ABSTRACT
Sadock and Zwicky's definition of 'major sentence type', while intuitively satisfying, has certain problems. In order to separate consideration of form - what we are treating as the dependent variable - from function, it is necessary to define what sort of grammatical features of sentences are 'major' distinctions as independent of their function as possible. Presumably, alteration of the form of an oblique noun phrase is not 'major' enough to constitute a major sentence type. It would be desirahle to find criteria conforming to the principle of iconicity and relevant principles of perceptual salience to establish a definition of 'major sentence type'. The
remainder of this section is devoted to arguing for a particular set of formal criteria for major sentence types, or rather for high degree of salience of differences in sentence type, since no sharp dividing line can be provided.
