This paper deals with nonverbal sentences in different discourse genres. In the first part, we will determine some criteria distinguishing nonverbal sentences from phrases added after a dot and define 3 types of sentences: predicative and locative ones have both a logical subject, while existential ones are sentence-focus structures. We will also distinguish cases where the starting point for the new information is inside the sentence and the cases where it lies in the linguistic or situational context. In the second part we will study the use of nonverbal sentences in print media and show that nonverbal sentences mainly refer to previous sentences, often introducing another enunciator. In the third part we will study the use of nonverbal sentences in Reverdy’s and Rimbaud’s poems. We will focus on the textual functions of these sentences and on the structure of existential sentences where the NP often serves as a support for a second predicate located in a participial phrase or in a relative clause. We will also put forward hypotheses about why these sentences have developed so much in the 20th-century poetry.