ABSTRACT
Classes of 'main' clause The three most important classes of non-subordinate clause are 'declarative', 'interrogative' and 'imperative'. A number of simple sentences consisting usually of a single word can not be classified under any of these headings, and would be considered 'minor'. These terms refer to the structure of the clause and not to its communicative function. For example, the long mid front vowel symbolised le:1 may convey agreement or questioning according to the intonation used, and I have a convention of writing the agreement sound as ee and the question as eh, but in syntactic (as opposed to discourse) terms I would class both as 'minor' clauses. Minor clauses may occasionally function in sentences. 'Declarative' clauses are generally statements, and of course in a story there are a large number of these. However, in Swahili a structurally declarative clause may be functionally a question and there may be no formal distinction between a question and a statement, not even one of intonation. Speakers generally know in context whether they are being asked or told something-although as I have noted earlier (Maw 1969) on occasion they may get it wrong. More will be said about intonation on this point later. Syntactically interrogative clauses contain question markers. Imperative clauses have distinctive verb forms. Naturally, interrogative and imperative clauses only occur in the dialogue sections of the story, but they do serve also to give variety to the
