interrogative
(asking for information). E.g. is the book interesting? (question).

Imperative
(asking for action). E.g. give me the book! (command, request).

Each
of these 3 kinds of sentences may be in the affirmative and negative
form, exclamatory and non- exclamatory.

Types of
Sentences According to Structure

I
a) Simple sentences containing one predication (subject-predicate
relationship)

b)
Composite sentences containing one or more predications Composite
sentences are divided into compound and complex sentences.

II.
Simple sentences and main clauses may be two-member and one-member
sentences.

The
two-member sentence pattern is typical of the vast majority of
sentences in English. It is a sentence with full predication. (The
Sun shines. She walks fast).

If
a simple sentence contains the subject and the predicate only, it is
called unextended. E.g. spring came.

If
a sentence comprises secondary parts besides the main parts, it is
called extended. E.g. Dick came home late.

The
one-member sentence contains only one principle part, which is
neither the subject nor the predicate. E.g. Thieves! Fire! A cup of
tea, please! A one-member sentence sometimes resembles a two-member
sentence. E.g. No birds singing in the dawn. It may be complex in
structure: e.g. And what if he had seen them embracing in the
moonlight?

Imperative
sentences with no subject also belong here: Get away from me!

If
the main part is expressed by an infinitive, such a one-member
sentence is called an infinitive sentence: Oh, to be in England!

The
exclamatory character is a necessary feature of these sentences.
Infinitive sentences are very common in represented speech.

Types of
One-member Sentences in English

Nominative
(substantive) E.g. Another day of fog.

Verbal
(Imperative: Don’t believe him! ,Infinitive: Only to think of it!
,Gerundial: No playing with fire!)

Adjectival
one-member sentences: Splendid! How romantic!

Types of
Sentences According to their Completeness

1. Complete
   (non-elliptical) sentences.

2. Incomplete
   (elliptical) sentences.

Elliptical
sentences are such sentences in which one or several parts are
missing as compared with analogous sentences where there is no
ellipsis. Elliptical sentences may freely be changed into complete
sentences, the missing part of the sentence being supplied from the
preceding or following context, by means of intonation: e.g. I sat
near the window, he – near the door (= he sat near the door).
Playing, children? (= are you playing, children?) Cf. A small but
cosy room (a one-member sentence); in the background stands/ is a
little writing table (an elliptical two-member sentence). The main
sphere of elliptical sentences is of course dialogue.

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Introduction

When we think of functions, we automatically assume math and numbers. In fact, in Racket and any other functional programming language, we can have functions that manipulate non-numerical values.

Words

Let’s say you defined a procedure called square:

(define (square x) (* x x))

But later wanted to access the actual word 'square instead of the procedure, we would simply type 'square (single quotation mark followed by the word square) to get the literal word. Notice how you do not need parentheses around the expression if you working with just a single word.

Sentences

Sentences are just a collection of words grouped together with parentheses. To create a sentence, you need need one quotation outside the parentheses, like this '(hi hey hello). Try practicing a bit by writing one or two words and sentences.

'61AS

'(I love 61AS!)

('I 'love '61AS!)

quote

The ' you saw in the above sections is actually an abbreviation for a function called quote. This means that:

• 'x is equivalent to (quote x)
• '(hi hey hello) is equivalent to (quote (hi hey hello))

quote is different from most other procedures in that it does not evaluate its argument. Functions that exhibit this type of behavior are special forms. You do not need to understand special forms for now; we will go more in depth on this topic in a later subsection. For now, it will suffice to know that quote is a function that takes in one argument and returns it as a word or sentence. Take the following example:

-> (define x 4)
x
-> x
4
-> (quote x)
x
-> 'x
x

Since quote is used quite often, it is given the abbreviation ', a single quotation mark. Remember that, although it may seem this way in its abbreviated form, quote is simply a function that can be called like any other function in Racket.

Word and Sentence Selectors

When working with words and sentences, it would help to have procedures that manipulate them. The procedures themselves are simple. Combining them correctly to accomplish your goal is going to the hard part. For now, here is a list of procedures you can use to select data from words or sentences.

first

first takes in a word and returns the first letter of the word, or takes in a sentence and returns the first word of the sentence.

-> (first 'hello)
'h
-> (first '(hi hey hello))
'hi

last

last takes in a word and returns the last letter of the word, or takes in a sentence and returns the last word of the sentence.

-> (last 'hello)
'o
-> (last '(hi hey hello))
'hello

butfirst or bf

butfirst, or its abbreviated version bf, takes in a word and returns all but the first letter of the word, or takes in a sentence and returns all but the first word of the sentence.

-> (butfirst 'hello)
'ello
-> (bf 'hello)
'ello
-> (butfirst '(hi hey hello))
'(hey hello)
-> (bf '(hi hey hello))
'(hey hello)

butlast or bl

butlast, or its abbreviated version bl, takes in a word and returns all but the last letter of the word, or takes in a sentence and returns all but the last word of the sentence.

-> (butlast 'hello)
'hell
-> (bl 'hello)
'hell
-> (butlast '(hi hey hello))
'(hi hey)
-> (bl '(hi hey hello))
'(hi hey)

item

item takes in a number n and a word and returns the nth letter in the word. Or, it takes in a number n and a sentence and returns the nth word in the sentence.

-> (item 2 'hello)
'e
-> (item 2 '(hi hey hello))
'hey

(first '(foo foo))

(bf '(foo foo))

(equal? (first '(foo foo)) (bf '(foo foo)))

Word and Sentence Constructors

Now that we can take apart a word or sentence, lets learn how to put them
together.

word

word takes in any number of words as arguments concatenates them into one big word.

-> (word 'play 'ground)
'playground
-> (word 'fo 'o 'b 'ar)
'foobar
-> (word 'cs '61 'as)
'cs61as

sentence or se

sentence, or its abbreviated version se, takes in any number of words or sentences as arguments and creates one sentence of all of its arguments.

-> (sentence 'I 'love 'cs '61as!)
'(I love cs 61as!)
-> (se 'foo 'bar)
'(foo bar)
-> (se 'foo '(foo bar) 'bar)
'(foo foo bar bar)

The Empty Word

There is an empty word that you can combine with other words which will have no effect when used. This is represented by "".

-> (word 'foo "")
'foo
-> (word "" 'foo)
'foo
-> (word "" "")
""

The Empty Sentence

There is also an empty sentence that you can combine with other sentences which will have no effect when used. This is represented by '().

-> (se 'hi 'there '())
(hi there)
-> (se '() 'hi 'there)
(hi there)
-> (se 'hi '() 'there)
(hi there)
-> (se '() '() '())
'()

At the moment it may not be clear as to why need these empty words and sentences. Keep these in mind for now, as they will be very useful when we learn recursion in Lesson 0-3.

(define (second item)
    (first (bf item)))

Pitfalls

Basically the only punctuation you can use when working with words and sentences are ! and ?. You have already seen that the quote ' has a special meaning in Racket. The period and comma also have special meaning, so you cannot use those, either.

As you saw in an earlier exercise, there’s a difference between a word and a sentence containing one word. For example, people often mistakenly assume that the butfirst of a two-word sentence such as (computer science) is 'science. In actuality, it is a sentence with one word: (science). Another way of proving the difference between a word and a one-word sentence is by count-ing both of them:

-> (bf '(computer science))
'(science)  

-> (count (bf '(computer science)))  
1 ;; because there is ONE word in the sentence.

-> (first (bf '(computer science)))
'science

> (count (first (bf '(computer science))))  
7 ;; because there are SEVEN letters in the word 'science

Takeaways

• We can build words and sentences using word and sentence, respectively.
• We can also make words and sentences using a quote.
• We can retrieve parts of a word or parts of a sentence by using procedures like first, butfirst, last and butlast.