Hello PWP students!

We’ve reached chapter 3 in Hopper’s textbook and been introduced to the basics of the great emblem of this grammar course, the Diagram. In addition to being a main focal point in the class, diagrams can be extremely confusing!

Here is a recap on important basics to understanding diagrams:

First of all, remember the definition of phrase. This is important since it’s phrases that we will be diagramming.

Phrase: this term refers to a set of words that belong together because they function as a grammatical unit (eg., “the hot rod” is the unit of a noun phrase)

In a diagram, a phrase has two aspects that are identified: Form and Function (hence, it is called a “form-function diagram”)

Forms: labels for categories like “verb”, “noun”, “adjective”; and labels for phrases like “Noun Phrase” and “Predicate Phrase”

-Forms are represented in the top “tree” part of the diagram

Functions: (what the phrase is doing in the sentence, or the purpose that it serves) labels such as “Subject”, “Predicate”, “Modifier”, “Determiner”, etc.

-Functions are represented in the underlined section of the diagram, underneath the sentence.

Every sentence that we will be working with is made up of two basic phrases: The Noun Phrase (NP) and the Predicate Phrase (PredPhr).  When you diagram a sentence, after you start the tree diagram by labeling the sentence with the overarching “S” form label,  the NP and PredPhr are the first two phrases that you will identify. Identify their forms (NP and PredPhr), and then identify their functions (Subject and Predicate). (See p. 48 of Hopper’s textbook)

Example Sentence:

The hot rod whizzed down the street.

   Two basic phrases of sentence:

“The hot rod” And “whizzed down the street”

   – Forms:

“the hot rod” = NP

“whizzed down the street” = PredPhr

– Functions:

     NP function (the hot rod) = Subject

PredPhr function (whizzed down the street) = Predicate

 

See chapter 3 for visuals of this diagramming process. Understanding the basic form-function categories of NP and PredPhr is just the beginning before we dissect each of those phrases down to every single word’s form and function. Keep up the good practice! If you have any questions or simply want someone to practice with, please stop by Laurentide and see either Cheyenne or Olivia (that’s me:)