Declarative (pronounced dih-klar-uh-tiv)
(1) Serving to declare; having the quality of a declaration; make known, or explain.
(2) Making or having the nature of a declaration.
(3) In the study of learning, acquiring information one can speak about.
(4) In psychology and structural mnemonics, as declarative memory, a type of long-term memory where facts and events are stored (one of two types of long term human memory).
(5) In computing, as declarative statement (or declarative line or declarative code) that which declares a construct.
(6) In computing, as declarative programming, a paradigm in programming where an objective is stated, rather than a mechanism or design.
(7) In formal grammar, a grammatical verb form used in declarative sentences.
1530-1540: From the Middle English declarative (making clear or manifest, explanatory), from the French déclaratif, from the Late Latin dēclārātīvus (explanatory), past participle stem of the Classical Latin declarare (make clear, reveal, disclose, announce), the construct being de- (presumed here to be used as an intensifier) + clarare (clarify) from clarus (clear). The meaning “making declaration, exhibiting” dates from the 1620s and in the mid-fifteenth century it was in common use as a noun meaning “an explanation”. In some contexts, declarative is often a synonym of declaration. The companion adjective enunciative (declarative, declaring something as true) also dates from the early sixteenth century and was from the Latin enunciates (technically enuntiativus), from the past participle stem of enuntiare (to speak out, say, express). In English, it’s rare compared to declarative (1) because of that form's wide use in documents explaining the rules and conventions of English and (2) because enunciate was captured by the speech therapists and elocution teachers who refused to give it back. Declarative is a noun & adjective and declaratively an adverb; the noun plural is declaratives.
In psychology, psychiatry and structural mnemonics, there are three defined types of memory: declarative, semantic & episodic. Declarative memory (known also as explicit memory) is a type of long-term memory where knowledge & events are stored. Semantic memory is a sub-category of declarative memory which (1) stores general information such as names and facts and is (2) a system of the brain where logical concepts relating to the outside world are stored. Episodic memory is a sub-category of declarative memory (1) in which is stored memories of personal experiences tied to particular times and places and (2) is a system of the brain which stores personal memories and the concept of self.
A gang of four Sceggs, all of whom would speak in the accent known as the “declarative middle-class voice”.
Although technically only marginally related to declarative as otherwise used in English, as a specific category in studies of social class the “declarative middle-class voice” is an accent taught or honed by private girls’ schools. Optimized for husband-hunting expeditions, training involves reciting school mottos such as Luceat Lux Vestra (Let your light shine), borrowed by Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar (SCEGG) from Matthew 5:16. Over the Sydney Harbor Bridge, at Abbotsleigh the motto is tempus celerius radio fugit (Time flies faster than a weaver's shuttle), the idea behind that said to be: “As the shuttle flies a pattern is woven, with the threads being the people, buildings and events. The pattern is Abbotsleigh as it continues to grow in complexity and richness each year”. Quite whether a weaver’s shuttle (said by some detractors to have been chosen as symbolic of the "proper" place of women being in a state of domestic servitude for the convenience of men) is appropriate for a girls’ school in the twenty-first century has been debated. The motto came from the family crest of Marian Clarke (1853-1933), Abbotsleigh’s first headmistress (principle) and was maintained using the family’s grammatically dubious form tempus fugit radio celerity until 1924 when the correct syntax was substituted. It’s an urban myth the mistake was permitted to stand until 1924 as a mark of respect while Ms Clarke was alive; she lived a decade odd after the change although the family’s heraldry was apparently never corrected.
One of history's more fateful declarative statements: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) delivers a speech to members of the Reichstag, declaring war on the United States. Kroll Opera House, Berlin, 11 December 1941, the US responding the same day with declarations of war against Germany and Italy. Appearing in this image are a number of the Nazi hierarchy who would (1) later sit together as defendants in the Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946) & (2) be hanged from the same gallows (1946). Interestingly, although militarily hardly inactive over the last few decades, the declarations of war in June 1942 (essentially a "tidying up exercise" to satisfy legal niceties) against Romania, Bulgaria & Hungary were the last by the US. From the moment the declaration was made, historians and others have puzzled over Hitler's state of mind, given Germany was under no legal obligation to declare war and his decision meant the wealth and industrial might of the US was suddenly added to the forces opposing the Reich. Much has been written on the subject exploring the understanding of Hitler, his general & admirals had of the potential of the US rapidly to project military power simultaneously across both the Atlantic and Pacific and there are a variety of thoughts but all can be boiled down to what defence counsel in the 1970s offered as the streaker's defence: "It seemed a good idea at the time".
Hitler addressing the members of the Reichstag, 1939 (left) & 1941 (right), the most obvious difference (at least politically) between the two the presence on the front row (lower left) of Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy führer 1933-1941), who in June 1941, on the eve of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, flew to Scotland on a personal mission to negotiate the end of hostilities between Germany & the UK, something that remains one of the more bizarre episodes of the war. By the time war was declared on the US, Hess was some six months into a period of captivity which would last until his death more than forty-five years later although when Hitler made the declaration, he had been moved from the Tower of London, his imprisonment there a distinction much envied by Baldur von Schirach (1907–1974), one of Hess's fellow inmates in Spandau Prison for close to twenty years. Reserved usually for royalty and those accused of high treason, Hess would be the last prisoner to be held in the Tower of London. The photograph from 1941 is sometimes confused with one taken from the same angle on 30 January 1939 when Hitler delivered the speech most remembered for his infamous prediction that another world war would ensure "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe", the relevant passage being:
"I have very often in my lifetime been a prophet and have been mostly derided. At the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance the Jewish people who only greeted with laughter my prophecies that I would someday take over the leadership of the state and of the entire people of Germany and then, among other things, also bring the Jewish problem to its solution. I believe that this hollow laughter of Jewry in Germany has already stuck in its throat. I want today to be a prophet again: if international finance Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".
The declarative sentence in English
In English grammar, there are four types of sentences: Declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogatory and the declarative, whether in fiction or non-fiction the declarative is by far the most frequently used. The declarative sentence is one which makes a statement, provides a fact, offers an explanation, or conveys information. To be a declarative sentence (also known as a declarative statement), it needs to be in the present tense, usually ends with a period (full-stop) and typically, the subject appears before the verb. A declarative sentence can also be called an assertive sentence it if asserts something is factual.
There are two types of declarative sentences: the simple and the compound (or elaborated declarative sentence. A simple declarative sentence consists of only a subject and predicate (“Lindsay Lohan is an actor”). A compound declarative sentence usually joins two related phrases with a comma and a conjunction (such as and, yet, or but) but the link can also be provided by a semicolon (a form which litters literary novels) and can be accompanied by a transition word (such as besides, however or therefore). (“Lindsay bought a Mercedes-Benz, crashing it several days later”). The song 88 lines about 44 women (The Nails, 1981) was interesting because although composed essentially as 88 simple declarative sentences, it was performed as 44 compound declarative sentences.
88 lines about 44 women by David Kaufman, Douglas Guthrie, George Kaufman & Marc Campbell (1981).
Deborah was a Catholic girlShe held out till the bitter endCarla was a different typeShe's the one who put it inMary was a black girlI was afraid of a girl like thatSuzen painted picturesSitting down like a Buddha satReno was a nameless girlA geographic memoryCathy was a Jesus freakShe liked that kind of miseryVicki had a special wayOf turning sex into a songKamala, who couldn't sing,Kept the beat and kept it strongZilla was an archetypeThe voodoo queen, the queen of wrathJoan thought men were second bestTo masturbating in a bathSherry was a feministShe really had that gift of gabKathleen's point of view was thisTake whatever you can grabSeattle was another girlWho left her mark upon the mapKaren liked to tie me upAnd left me hanging by a strapJeannie had a nightclub walkThat made grown men feel underageMariella, who had a sonSaid I must go, but finally stayedGloria, the last tabooWas shattered by her tongue one nightMimi brought the taboo backAnd held it up before the lightMarilyn, who knew no shameWas never ever satisfiedJulie came and went so fastShe didn't even say goodbyeRhonda had a house in VeniceLived on brown rice and cocainePatty had a house in HoustonShot cough syrup in her veinsLinda thought her life was emptyFilled it up with alcoholKatherine was much too prettyShe didn't do that shit at allUh-uh, not KathrinePauline thought that love was simpleTurn it on and turn it offJean-marie was complicatedLike some French filmmaker's plotGina was the perfect ladyAlways had her stockings straightJackie was a rich punk rockerSilver spoon and a paper plateSarah was a modern dancerLean pristine transparencyJanet wrote bad poetryIn a crazy kind of urgencyTanya Turkish liked to fuckWhile wearing leather biker bootsBrenda's strange obsessionWas for certain vegetables and fruitRowena was an artist's daughterThe deeper image shook her upDee Dee's mother left her fatherTook his money and his truckDebbie Rae had no such problemsPerfect Norman Rockwell homeNina, 16, had a babyLeft her parents, lived aloneBobbi joined a New Wave bandChanged her name to Bobbi SoxEloise, who played guitarSang songs about whales and copsTerri didn't give a shitWas just a nihilistRonnie was much more my styleCause she wrote songs just like thisJezebel went forty daysDrinking nothing but PerrierDinah drove her ChevroletInto the San Francisco BayJudy came from OhioShe's a ScientologistAmaranta, here's a kissI chose you to end this list
There are also special classes of declarative sentences such as the interrogative sentence which poses a direct question so necessitating a question mark at the end. (What is your name?). The imperative sentence delivers an instruction, command, or request and, depending on this and that, will end either in a period or an exclamation mark (thus “Pass me the remote.” or “Shut the fuck up!”). An exclamatory sentence will almost invariably end with an exclamation mark and if would be only as a deliberate literary device that an author would use an exclamatory sentence without one (and there are critics who insist that without one, it can’t be an exclamatory sentence although one can discern the difference between “I love you!” and “I do love you.”).
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