Who Is A Group of words that makes a statement,asks a question , makes an exclamation , or gives a command ???
Answers
There has been a bit of a kerfuffle in the UK press over how the notion of exclamation should be taught to primary school children. Several newspapers have been saying that the guidance published by the Department for Education (DfE) is too hard, and that it is nonsensical or even Orwellian. I am not a spokesman for the DfE, and it’s not my job to defend government policy, but since the KS1 test is a reality I thought it would be useful for teachers if I made a few things clear about exclamations.
So what is the fuss about?
The DfE published guidance last year about how the terms statement, question, command and exclamation should be understood in the National Curriculum:
Screen Shot 2016-03-07 at 12.41.20.png
We find some further guidance and some examples in the National Curriculum Glossary:
The form of a sentence’s main clause shows whether it is being used as a statement, a question, a command or an exclamation.
You are my friend. [statement]
Are you my friend?
Be my friend! [command]
What a good friend you are! [exclamation]
It’s important to be clear that ‘statement’, ‘question’, ‘command’ and ‘exclamation’ are defined as sentence patterns which means that they are defined grammatically.
A statement is defined as having a structure in which there is typically a Subject, followed by a verb and then a further unit such as a Direct Object. For example, Jimmy loves his dog, The government will make an announcement at noon, She reads two newspapers every day, etc.