Syntax Notes and Review - English 4



Syntax Notes and Analysis Assignment Name _____________

Date _____________

Period ___

Syntax is sentence structure: the sequence and connection of the words, phrases, and clauses that constitute the sentences in a work.

A sentence in English contains a subject and a predicate and can stand alone as a grammatical unit or independent clause. A dependent clause, or subordinate clause, is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate but cannot stand alone as a grammatical unit. In order to form a sentence it must be combined with an independent clause.

Sentence fragments: a sentence that is punctuated as a sentence, but lacks either a subject, a predicate, or both. An unintentional sentence fragment disrupts the sense of a sentence and is a grammatical error. Writers sometimes use fragments deliberately, however.

Kinds of Sentences:

• Simple Sentence consists of a single independent clause. (Jane rebels.)

• Compound Sentence contains more than one independent clause with no subordinate clause (dependent clause). These clauses may be linked by either a semicolon or by a conjunction (for, and, nor, or, but, yet, so). (Jane rebels and eventually she runs away.)

• Complex Sentence contains not only an independent clause but also one or more subordinate clauses. (Because her father had mistreated her, Jane was rebellious.)

• Compound Complex Sentences contain two or more independent clause combined with one or more subordinate/dependent clause. (Because her father had mistreated her, Jane was rebellious, and at a young age she ran away from home.)

Syntactical Order

• Loose or Cumulative Sentence is written in the order of subject-verb-object. Sentences in English typically follow this order. The meaning of the sentences happens toward the beginning.

• Periodic Sentence is written so that its meaning in syntax and in sense is not complete until its end.

• Inversion Sentence reverses the subject-verb-object order of the usual sentence. (Rarely had she felt so awkward.)

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ASSIGNMENT DIRECTIONS:

For each of the following passages:

• Identify the kind(s) of sentence that it contains: simple, compound, complex, or compound complex

• State whether each sentence is loose or periodic and explain the basis for that choice

• If the passage contains an intentional sentence fragment, explain its effect (why it is used).

--On notebook paper, copy each sentence in the passage and label it appropriately. Follow all directions above.

--In Google Docs, copy this file and follow all directions above. Sentences should be copied and labeled appropriately. Your work should be shared with me by the class period/due date.

1. I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try.

Besides I wouldn’t do it. Of course not.

Charlotte Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-paper”

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice

3. After a night behind the scenes, Paul found the schoolroom more than ever repulsive; the bare floors and naked walls; the prosy men who never wore frock coats, or violets in their buttonholes; the women with their dull gowns, shrill voices, and pitiful seriousness about prepositions that govern the dative.

Willa Cather, “Paul’s Case”

4. Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.

Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”

5. Wednesdays after school, at four; Saturday mornings at ten. Mother drives me to Dr. Coronet. Ferns in the office, plastic or real, they look the same. Dr. Coronet is a queenly, an elegant nicotine-stained lady who would have studied with Freud had circumstances not prevented it…Highly recommended by Father! Forty dollars an hour, Father’s forty dollars! Progress! Looking up! Looking better!

Joyce Carol Oates, “How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again”

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Part Two:

Complete a syntax analysis for the following passage. Set up a chart and number the sentences for the first three sentences in each of the four paragraphs.

• Identify each kind of sentence (simple, compound, complex, compound complex)

• Identify whether each sentence is loose or periodic. Explain your thinking.

• Identify fragments, if any, and explain the suggested purpose or significance of each.

• Identify the tone, using possible tone words from your notes. Explain your answer and

explain how the diction and syntax help to create this tone.

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Syntax Analysis Chart: Suggested Format

Paragraph One

|Sentence |Sentence Length |Sentence Type |Grammatical Syntax |Rhetorical Syntax |Fragments |

| | | | |(Loose, Periodic, |(If any) |

| | | | |Balanced) | |

| | | | | | |

|Sentence 1 | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

|Sentence 2 | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

|Sentence 3 | | | | | |

The following passage is the opening paragraphs of Emma by Jane Austen.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

She was the youngest of the two daughters of a most affectionate, indulgent father; and had, in consequence of her sister's marriage, been mistress of his house from a very early period. Her mother had died too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct remembrance of her caresses; and her place had been supplied by an excellent woman as governess, who had fallen little short of a mother in affection.

Sixteen years had Miss Taylor been in Mr. Woodhouse's family, less as a governess than a friend, very fond of both daughters, but particularly of Emma. Between them it was more the intimacy of sisters. Even before Miss Taylor had ceased to hold the nominal office of governess, the mildness of her temper had hardly allowed her to impose any restraint; and the shadow of authority being now long passed away, they had been living together as friend and friend very mutually attached, and Emma doing just what she liked; highly esteeming Miss Taylor's judgment, but directed chiefly by her own.

The real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments. The danger, however, was at present so unperceived, that they did not by any means rank as misfortunes with her.

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