Compare performance measure values to system data to see if any operationally significant differences can be observed.

24

10. Which of them do you like.

11. I prefer rice to beans

12. We are the apple of God’s eyes

13. She is the most beautiful student in this class.

14. I had finished eating before my father came in.

15. What is your maiden name?

Functional Delineation of Sentences

Sentences are classified according to their function and structure.

Functionally, there are four types of sentence, and they are:

1. Declarative 2. Interrogative 3. Imperative and 4. Exclamatory

1. Declarative sentence: A sentence is said to be declarative when it expresses a statement or declaration. In other words, any sentence that affirms is a declarative sentence. To affirms means to state experiences, facts or opinion in any given matter. Some examples of declarative sentence are listed below:-

My wife is a good cook Bola died early last year The journey of life is not rosy The gate will be locked at 11.pm.

Those children are a pleasure to be with I don’t care about being hated.

2. Interrogative sentence: A sentence is said to be an interrogative

25 The explanation of the above is that, the question expects the listener to either affirm the statement or refute it. Hence, yes, is an affirmation (or confirmation) while No, is a refutation. More examples

Do you want me to believe you?

Yes, I do No, I don’t

Did she eventually meet the man Yes, she did

No, she didn’t

Is the lecturer telling us the truth?

Yes, he is No, he isn’t

(b) wh – question: A wh-question requires a sentence answer rather than yes or no. It starts with an interrogative pronoun. For example, what is your name?

* Yes

* No

Yes or No will not be accepted, as an answer to a wh-question. The question, ‘what is your name? Can either be as follows:-

John or

My name is John. Other examples are:

Why is she crying?

Answer: she is crying because she is hungry Who is the African footballer of he year for 2008

Answer: Emmanuel Seyi Adebayor is African footballer of the year for 2008.

(c) Tag question: A tag question is a kind of interrogative sentence which has three parts:

(i) Statement (ii) Question and (iii) Answer For example,

He is a brilliant student – (statement) Isn’t he?

Yes, he is or

No, he isn’t Answer

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She will become the next beauty queen Won’t she?

Yes, she will or No, she won’t

Tag questions have the following features

1. If the statement is in the positive, the question must be in the negative, for example

I have seen you today (positive) Haven’t

I?

2. If the statement is in the negative, the question must be in the positive. For example,

He will not marry her (negative) Will he? (positive)

Please, note that positivity and negativity denote that the verb either takes ‘not’ (for negative) or does not take not (for positive, that is, verb + not = negative e.g will not

verb – not = positive e.g will, can

3. The pronoun in the statement is used in the question and answer parts for example, she has prayed for the country

Hasn’t she Yes,

? she No,

has or she hasn’t They

Won’t

will make it in life they

Yes,

? they will or No, they won’t

4. When lexical or main verbs are used in the statement, the form of the primary auxiliary verb ‘do’ is used. This agrees in number, tense and person with the form of the lexical verb used in the statement. For example,

Jide likes his wife Doesn’t

Yes, he does or he?

No, he doesn’t

27 5. When a noun is the subject of the statement, the person pronoun must agree in gender with the noun used in the statement. For example,

Mary Didn’t

visited us yesterday she

Yes, she did or No, she didn’t

There is a particular kind of tag question that changes the general and common notion held about tag questions. Remember, we said that ‘yes’

means agreement and ‘No’ means disagreement. In this kind of specially structured tag question the reverse is the case. For example, Would you mind talking with me?

Yes, I do - disagreement

No, I don’t - agreement that is, ‘yes’ I do means, I don’t want to talk with you while ‘No’, I don’t means, I want to talk with you.

3. Imperative sentence: A sentence is said to be an imperative sentence if it commands, or orders, or makes a request. In other words, an imperative sentence makes people carry out an action or instruction. In some cases too, an imperative sentence directs and suggests. For example,

Will you do as I say?

Obey the last order

Would you be kind enough to dust the table?

Come here immediately Shut the door

To prepare fruit salad, slice the fruits, boil water and allow to cool, et.c.

4. Exclamatory sentence: A sentence is said to be an exclamatory