We do not read words, one by one. Meaning is contained not so much in individual words as in collections of words conveying broader or more specific ideas. Readers thus make sense of a sentence by breaking it into meaningful chunks and examining their interrelationships. Skillful writers focus not so much on individual words, as on creating and rephrasing larger phrases and clauses. The topics covered here describe the meaningful chunks of English sentence structure. In so doing they examine key grammatical principles underlying effective reading and writing.
z A Grammar for Reading and Writing A Grammar for Reading and Writing (adapted from http://www.critical- reading.com/grammar_reading_writing.htm) We do not read words, one by one. Meaning is contained not so much in individual words as in collections of words conveying broader or more specific ideas. Readers thus make sense of a sentence by breaking it into meaningful chunks and examining their interrelationships. Skillful writers focus not so much on individual words, as on creating and rephrasing larger phrases and clauses. The topics covered here describe the "meaningful chunks" of English sentence structure. In so doing they examine key grammatical principles underlying effective reading and writing. Speaking Constructions, Not Words When discussing speech, we say we know something when we can repeat it "word for word." Yet, when we speak, we do not really speak "one word at a time." We break the flow of words into chunks. And we do not do this randomly, simply to take a breath now and then. We insert pauses to break the flow into meaningful chunks. We do not say I left my raincoat on the chair. We say: I left my raincoat on the chair. When we break a sentence into portions, whether by pauses or intonation, we are actually doing grammatical analysis. We break the sentence into chunks to facilitate understanding. Reading and Writing Constructions, Not Words Words appear on a page one word after another. Yet readers do not read word by word, one word at a time. As with speech, we find meaning by grouping words into larger units. You might think that you read the previous sentence word by word: As with speech, we find meaning by grouping words into larger units. Yet meaning becomes apparent only when you see the line somewhat as: As with speech, we find meaning by grouping words into larger units. It makes little difference whether we call these units chunks or use more technical terminology (such as phrases and clauses , or the more general term constructions ), the point is the same: We read chunks, not individual words. The observations above suggest a test: Listen to someone read a passage aloud. You can gauge their understanding by how easily they group words into meaningful chunks as they read. Ambiguity The mental process involved in finding meaning in a string of words is most apparent when various alternative readings make sense that is, in situations that are ambiguous. She did not marry him because she loved him. Are they married? It depends on how you read the sentence: She did not marry him because she loved him. They are not married. She did not marry him because she loved him. She married him for other reasons. We find meaning by deciding on a meaningful way to analyze the sentence. In so doing we often attempt to recreate the natural pauses and emphasis that might indicate structure were the words spoken. Try another one. The drunk driver hit her head on Wednesday Who was hit? How? Do we know the gender of the driver? Do we know the nature of the accident? In an effort to make sense of the sentence, we analyze it various ways. The drunk driver hit her head on Wednesday The drunk driver hit her head on Wednesday The drunk driver hit her head on Wednesday We find meaning by finding ways to break the sentence into meaningful chunks. In the first, the driver's own head is injured on a specific day. The driver is female. The drunk driver hit her head on Wednesday In the second instance, the driver hit a female in a head on collision. The drunk driver hit her head on Wednesday In the third, and more improbable, alternative a drunk driver somehow hit a female's head. The drunk driver hit her head on Wednesday Maybe she was leaning over into traffic! Should we come upon such a sentence within a text, we would look to the context to decide which reading is appropriate. Structure and Meaning Finally, consider the following three sentences: 1. The boy ate the apple in the pie. 2. The boy ate the apple in the summer. 3. The boy ate the apple in a hurry. At first glance, the three sentences seem to have the same structure. 1. The boy ate the apple in the pie. 2. The boy ate the apple in the summer. 3. The boy ate the apple in a hurry. As we try to find meaning in the sentences, however, we discover that their structure is different: 1. The boy ate the apple in the pie. 2. The boy ate the apple in the summer. 3. The boy ate the apple in a hurry. how we break a sentence up. Punctuation often helps in this effort, but punctuation marks only certain boundaries. There is the story of the English teacher who wrote the following words on the board and asked the students to punctuate the sentence: Woman without her man is nothing. Students came away with different meanings, depending on how they grouped the words. (Reach an understanding of the sentence yourself, then see the footnote for the results.) (1) Slots, Constructions, and Meaning Once we recognize that we actually read chunks, we might then ask: · How do we recognize chunks? What do they look like? And that leads to two other questions: · Where in a sentence do these chunks normally fall, and · What meaning can we attach to a particular chunks that is, to a particular grammatical construction occurring in a particular position in a sentence? Complete Reference: The Noun Phrase looks at the most common construction in English sentences. Other sections identify particular positions or slots within a sentence and the meaning attached to the various constructions appearing in those positions. (1) Some read the words as: Woman, without her man, is nothing. Others read the same words as: Woman! Without her, man is nothing. We find, to a great extent, what we want to find! Complete Reference: The Noun Phrase Full References The discussion of the choice of language noted that a single concept is often signaled by a variety of words, each word possessing slightly different connotations. We can indicate that people are less than content by saying they are angry , irate , incensed , perturbed , upset , furious , or mad. The broader our vocabulary, the greater our options and the more precisely we can convey our meaning. And yet no matter how wide our vocabulary may be, a single word is often insufficient. A single word, by itself, can appear somewhat vague, no matter how specific that word might seem. The term `dog’ may be specific compared to `mammal,’ but it is general compared to `collie.’ And `collie’ is general compared to `Lassie.’ Then again, many different dogs played Lassie! Suppose you want to indicate a female person across the room. If you don’t know her name, what do you say? That girl. If there were more than one, this alone would be too general. It lacks specificity. The girl in the blue Hawaiian shirt x The taller of the two cheerleaders by the water cooler When a single term will not supply the reference we need, we add terms to focus or limit a more general term. Instead of referring to drugs in a discussion, we might refer to hallucinogenic drugs. We might distinguish between hard drugs and prescription drugs . In so doing we modify the notion of a drug to describe the specific one, or ones, we have in mind. (Then again, at times we are forced to use many words when we cannot recall the one that will really do, as when we refer to that funny device doctors pump up on your arm to measure blood pressure instead of a sphygmomanometer ). This section examines how we construct full and specific references using noun phrases. An ability to recognize complete noun phrases is essential to reading ideas rather than words. A knowledge of the various possibilities for constructing extended noun pharses is essential for crafting precide and specific references. Nouns To begin our discussion, we must first establish the notion of a noun. English teachers commonly identify nouns by their content. They describe nouns as words that "identify people, places, or things," as well as feelings or ideas—words like salesman , farm , balcony , bicycle , and trust. If you can usually put the word a or the before a word, it’s a noun. If you can make the word plural or singular, it's a noun. But don't worry all that is needed at the moment is a sense of what a noun might be. Noun Pre-Modifiers What if a single noun isn't specific enough for our purposes? How then do we modify a noun to construct a more specific reference? English places modifiers before a noun. Here we indicate the noun that is at the center of a noun phrase by an asterisk (*) and modifiers by arrows pointed toward the noun they modify. white house * large man * Modification is a somewhat technical term in linguistics. It does not mean to change something, as when we "modify" a car or dress. To modify means to limit, restrict, characterize, or otherwise focus meaning. We use this meaning throughout the discussion here. Modifiers before the noun are called pre-modifiers. All of the pre- modifiers that are present and the noun together form a noun phrase . NOUN PHRASE pre-modifiers noun * By contrast, languages such as Spanish and French place modifiers after the noun casa blanca white house * homme grand big man * The most common pre-modifiers are adjectives, such as red , long , hot . Other types of words often play this same role. Not only articles the water * but also verbs running water * and possessive pronouns her thoughts * Premodifiers limit the reference in a wide variety of ways. Order: second, last Location: kitchen, westerly Source or Origin: Canadian Color: red, dark Smell: acrid, scented Material: metal, oak Size: large, 5-inch Weight: heavy Luster: shiny, dull A number of pre-modifiers must appear first if they appear at all. Specification: a, the, every Designation: this, that, those, these Ownership/Possessive: my, our, your, its, their, Mary’s Number: one, many These words typically signal the beginning of a noun phrase. Some noun phrases are short: the table * Some are long: the second shiny red Swedish touring sedan * a large smelly red Irish setter * my carved green Venetian glass salad bowl * the three old Democratic legislators * Notice that each construction would function as a single unit within a sentence. (We offer a test for this below,) The noun phrase is the most common unit in English sentences. That prevalence can be seen in the following excerpt from an example from the section on the choice of language: The stock market’s summer swoon turned into a dramatic rout Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged. The stock market’s summer swoon turned into a dramatic rout * * Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged. * * To appreciate the rich possibilities of pre-modifiers, you have only to see how much you can expand a premodifier in a noun phrase: the book the history book the American history book the illustrated American history book the recent illustrated American history book the recent controversial illustrated American history book the recent controversial illustrated leather bound American history book Noun Post-Modifiers We were all taught about pre -modifiers: adjectives appearing before a noun in school. Teachers rarely speak as much about adding words after the initial reference. Just as we find pre -modifiers, we also find post -modifiers—modifiers coming after a noun. The most common post-modifier is prepositional phrases: the book on the table * civil conflict in Africa * the Senate of the United States * Post-modifiers can be short a dream * or long, as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s reference to [...]... the terms for the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ] a great chapter in American life came to a close and a greater chapter began followed by a series of simple sentences a great chapter in American life came to a close and a great new chapter began To test this analysis, try shifting the modifier: A great chapter in American life came to a close, and a great new chapter began [ when Ulysses... grammatical analysis, to consciously attempt to break the sentence into meaningful units A Model Of English Sentence Structure All English sentences follow the same basic formula All speakers of the language are familiar with that formula, and yet this model is rarely if ever taught (1) The discussion here lays that formula out The discussion of noun phrases demonstrated the need to recognize grammatical... (Shreveport, La.) 3/19/98 MEDIA: Some Fear Coverage Reflects Judgment Los Angeles Times 1/29/98 Can you distinguish between ambiguity of word meaning and grammatical ambiguity? Implications For Reading What does the above analysis do for us? To find meaning in a sentence, we must break it into meaningful parts, and we must understand how those parts are related to each other When we group words into larger... Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, a great chapter in American life came to a close and a greater chapter began At first, this appears to be a long and complex sentence When we draw on the notions reviewed above, however, we see that its structure is really simple We have a front sentence modifier When Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee met in the parlor of a modest house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia... commas The comma stands for, in effect, the word and The comma before the final item, before and , is often optional, but it is used here to make clear that the final two elements are not a pair, as in milk, bacons and eggs as opposed to the three items milk, bacon, and eggs When sentences are compounded, they are divided by and, a semicolon, or by a compounding term and a comma Sentence one and... before a sentence modifier in the end position SENTENCE MODIFIER ] , _ SENTENCE MODIFIER [ The comma brackets off the front sentence modifier Stylistically, shorter constructions appear early, and after a comma; longer one's appear at the end Tactics and Strategies Some basic tactics and strategies for reading and writing should be apparent You can make better sense of long and complicated... States shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises ; to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare Examples of sentence modifiers throughout a text are offered in an annotated versiopn of the Text for Discussion: Annotation - Needle Exchange Programs and the Law - Time for a Change Predicate Modifiers The final phrase in the first of the three sample... `best and sharpest film’ of Coppola’s career, but to his `best and sharpest film in years.’ Noun Phrases: The Dominant Construction Finally, the degree to which noun phrases are the dominant construction within texts can be seen in the opening paragraph of the Text for Discussion: Annotation - Needle Exchange Programs and the Law - Time for a Change The complete noun phrases appear within square brackets... punitive approach to discourage sexual contact ]? Unlike[ the New Zealand Expeditionary forces ], which gave[ condoms ]to[ their soldiers ],[ the United States ]decided to give [ American soldiers ][after-the-fact, and largely ineffective, chemical prophylaxis ] [ American soldiers ]also were subject to [ court martial ] if they contracted[ a venereal disease ] [ These measures ] failed [ More than 383,000... analysis He did not marry her because he loved her they still might be married for other reasons The phrase because he loved her is determined to be in the predicate modifier slot, indicating a reason for marrying He did not marry her {because he loved her} Examples Other instances of grammatical ambiguity typically appear in headlines, as the following Lung Cancer in Women Mushrooms We can now read . intonation, we are actually doing grammatical analysis. We break the sentence into chunks to facilitate understanding. Reading and Writing Constructions, Not Words Words appear on a page one. What do they look like? And that leads to two other questions: · Where in a sentence do these chunks normally fall, and · What meaning can we attach to a particular chunks that is, to a particular. indicating a reason for marrying. He did not marry her {because he loved her} Examples Other instances of grammatical ambiguity typically appear in headlines, as the following. Lung Cancer