Sentence Diagrams

Any of you guys experienced sentence diagrams? Perhaps in school?

Example: http://www.themillions.com...

0_0

How does that work???

I did. I love grammar!

At 2/27/2010 10:09:26 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:
I did. I love grammar!

lol. i expected you would with an sn like that

At 2/27/2010 4:31:50 PM, I-am-a-panda wrote:
0_0

How does that work???

Seconded.

At 2/27/2010 10:15:02 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:09:26 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:
I did. I love grammar!

lol. i expected you would with an sn like that

Your statement should read:

That was a humorous comment. I expected that reaction from you, in relation to your screen name.

At 2/27/2010 10:15:44 PM, Nags wrote:

At 2/27/2010 4:31:50 PM, I-am-a-panda wrote:
0_0

How does that work???

Seconded.

Now you are just weird, Nags ;)

At 2/27/2010 10:16:45 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:15:02 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:09:26 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:
I did. I love grammar!

lol. i expected you would with an sn like that

Your statement should read:

That was a humorous comment. I expected that reaction from you, in relation to your screen name.

i think "given your screen name" reads more smoothly, don't you?

At 2/27/2010 10:17:12 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:
Now you are just weird, Nags ;)

For not knowing what a sentence diagram is?

At 2/27/2010 10:18:07 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:16:45 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:15:02 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:09:26 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:
I did. I love grammar!

lol. i expected you would with an sn like that

Your statement should read:

That was a humorous comment. I expected that reaction from you, in relation to your screen name.

i think "given your screen name" reads more smoothly, don't you?

That don't matta', dawg.

At 2/27/2010 10:18:23 PM, Nags wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:17:12 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:
Now you are just weird, Nags ;)

For not knowing what a sentence diagram is?

Possibly.

At 2/27/2010 10:19:44 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:
Possibly.

This is a sentence fragment, grammar boy.

At 2/27/2010 10:09:26 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:

I expected that reaction from you, in relation to your screen name.

I don't know if that's bad grammar, but it's definitely bad english.

At 2/27/2010 10:56:08 PM, mattrodstrom wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:09:26 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:

I expected that reaction from you, in relation to your screen name.

I don't know if that's bad grammar, but it's definitely bad english.

English itself is a "screwed up" language.

At 2/28/2010 7:46:27 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:56:08 PM, mattrodstrom wrote:

At 2/27/2010 10:09:26 PM, studentathletechristian8 wrote:

I expected that reaction from you, in relation to your screen name.

I don't know if that's bad grammar, but it's definitely bad english.

English itself is a "screwed up" language.

Not really. Professional grammarians have pretty much come to a consensus on almost all the grammatical ambiguities that the logic of the English language can create. Not to mention, English is a greatly simplified language. Pronunciation is a b1tch, but insofar as technical rules go, such as in verb conjugations, we've got it real nice. Also, there is a certain freeness that is associated with English: if it sounds okay and makes sense, even if it's not 100% technically accurate, it goes.

At 2/28/2010 9:17:06 PM, PoeJoe wrote:

Also, there is a certain freeness that is associated with English: if it sounds okay and makes sense, even if it's not 100% technically accurate, it goes.

o.O

is that not the case with other languages? they do have to be flexible enough to gain new vocabulary when encountering new concepts...

At 2/28/2010 10:43:26 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/28/2010 9:17:06 PM, PoeJoe wrote:
Also, there is a certain freeness that is associated with English: if it sounds okay and makes sense, even if it's not 100% technically accurate, it goes.

o.O

is that not the case with other languages? they do have to be flexible enough to gain new vocabulary when encountering new concepts...

I mean, I could be wrong, but the literary avant-garde today is mostly composed of English writers.

At 2/28/2010 11:06:31 PM, PoeJoe wrote:
English writers.

By "English writers," I mean "writers who write in English."

At 2/28/2010 11:06:31 PM, PoeJoe wrote:

At 2/28/2010 10:43:26 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/28/2010 9:17:06 PM, PoeJoe wrote:
Also, there is a certain freeness that is associated with English: if it sounds okay and makes sense, even if it's not 100% technically accurate, it goes.

o.O

is that not the case with other languages? they do have to be flexible enough to gain new vocabulary when encountering new concepts...

I mean, I could be wrong, but the literary avant-garde today is mostly composed of English writers.

you make a habit of reading novels in other languages?

At 2/28/2010 11:11:04 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/28/2010 11:06:31 PM, PoeJoe wrote:

At 2/28/2010 10:43:26 PM, belle wrote:

At 2/28/2010 9:17:06 PM, PoeJoe wrote:
Also, there is a certain freeness that is associated with English: if it sounds okay and makes sense, even if it's not 100% technically accurate, it goes.

o.O

is that not the case with other languages? they do have to be flexible enough to gain new vocabulary when encountering new concepts...

I mean, I could be wrong, but the literary avant-garde today is mostly composed of English writers.

you make a habit of reading novels in other languages?

Good point. I take back that sentence.

Though, I would say that Western literature is pretty dominant simply because Western culture is pretty dominant.

I diagram sentences in legislation all the time. I can't think of a better way to decipher legal language than a sentence diagram. They are helpful.

Thirding the sentiment of not knowing what the hell that is.I just, you know, READ sentences.

At 2/27/2010 4:24:11 PM, Immortal wrote:
Any of you guys experienced sentence diagrams? Perhaps in school?

Example: http://www.themillions.com...

wtf?

No rational grammar or English Language Arts teacher uses sentence diagrams on a regular basis in classrooms anymore. Educational research has been pretty clear on this point: the diagrams are not effective when it comes to teaching most people how sentence syntax operates.

I'm a much bigger fan of a holistic grammar instruction approach. I teach the parts of speech and whatnot, but I do it in a much more organic way. Sentence diagrams can be useful, but not for the masses and not for a standard, differentiated classroom.

@ PoeJoe: English is a lazy and "petulant" language. I say that because it has become characterized by the speaker's treatment of it, rather than the structure of the language itself. English has the potential to be absolutely lovely in both colloquial and literary, and it hasn't lost that element, but it has been thoroughly raped by the likes of lackadaisical teenagers and Stephenie Meyer. I'm all for code-switching and language manipulation (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spanglish, etc.), but if the change doesn't benefit its communication value (i.e. if I'm just too lazy to type out "you" or "great" or "are"...), then it shouldn't be made.

And that's my tangent-rant for the day :D

Sentence Diagrams sucks. I had a whole 25 question exam on it a year ago. I pretty much guessed but somehow got a B

http://en.wikipedia.org...

I think it's a way to learn what part of a sentence each word is, e.g., adjectives and adverbs, and how each word works in the sentence, e.g., noun clauses defined by subordinate conjunctions.

Never mind the effectiveness of learning these sentence diagrams. I heard that these are supposed to help with our English. Given by how many people actually experience the existence of these things, I wonder if that's actually true.