Re: THEORY: Adpositional Heads

Mark J. Reed sikyal:

> IZ = Isidora Zamora
> CW = Christopher Wright
>
> IZ> I was basing what I said on what I have been teaching my daughter about
> IZ> (English) sentence diagramming from a textbook on diagramming.
>
> CW> Don't trust those. They lie to make things easier to learn. Though the
> CW> lies can be safely applied, they aren't any truer for that.
>
> In what way do sentence diagramming rules lie?  They are certainly
> a valuable tool for learning English grammar.
If by "English grammar" you mean "traditional prescriptive English
grammar", then you are correct. If you mean "descriptively correct
contemporary English", then there are some serious discrepancies.

However, the syntacticians are fond of rewriting their entire discipline
every 10 years or so, so don't bother keeping up with them. I agree that
sentence diagramming is a valuable tool, and understanding of traditional
grammar is a good prerequisite for understanding generative syntax.

--
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"

And they answered, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground
of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our
interpersonal relationship."

And Jesus said, "What?"