Basic Syntactic Notions

Today, we are going to learn how to analyze sentences and classify them according to their sentence structure using the book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. First, we will be looking at the different type of sentences that the writer uses in her writing. Then, we will use some of these sentences to learn how to classify a sentence as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex.

In Weille’s article we learn syntax is much more than sentence structures and abstract thinking. Syntax is how sentences flow together, giving shape and an unseen rhythm. Weille

9. Syntax is the study of sentence structure. Observe the length of the sentences in the first and last paragraphs of the speech. What differences do you find? How do these differences affect the tone of the speech?

How we form and describe a sentence plays a major role towards determine the meaning of the sentence. This results in making each sentence very important to structure correctly so as to harness the most powerful meaning from the words used on the sentence (Iny 2006). To understand how word structure affects a sentence, we shall examine 5 sentences from a paper “the Purpose of Government written by Anon. A. Moss.

Every language has a grammar: a set of patterns and rules that we learn to use when we're reading.

Another aspect of syntax modification is Douglass' use of

Directions: Identify the type of sentence – simple (I), compound (I, fanboy I or I;I), or complex (D,I ID or I wedge D).

These elements are syntax, figurative

Depending on the author’s style, syntax can greatly change the way a reader interprets the passage. Sometimes it adds to the tone and sometimes it gets the reader inside the minds of the characters. There are many different ways an author can use syntax to better their story and intrigue the readers. In the short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe uses syntax to describe the speaker’s mental state. Starting on the very first line, Poe begins with, “TRUE!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”

In order to punctuate sentences correctly writers must understand certain rules and concepts. A clause is a word group containing a subject and a verb. The two types of clauses are independent and subordinate. An independent clause contains a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence. A subordinate clause contains a subordinate conjunction in addition to a subject. A phrase is a group of words that do not contain both a subject and a verb. Three common sentence errors are the fragment, the comma-splice, and the run-on sentence. A fragment is a clause or subordinate clause punctuated as a sentence. A run-on sentence

One of the most important things about words may not be the actual content of what is being written, but rather the structure of what is being written. More specifically, the mechanics of our sentences often sway readers towards unexpected directions.

What is the sentence structure of text? Are there fragments, run ons? Is it declarative, imperative, exclamatory? What effect does it have?

In the third part, three pedagogical implications will be presented. In addition, a grammar activity and its theoretical rationale will be respectively reported in the fourth and fifth part before the final conclusion is displayed.

Specialists in descriptive grammar (linguists) examine the principles and patterns that underlie the use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. In contrast, prescriptive

He seeks to find underlying similarities across these “distinct” languages, to construct a general theory of a singular language. However, it seems as though he cannot be scientifically vindicated without the groundwork being laid down by many of the authors that he is critical of. Thus, it is particularly interesting that Chomsky seems to be so at odds with the idea of descriptivism. When Chomsky says, “Grammar should not be merely a record of the data of usage, but, rather, should offer an explanation for such data,” (587) he is acknowledging the usefulness, presumably to his own theories, of descriptive linguistics. He in fact recognizes the debt he owes when he says, “To me, it seems that [structural linguistics'] major achievement is to have provided a factual and a methodological basis that makes it possible to return to the problems that occupied the traditional universal grammarians...” (590) But he goes on to say, “On the other hand, it seems to me that the substantive contributions to the theory of language structure are few, and that, to a large extent, the concepts of modern linguistics constitute a retrogression as compared with universal grammar.” (590) Where the descriptivists see an end, Chomsky sees only the means, and is somewhat dismissive of them.