c. Exclamative sentence
An exclamative sentence is exclamation, it is introduced by what or how For example:
What a lovely dress you have What a beautiful painting it is
d. Interrogative sentence
An interrogative sentence is used in asking question, and in seeking information.
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For example: Where did you go to Bandung?
When will you come to my house?
4. Interrogative Sentences
a. The understanding of interrogative sentence
According to Webster’s college dictionary, “Question is a sentence in an interrogative form addressed to someone in order to get information in
reply. ”
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Encyclopedia of Linguistics states that “The term ‘questions’ refers to utterances inviting a response and that, when spoken, may have specific
intonation patterns. According to Encyclopedia of Linguistics, “Questions
can be analyzed for their grammatical forms and also for their functions and discourse.
”
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It can be inferred that questions refers to utterances or sentences given to someone in order to get information.
b. The use of questions
According John Eastwood, there are three uses of questions: 1
The most basic use of a question is to ask information
23
Gerald Nelson, English: An Essential Grammar, London: Routledge, 2001, pp. 25-27.
24
Kipfer Ed, op. cit., p. 1010.
25
Philipp Strazny Ed, Encyclopedia of Linguistics, vol.2, New York: Fitzory Dearborn, 2005, p. 888.
2 In other ways, question can be used as getting people to do things,
requesting, making suggestion, offering and asking permission. There are also ‘rhetorical questions’, a question can be answered by the
person who asks it, which do need an answer.
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c. Types of questions
According Greenbaum there are two major of questions, they are: 1
Yes-no question, intended to elicit the reply yes or no. 2
Wh-questions, expected a reply that supplies the information that the wh-word indicates as required. They are called wh-questions because
the wh-words begin with wh-, the exception being how.
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Following are types of questions according to Lester: 1
Yes-no question, ask for a “yes” or “no” response.” There are three main forms of yes-no question:
a Inverted yes-no question
The predominant way of forming yes-no questions is by inverting the normal subject-verb word order of statements. For example:
Can you see it? b
Informal yes-no question Informal yes-no question is used as a signal of certain level of
intimacy. There are two kinds of informal yes-no question, they are: Un-inverted yes-no question and Elliptical yes-no question.
There is no helping verb in both of these questions. Uninverted yes-no question are highly contextual, the answer of the question
can be anticipated. For example: A: I am so happy.
B: You passed the test? Elliptical yes-no questions are genuine questions, the speaker
doesn’t know the answer.
26
Eastwood, op. cit., p. 27.
27
Sydney Greenbaum , The Oxford English Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 46-47.
