The Praed model sentences: meaning and speech functions
The study of formal samples of sentences in the real modern colloquial speech is one of the topical linguistic problems. Having considered the classical and modern research papers, the author examines the grammatical status of uninflected words, which are the main members of the sentences of the Praed structural scheme. The author considers that such words should be classified as predicative adverbs rather than a special grammatical category. The article proposes a semantic typology of such adverbs functioning in modern colloquial speech. The author concludes that the sentences of the Praed structural scheme are used in everyday communication for transmitting both objective (dictum) and subjective (modus) information. They are used to reflect the state of a person or the environment, to express the attitude of the subject of speech to the speech situation, to characterize the degree of his confidence in the transmitted information. Most often, such sentences are used by the subject of speech to generalize and at the same time emotionally assess the speech situation. The pattern of the sentences expressing different human states is expanded by introducing subjective modifiers into it. The sentences expressing different situational states must include adverbial modifiers.