Kalytyuk L. The Interrogative Sentence in History of English: Structural and Pragmatic Aspects.

This thesis is an investigation of structural and pragmatic characteristics of interrogative sentences in the Middle and Early New English language (12th - 17th centuries). The analysis is based on generative grammar and pragmatics. Simple, complex, compound and elliptical interrogative sentences have been distinguished and analysed. Three structural models of such sentences have been examined: 1) with subject-predicate inversion [VP] [NP], 2) with subject-auxiliary inversion [AUX] [NP] [VP],3) with direct word order [NP] [VP].The model with subject-predicate inversion was gradually supplanted by [AUX] [NP] [VP] model. The pragmatic type of the interrogative sentence is directly determined by the text genre. In theological texts, laments and disputes interrogative sentences were primarily used as indirect speech acts wheras in fabliaux, romances and consequently drama such sentences tended to be used for asking.