Editing Clause (section)

===Standard SV-clauses===
Standard SV-clauses (subject-verb) are the norm in English. They are usually declarative (as opposed to exclamative, imperative, or interrogative); they express information neutrally, e.g.

::The pig has not yet been fed.{{Snd}} Declarative clause, standard SV order
::I've been hungry for two hours.{{Snd}} Declarative clause, standard SV order
::...that I've been hungry for two hours.{{Snd}} Declarative clause, standard SV order, but functioning as a subordinate clause due to the appearance of the [[Subordinator (grammar)|subordinator]] ''that''

Declarative clauses like these are by far the most frequently occurring type of clause in any language. They can be viewed as basic, with other clause types being derived from them. Standard SV-clauses can also be interrogative or exclamative, however, given the appropriate intonation [[Contour (linguistics)|contour]] and/or the appearance of a question word, e.g.

::a. The pig has not yet been fed?{{Snd}} Rising intonation on ''fed'' makes the clause a [[yes–no question|yes/no question]].

::b. The pig has not yet been fed!{{Snd}} Spoken forcefully, this clause is exclamative.

::c. You've been hungry for how long?{{Snd}} Appearance of interrogative word ''how'' and rising intonation make the clause a constituent question

Examples like these demonstrate that how a clause functions cannot be known based entirely on a single distinctive syntactic criterion. SV-clauses are usually declarative, but intonation and/or the appearance of a question word can render them interrogative or exclamative.