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Grammar 362

English 362: Final Prep!

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Almost done Pwips! Congratulations! As you review for the final, make sure you study Professor Baumgardt’s handouts. They nicely summarize all the main topics that we covered. Also, review sample sentences and diagrams. You should be able to diagram sentences down to the very last word.  Professor Baumgardt has a study guide that covers everything you need to study.

Since diagramming will be a crucial part of the final, here’s a review of some of the main steps and details to keep in mind:

Diagramming steps–

1. Create the “S” node over the whole sentence

2. Create NP node and PredPhr node, and nodes for any postcore or precore elements.

3. Divide the PredPhr into the VP and any other elements that may be there such as NPs and PrepPhrs

4. Divide the VP into the head V and any Auxiliaries and modifiers

5. Divide any NPs into nodes of its head N, and any other elements such as adjective phrases, PrepPhrs, DetPhrs, etc.

6. Divide any PrepPhr into Prep + NP

7. Divide any Detphr into any pre-determiners (PreDet), the main Det, and post-determiners (Post-Det). Also, mark the “of” as a Prep in form and Link in function.

8. Divide any AdjPhr into its head Adj and any comparative elements (like “more” or “bigger”) and any modifiers of that head Adj

9. Divide any AdvPhr into its head Adv and any comparative elements (like “more”) and other Advs

10. Remember that the function of the head of the phrase is the function of the whole phrase and vice versa.

See page 45 for a list of diagram Form and Function labels. Also note pp. 48-9 for the definitions of the different phrases we learned about.

Good luck all! Study hard!

Diagramming, Grammar 362

English 362: Glorious Diagrams!

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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:)