Sentence diagram - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Pedagogy

Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....

, a sentence diagram is a pictorial representation of the grammatical

Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

structure of a natural-language

Natural language

In the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...

sentence

Sentence (linguistics)

In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...

. A sentence diagram is a form of a parse tree

Parse tree

A concrete syntax tree or parse tree or parsing treeis an ordered, rooted tree that represents the syntactic structure of a string according to some formal grammar. In a parse tree, the interior nodes are labeled by non-terminals of the grammar, while the leaf nodes are labeled by terminals of the...

History

Most methods of diagramming are based on the work of Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg in their book Higher Lessons in English, first published in 1877, though the method has been updated with recent understanding of grammar.

Reed and Kellogg were preceded by, and their work probably informed by, W. S. Clark, who published his "balloon" method of depicting grammar in his 1847 book A Practical Grammar: In Which Words, Phrases & Sentences are Classified According to Their Offices and Their Various Relationships to Each Another. (For a discussion and description of Clark's balloon architecture, see Chapter 2 of Kitty Burns Florey’s book listed in Further Reading below.)

Modern linguistics does not use the Reed-Kellogg system.

Some schoolteachers continue to use the Reed-Kellogg system in teaching grammar, but others have discouraged it in favor of the tree diagram, which orders words differently. In the generative tradition, X-bar theory

X-bar theory

X-bar theory is a component of linguistic theory which attempts to identify syntactic features presumably common to all those human languages that fit in a presupposed framework...

is considered to be a more accurate representation of the structures upon which the rules of natural-language syntax operate.

Reed and Kellogg defend their system in the preface to their grammar:

The Objections to the Diagram.--The fact that the pictorial diagram
groups the parts of a sentence according to their offices and relations,
and not in the order of speech, has been spoken of as a fault. It is, on
the contrary, a merit, for it teaches the pupil to look through the
literary order and discover the logical order. He thus learns what the
literary order really is, and sees that this may be varied indefinitely, so
long as the logical relations are kept clear.

The assertion that correct diagrams can be made mechanically is not borne
out by the facts. It is easier to avoid precision in oral analysis than in
written. The diagram drives the pupil to a most searching examination of
the sentence, brings him face to face with every difficulty, and compels a
decision on every point.

The Reed-Kellogg System

A simple sentence is shown as

subject	verb	direct object

for example:

I	am

The diagram of a simple sentence begins with a horizontal line called the base. The subject

Subject (grammar)

The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...

is written on the left, the predicate

Predicate (grammar)

There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...

on the right, separated by a vertical bar which extends through the base. The predicate must contain a verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

, and the verb either requires other sentence elements to complete the predicate, permits them to do so, or precludes them from doing so. The verb and its object

Object (grammar)

An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...

, when present, are separated by a line that ends at the baseline. If the object is a direct object, the line is vertical. If the object is a predicate noun

Subject complement

In grammar, a subject complement is a phrase or clause that follows a linking verb and that complements the subject of the sentence by either renaming it or describing it. In the former case, a renaming noun phrase such as a noun or pronoun is called a predicate nominative...

or adjective, the line looks like a backslash

Backslash

The backslash is a typographical mark used mainly in computing. It was first introduced to computers in 1960 by Bob Bemer. Sometimes called a reverse solidus or a slosh, it is the mirror image of the common slash....

, \, sloping toward the subject.

Modifiers

Grammatical modifier

In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure; the removal of the modifier typically doesn't affect the grammaticality of the sentence....

of the subject, predicate, or object are placed below the base line. Adjective

Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....

s (including articles) and adverb

Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....

s are placed on slanted lines below the word they modify. Prepositional phrases are also placed beneath the word they modify; the preposition goes on a slanted line and the slanted line leads to a horizontal line on which the object of the preposition is placed.

Compound subjects, predicates, objects, etc. are drawn as multiple horizontal lines stacked vertically, joined at each end by a fan of diagonal lines; the coordinating conjunction goes on a vertical line through the left ends of the horizontal lines.

Prepositional phrases

Adpositional phrase

An adpositional phrase is a linguistics term defining a syntactic category that includes prepositional phrases and postpositional phrases. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition in the head position and usually a complement such as a noun phrase...

consist of two lines: the preposition itself is drawn just as an adjective or adverb would, hanging down below the antecedent

Antecedent (grammar)

In grammar, an antecedent is a noun, noun phrase, or clause to which an anaphor refers in a coreference. For example, in the passage "I did not see John because he wasn't there", "John" is the antecedent of the anaphor "he"; together "John" and "he" are called a coreference because they both refer...

, and the complement

Complement (linguistics)

In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements that function as an argument and complements that exist within arguments.Both complements and modifiers add...

is drawn on a line protruding horizontally from a point near the bottom of the line.

Compound sentences

Compound sentences are composed of two or more independent clause

Clause

In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...

s connected by one or more coordinating conjunction

Grammatical conjunction

In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...

s or semicolon

Semicolon

The semicolon is a punctuation mark with several uses. The Italian printer Aldus Manutius the Elder established the practice of using the semicolon to separate words of opposed meaning and to indicate interdependent statements. "The first printed semicolon was the work of ... Aldus Manutius"...

s. Each clause is diagrammed separately; the verbs of the two clauses are joined by a dotted line which goes vertically, then horizontally with the conjunction written on the line, and then vertically again.

Participles and participial phrases

A participle

Participle

In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...

is given the same type of line as an adjective (see Modifiers, above), except that a small horizontal line branches off the end. The participle itself is written in a curved manner, so that the verb ending is written on the small horizontal line.

Any adverbs or prepositional phrases modifying the participle branch off of the small horizontal line, as if the participle were a noun.

Gerunds and gerund phrases

Gerund

In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....

s are placed on a "pedestal," which is then on a tower that has an upside down triangle base and a straight line going up to the pedestal. The pedestal is two steps, and the gerund should be placed onto it diagonally, as if it were resting full length on the stairs. The remaining parts of the gerund phrase follow it on a horizontal line connected to the edge of the "."

Interjections

An interjection

Interjection

In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...

is placed on a floating line separate from the rest of the sentence diagram. It is only one word.

External links

Sentence Diagramming by Eugene R. Moutoux
Diagramming Sentences, including many advanced configurations
SenDraw, a computer program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

that specializes in Reed-Kellogg diagrams
Sentence Diagram, an iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

app
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...

that specializes in Reed-Kellogg diagrams
Reed-Kellogg Sentence Diagrammer online

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