Declarative

You are learning about declaratives.

The funny thing is, the sentence you just read is an example of a declarative sentence! But do you know what a declarative actually is and why it is used? Don’t worry if not … In this explanation we will look at declaratives in relation to speech acts, and the effects they have, and look at declarative sentences and the different ways you can form them.

What is a speech act?

A speech act is an utterance that has a purpose in communication. Whenever we speak, we are also carrying out an action. These actions are called illocutionary acts, which are broken down into five categories: assertive, directive, commissive, expressive and declarative.

What is a declarative speech act?

In relation to Searle's speech acts, a declarative is an utterance used by a speaker with the purpose of changing a situation in some way once the speech act has been uttered. Declarations can bring about a change in the world. For example, "I now declare you husband and wife."

There are two types of declaratory act: verdictives and effectives.

According to Herbert Clark (1996), verdictives refer to the judgments that are ruled and decisions that are made in institutions. The person giving these verdicts will do so based on the actions of the addressee.¹

Judgement, pixabay.com

Effectives refer to situations that happen due to an utterance being made.

Person getting 'fired', pixabay.com

Direct vs indirect declaratives

Example utterance: "You opened a book."

Structure: Declarative.

Function: Statement.

This declarative is an example of direct speech as it conveys information that is easily understood and has a straightforward meaning. It simply does what it says it will!

BUT there are exceptions... Not all declaratives are direct. It is possible for a declarative to be said as a request. For example, if we take the utterance:

"You haven't done the dusting yet."

This could be seen as a request, as although it expresses a fact, it is an indirect way of letting someone know that they should do the dusting! So in this case, it is an 'indirect' request.

What is a declarative sentence?

A declarative sentence is a sentence that makes a statement to convey information.

When is a declarative sentence used?

A declarative sentence is used when someone wants to express a fact, give some information, or explain something.

It is also important to remember that a declarative sentence:

• Ends with a full stop.

• Can be written in the past, present or future tense.

• Can be a simple, compound or complex sentence.

How is a declarative sentence structured?

A declarative sentence always consists of (at least) a subject and a verb.

• The subject of a sentence refers to the noun (such as a person or a thing) that is doing an action.

• A verb could refer to the main verb, an auxiliary verb, a modal verb, or a combination of these.

In the following declarative sentences, the subject is highlighted in red and the verb phrase is highlighted in green.

“Jack is swimming”

“I will write”

“She was laughing”

These are all examples of direct declarative sentences because they make a statement that gives someone information in a clear way. However, as previously mentioned, not all declaratives need to be direct; some are indirect!

Can you think of any examples?

How about declarative sentences with different types of objects and modifiers?

The following are some examples of declarative sentences that contain direct objects.

A direct object is a noun that is the receiver of the action of a verb.

Below are some examples of declarative sentences that contain both a direct object and an indirect object.

An indirect object is a noun that is the recipient of the direct object.

This can be done in two ways, the first like this:

The second way involves putting the direct object first, followed by a preposition (such as ‘to’ or ‘for’), and then an indirect object:

Declarative sentences can also include other modifiers after a verb phrase, such as adverbials. These are used to provide more information about the verb. For example:

Adverbials in a declarative sentence can also be added after a direct object, for example:

In some instances, either the object or adverbial can be removed, as the sentence will still make grammatical sense. For example, if we take the sentence:

“He will eat his dinner in an hour”

We can remove the object, which is his dinner:

“He will eat in an hour”

This still makes sense!

Or, we can remove the adverbial, which is in an hour:

“He will eat his dinner”

This also makes sense.

Further, objects can be replaced by complements, which are used to complete the meaning of a sentence. For example:

Whenever complements are used, the sentence cannot make sense without them as they are used to complete it. For example, if we take the following sentence:

“The food was delicious”

Removing the complement will lead to:

“The food was”

This is not a declarative sentence as it does not make a statement that makes sense grammatically and so does not express a completed thought!

¹H. Clark. Using language. 1996.