Simple Sentence

A Simple Sentence is a sentence with one independent clause and no dependent clauses.

• Example(s):
  • John walked home., a Simple Declarative Sentence.
  • Did you eat?, a Simple Question Sentence.
  • Shut the window!, a Simple Imperative Sentence.
  • What a sight!, a Simple Exclamatory Sentence.
  • Yesterday, I huffed and puffed up the mountain., a Simple Declarative Sentence with a Compound Verb.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Complex Sentence.
  • a Compound Sentence.
  • a Complex Compound Sentence, such as: “I walked home, but Jim, who has a car, drove instead.”,
• See: Finite Clause..

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References

2016

• (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sentence_clause_structure#Simple_sentences Retrieved:2016-5-20.
  • A simple sentence structure contains one independent clause and no dependent clauses.
    • I run.
  • This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, I, and one predicate, run.
    • The girl ran into her bedroom.
  • This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, girl, and one predicate, ran into her bedroom. The predicate is a verb phrase that consists of more than one word.
    • In the backyard, the dog barked and howled at the cat.
  • This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, dog, and one predicate, barked and howled at the cat. This predicate has two verbs, known as a compound predicate: barked and howled. This compound verb should not be confused with a compound sentence. In the backyard and at the cat are prepositional phrases.

• http://www.salon.com/2016/09/10/what-will-universal-grammar-evidence-rebuts-chomskys-theory-of-language-learning_partner/
  • QUOTE: ... A key flaw in Chomsky’s theories is that when applied to language learning, they stipulate that young children come equipped with the capacity to form sentences using abstract grammatical rules. ... young children initially speak with only concrete and simple grammatical constructions based on specific patterns of words: “Where’s the X?”; “I wanna X”; “More X”; “It’s an X”; “I’m X-ing it”; “Put X here”; “Mommy’s X-ing it”; “Let’s X it”; “Throw X”; “X gone”; “Mommy X”; “I Xed it”; “Sit on the X”; “Open X”; “X here”; “There’s an X”; “X broken.” Later, children combine these early patterns into more complex ones, such as “Where’s the X that Mommy Xed?” ...

2009

• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_(linguistics)
  • One traditional scheme for classifying English sentences is by the number and types of finite clauses:
    • A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause with no dependent clauses.

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