Grammar Workshop Series Unit 1 Sentence Structure

Grammar Workshop Series
Unit 1
Sentence Structure
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What is a Sentence?
• Let’s take a second to think: How would
you define a sentence?
• See if you can come up with several
possible answers before heading to the
next slide.
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Defining a Sentence
There are a variety of ways to answer.
You could say, for instance, that whenever
you have a string of words that start with a
capital letter and end with a period,
question mark, or exclamation mark,
you’re indicating to the reader that you
want that string of words to be read as a
sentence.
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More Defining …
• But that really doesn’t tell us what a sentence
is. Let’s try again.
• Some people would get a bit more abstract,
and say that a sentence expresses a complete
thought—in other words, you can always add
more stuff to it, but on its own, it feels like a
completed idea.
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Another shot at Defining
• Another, less abstract, way of expressing this
idea would be to say that it is an independent
clause—with a clause being a string of words
with a verb in it, and “independent” meaning
that you don’t need any other clauses to
complete it: it can stand alone.
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End of the Definitions
• Finally, some would fall back on grammar, and
say that a sentence is a group of words that
includes a subject and a predicate.
• Which of the above definitions are correct?
Which of the above are useful?
• Oh, and … can you define “subject” and
“predicate”? Give it a try before moving on.
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Our Definition
•
For the purposes of this workshop, we’ll be leaving the first one to one side—after
all, it is only a signal to the reader that the author intends to write a sentence.
Whether or not the writer actually did write a sentence is another question.
•
In the present context, we can say that a sentence is a complete thought that has
a subject and a predicate; we will refer to sentences as “independent clauses”
throughout these workshops. An independent clause might be a sentence in the
“starts with a capital, ends with a period” sense—but it might not, too.
“The world is round” is an independent clause and a full sentence by itself, but if I
add some stuff, I can produce the following sentence: “Although it looks flat, the
world is round, which is confusing if you think about it.” There, the independent
clause is only part of the larger construction. So your first job in analyzing
sentences is to start getting used to finding the independent clause or clauses.
We’ll talk more about that later.
•
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Subjects …
• As we said above, an independent clause is made up of a
subject and a predicate. The subject is the focus of the
sentence: it’s the person/people or thing(s) that is/are acting,
or acted upon, or described. Take a look at the following
sentences: “classes” is the subject in all three, but what is
being said about the classes varies.
1) Classes are difficult.
2) Classes were cancelled .
3) Classes quickly make my brain hurt.
• Note: the subject is usually, but far from always, located near
the start of the sentence, before the verb.
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… and Predicates
• The predicate, on the other hand, is the part of the sentence
that contains the main verb, and that tells us a) what the
subject is doing or experiencing. It may also give us
information about the context of the action—who it affects,
how it is taking place, and so on.
• So in the last sentence above, “Classes quickly make my brain
hurt,” classes is the subject, and quickly make my brain hurt
is the predicate. “Make” tells you the sort of action that the
classes are creating; my brain hurt gives you information
about the target and effect of that action; and quickly gives
you information about how the action is carried out.
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Complete, Compound, Simple
We have three technical terms we can use to describe both subjects and
predicates: we can say that they are
a)Complete—which means that we are talking about the whole subject or
whole predicate, or
b)Compound—which means that there are two subjects or predicates
working together, or
c)Simple—when we are just dealing bare minimum form of the subject or the
predicate.
•Of these three, it is most important to be able to identify the simple form of
the subject and predicate when you are analyzing a sentence. That will be
your key to the sentence’s underlying structure.
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A short quiz
1) For the sentence, “The tall man threw the ball,” identify the
simple subject and the complete subject.
2) For the sentence, “The student listened carefully,” identify
the simple predicate and the complete predicate.
3) For the sentence, “The professor and the eager students
stayed after class to continue the discussion,” identify the
compound subject.
4) For the sentence, “Her uncle and she walked slowly through
the Inuit art gallery and admired the powerful sculptures
exhibited there,” identify the compound predicate
5) For bonus marks, identify the compound subject.
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The answers
1) “Man” and “tall man.”
2) “Listened” and “listened carefully.”
3) “The professor and the eager students.”
4) “Walked slowly through the Inuit art gallery … admired
the powerful sculptures exhibited there.”
5) Bonus: “Her uncle and she.”
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Direct objects
• We’ve talked about subjects and predicates. Some sentences
are fine with just a subject and a verb—for instance, “He
smiled.” Or, “I walked.”
• “Smile” and “walk” are examples of what we call intransitive
verbs, meaning that all you really need is a subject and the
verb: the action that the verb describes stops with the verb.
• But for many verbs, the action that the verb describes, and
that the subject does, needs to be applied to something. We
wouldn’t say “I hit”—that’s not enough. We need to say what
was hit: “I hit the ball.” We call these verbs transitive verbs,
and they need a direct object. A direct object receives the
action of the verb
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Other sorts of objects
• Take a look at this sentence:
“The professor gave the students an exam.”
• Of “the students” and “an exam,” which is the
direct object? And how would you describe
the other one?
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Indirect objects
• “An exam” is the direct object: it tells you what the
professor gave.
• “The students” is an indirect object: it tells you to
whom the direct object was given.
• How about “I sent you an email”?
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Linking Verbs
• We have said that the object receives the action of the verb. But some
verbs don’t really have “actions”—the classic example of this is the verb
“to be.” When I say, “The student is tall,” the verb is not expressing an
action that the student is doing. Instead, it is linking “the student” to
“tall.” You might say that the verb is functioning as an equals sign—“the
student” = “tall.”
• We call these types of verbs “linking verbs,” and they include “to be,” “to
seem,” “to appear,” “to feel,” and so on. With linking verbs, we don’t call
the noun or pronoun on the right hand side an object—rather, we call it
the subject complement, because it complements (works along with) the
subject. But don’t be confused—subject complements are still part of the
predicate!
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Modifiers …
• Take a look at this sentence: “Because he
wanted to do well, the determined young
man worked very hard in the course.”
• If you wanted to strip the sentence down to
the simplest subject and simplest predicate,
what would it look like?
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… More Modifiers
Answer: “The man worked.”
That is the skeleton of the sentence. Everything else affects or modifies the
skeleton, and so we call the other things modifiers. Modifiers include:
a)Adjectives (things that modify nouns), such as “determined” and “young”
b)Adverbs/adverbial phrases (things that modify verbs), such as “very hard”
c)Prepositional phrases (phrases introduced by a preposition), such as “in the
course”
d)Dependent clauses (we’ll get to them soon!) such as “Because he wanted
to do well.”
Just for practice, try identifying the skeleton of the following sentence, and
then categorizing all the modifiers:
•“The best seat in the classroom was taken by a big, dumb guy who wouldn’t
get up.”
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Apposition
Here is another sentence to look at: “Barack
Obama, the president of the United States, was
elected in 2008.”
How would you describe the phrase, “the
president of the United States”?
How about here: “I spoke to Dr. Tokaryk, the
instructor of the class”? What is “the instructor
of the class” doing?
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Apposition continued
Both these phrases are a sort of modifier. They are called
appositive phrases, and their job is to give you more information
about an element of the sentence, or present it in a different
light. Notice that they are separated from the things that they
modify by commas. We’ll get back to this later, but for now, note
that commas function to remove an element from the main line
of the sentence: appositives are substitutes for subjects or
objects, but they aren’t necessary to the sentence. You could
just write “Barack Obama was elected in 2008” and that would
be a grammatical sentence.
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Identify the Appositive
• Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a model for
sculptors and artists, in Paris in 1904, and
many of his later paintings are influenced
by his warm relationship with her.
A) Fernade Olivier
B) a model for sculptors and artists
C) later paintings
D) warm relationship with her
E) met
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Identify the Appositive (Answer)
• Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a model for
sculptors and artists, in Paris in 1904, and
many of his later paintings are influenced
by his warm relationship with her.
B) a model for sculptors and artists
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Dependent Clauses
• Earlier in this lesson, we described a clause as
a group of words with a subject and predicate.
We’ve been talking a lot about independent
clauses, ones that can be complete sentences
in themselves. But there are also dependent
clauses, and they come in two varieties.
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Adverbial Dependent Clauses
– Start with subordinating conjunction (such as although, because, when)
– Answer a question (such as How, Why, When or Under what Circumstances)
about an independent clause:
• “Although it is raining, I will bike to school.”
• “The police caught the criminal because he left his fingerprints at the
crime scene.”
•
Note that it is only the presence or absence of the subordinating conjunction that
differentiates these clauses from independent clauses. In other words, “I like
physics” is an independent clause that can stand on its own; “because I like
physics” and “although I like physics” are dependent clauses that need an
independent clause to complete them.
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Adjectival Dependent Clauses, a.k.a. Relative Clauses
• Start with a relative pronoun (who, which,
that) or relative adverb (when or where)
• Modify the noun or pronoun they follow:
– “The car that the thief took is red.”
– “The day when the team wins a game will arrive
soon.”
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Four types of sentences
Sentences must include independent clauses; they can include dependent
clauses. We can divide sentence structures into four categories:
•
Simple (one independent clause only)
•
Compound (two or more independent clauses)
– Clauses connected by coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS: for, and,
nor, but, or, yet, so) OR semi-colon
•
Complex (one independent clause and at least one dependent clause)
•
Compound-Complex (two or more independent clauses and at least one
dependent clause)
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Sentence Classification
How would you classify the following sentences structurally?
• “Although Canada is a rich country, it still has many poor
people.”
• “Canada is a rich country, but still it has many poor people.”
• “When Canada eliminates homelessness, it will be a rich
country, and it will provide a decent quality of life for all its
citizens.”
• “Canada is a rich country. “
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Review of New Terms
• Define the following terms in your own words:
a) Subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object
b) Simple subject, simple predicate, simple sentence;
c) Compound subject, compound predicate, compound
sentence; complex sentence;
d) Complete subject, complete predicate;
e) Modifier;
f) Independent clause; dependent clause; appositive phrase
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Practice Question 1
Identify the Simple Subject:
• After the movie, Emma and her brother
bought a birthday present for their mother.
A) Emma
B) present
C) Emma and brother
D) Emma, brother
E) movie
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Practice Question 1: Answer
Identify the Simple Subject:
• After the movie, Emma and her brother
bought a birthday present for their mother.
D) Emma, brother
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Practice Question 2
Identify the Simple Subject:
• Would you willingly exchange half your
intelligence for one million dollars?
A) you
B) intelligence
C) exchange
D) one million dollars
E) none of the above
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Practice Question 2: Answer
Identify the Simple Subject:
• Would you willingly exchange half your
intelligence for one million dollars?
A) you
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Practice Question 3
Identify the simple subject:
• There will be three concerts in the arts
centre tonight.
A) will be
B) arts centre
C) tonight
D) there
E) concerts
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Practice Question 3: Answer
Identify the simple subject:
• There will be three concerts in the arts
centre tonight.
E) concerts
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Practice Question 4
Identify the simple predicate:
• Picasso’s work is often categorized into
periods.
A) work
B) is
C) is often
D) is categorized
E) is often categorized
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Practice Question 4: Answer
Identify the simple predicate:
• Picasso’s work is often categorized into
periods.
D) is categorized
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Practice Question 5
Identify the simple predicate:
• In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist
Party, attended an international peace
conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the
Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.
A) joined
B) in
C) from
D) joined, attended, received
E) attended
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Practice Question 5: Answer
Identify the simple predicate:
• In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist
Party, attended an international peace
conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the
Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.
D) joined, attended, received
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Practice Question 6
Identify the simple predicate:
• From the age of seven, Picasso received
formal artistic training from his father in
figure drawing and oil painting.
A) received
B) training
C) drawing, painting
D) training, drawing, painting
E) received training
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Practice Question 6: Answer
Identify the simple predicate:
• From the age of seven, Picasso received
formal artistic training from his father in
figure drawing and oil painting.
A) received
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Practice Question 7
Identify the direct object:
• From the age of seven, Picasso received
formal artistic training from his father in
figure drawing and oil painting.
A) figure drawing and oil painting
B) formal artistic training
C) Picasso
D) figure, oil
E) none of the above
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Practice Question 7: Answer
Identify the direct object:
• From the age of seven, Picasso received
formal artistic training from his father in
figure drawing and oil painting.
B) formal artistic training
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Practice Question 8
Identify the indirect object:
• The advertising executive drove a flashy
red Porsche to work.
A) executive
B) Porsche
C) work
D) flashy red Porsche
E) drove
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Practice Question 8: Answer
Identify the indirect object:
• The advertising executive drove a flashy
red Porsche to work.
D) flashy red Porsche
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Practice Question 9
Identify the indirect object:
• Her secret admirer gave her a bouquet of
flowers.
A) bouquet of flowers
B) flowers
C) admirer
D) her
E) gave
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Practice Question 9: Answer
Identify the indirect object:
• Her secret admirer gave her a bouquet of
flowers.
D) her
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Practice Question 10
Identify the simple subject:
• Several paintings by Picasso rank among
the most expensive paintings in the world
A) several
B) Picasso
C) paintings
D) world
E) rank
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Practice Question 10: Answer
Identify the simple subject:
• Several paintings by Picasso rank among
the most expensive paintings in the world
C) paintings
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Practice Question 11
Identify the simple subject:
• “Garçon à la pipe” sold for USD $104
million at Sotheby's on May 4, 2004,
establishing a new price record.
A) $104 million
B) Sotheby’s
C) new price record
D) “Garçon à la pipe”
E) establishing
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Practice Question 11: Answer
Identify the simple subject:
• “Garçon à la pipe” sold for USD $104
million at Sotheby's on May 4, 2004,
establishing a new price record.
D) “Garçon à la pipe”
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Practice Question 12
Identify the simple predicate:
• Since Picasso left no will, his death duties
(estate tax) to the French state were paid
in the form of his works and others from
his collection.
A) paid
B) left
C) from
D) were
E) were paid
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Practice Question 12: Answer
Identify the simple predicate:
• Since Picasso left no will, his death duties
(estate tax) to the French state were paid
in the form of his works and others from
his collection.
E) were paid
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