grammar workshop series unit 1 sentence structure · · 2015-02-26grammar workshop series unit 1...

Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre

Grammar Workshop Series

Unit 1

Sentence Structure

http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/


What is a Sentence?

• Let’s take a second to think: How would

you define a sentence?

• See if you can come up with several

possible answers before heading to the

next slide.



Defining a Sentence

There are a variety of ways to answer.

You could say, for instance, that whenever

you have a string of words that start with a

capital letter and end with a period,

question mark, or exclamation mark,

you’re indicating to the reader that you

want that string of words to be read as a

sentence.



More Defining …

• But that really doesn’t tell us what a sentence

is. Let’s try again.

• Some people would get a bit more abstract,

and say that a sentence expresses a complete

thought—in other words, you can always add

more stuff to it, but on its own, it feels like a

completed idea.



Another shot at Defining

• Another, less abstract, way of expressing this

idea would be to say that it is an independent

clause—with a clause being a string of words

with a verb in it, and “independent” meaning

that you don’t need any other clauses to

complete it: it can stand alone.



End of the Definitions

• Finally, some would fall back on grammar, and

say that a sentence is a group of words that

includes a subject and a predicate.

• Which of the above definitions are correct?

Which of the above are useful?

• Oh, and … can you define “subject” and

“predicate”? Give it a try before moving on.



Our Definition

• For the purposes of this workshop, we’ll be leaving the first one to one side—after all, it is only a signal to the reader that the author intends to write a sentence. Whether or not the writer actually did write a sentence is another question.

• In the present context, we can say that a sentence is a complete thought that has a subject and a predicate; we will refer to sentences as “independent clauses” throughout these workshops. An independent clause might be a sentence in the “starts with a capital, ends with a period” sense—but it might not, too.

• “The world is round” is an independent clause and a full sentence by itself, but if I add some stuff, I can produce the following sentence: “Although it looks flat, the world is round, which is confusing if you think about it.” There, the independent clause is only part of the larger construction. So your first job in analyzing sentences is to start getting used to finding the independent clause or clauses. We’ll talk more about that later.



Subjects …

• As we said above, an independent clause is made up of a subject and a predicate. The subject is the focus of the sentence: it’s the person/people or thing(s) that is/are acting, or acted upon, or described. Take a look at the following sentences: “classes” is the subject in all three, but what is being said about the classes varies.

1) Classes are difficult.

2) Classes were cancelled .

3) Classes quickly make my brain hurt.

• Note: the subject is usually, but far from always, located near the start of the sentence, before the verb.



… and Predicates

• The predicate, on the other hand, is the part of the sentence

that contains the main verb, and that tells us a) what the

subject is doing or experiencing. It may also give us

information about the context of the action—who it affects,

how it is taking place, and so on.

• So in the last sentence above, “Classes quickly make my brain

hurt,” classes is the subject, and quickly make my brain hurt

is the predicate. “Make” tells you the sort of action that the

classes are creating; my brain hurt gives you information

about the target and effect of that action; and quickly gives

you information about how the action is carried out.



Complete, Compound, Simple

We have three technical terms we can use to describe both subjects and

predicates: we can say that they are

a)Complete—which means that we are talking about the whole subject or

whole predicate, or

b)Compound—which means that there are two subjects or predicates

working together, or

c)Simple—when we are just dealing bare minimum form of the subject or the

predicate.

•Of these three, it is most important to be able to identify the simple form of

the subject and predicate when you are analyzing a sentence. That will be

your key to the sentence’s underlying structure.



A short quiz

1) For the sentence, “The tall man threw the ball,” identify the

simple subject and the complete subject.

2) For the sentence, “The student listened carefully,” identify

the simple predicate and the complete predicate.

3) For the sentence, “The professor and the eager students

stayed after class to continue the discussion,” identify the

compound subject.

4) For the sentence, “Her uncle and she walked slowly through the Inuit art gallery and admired the powerful sculptures exhibited there,” identify the compound predicate

5) For bonus marks, identify the compound subject.



The answers

1) “Man” and “tall man.”

2) “Listened” and “listened carefully.”

3) “The professor and the eager students.”

4) “Walked slowly through the Inuit art gallery … admired

the powerful sculptures exhibited there.”

5) Bonus: “Her uncle and she.”



Direct objects • We’ve talked about subjects and predicates. Some sentences

are fine with just a subject and a verb—for instance, “He smiled.” Or, “I walked.”

• “Smile” and “walk” are examples of what we call intransitive verbs, meaning that all you really need is a subject and the verb: the action that the verb describes stops with the verb.

• But for many verbs, the action that the verb describes, and that the subject does, needs to be applied to something. We wouldn’t say “I hit”—that’s not enough. We need to say what was hit: “I hit the ball.” We call these verbs transitive verbs, and they need a direct object. A direct object receives the action of the verb



Other sorts of objects • Take a look at this sentence:

“The professor gave the students an exam.”

• Of “the students” and “an exam,” which is the direct object? And how would you describe the other one?



Indirect objects

• “An exam” is the direct object: it tells you what the

professor gave.

• “The students” is an indirect object: it tells you to

whom the direct object was given.

• How about “I sent you an email”?



Linking Verbs

• We have said that the object receives the action of the verb. But some

verbs don’t really have “actions”—the classic example of this is the verb

“to be.” When I say, “The student is tall,” the verb is not expressing an

action that the student is doing. Instead, it is linking “the student” to

“tall.” You might say that the verb is functioning as an equals sign—“the

student” = “tall.”

• We call these types of verbs “linking verbs,” and they include “to be,” “to seem,” “to appear,” “to feel,” and so on. With linking verbs, we don’t call the noun or pronoun on the right hand side an object—rather, we call it the subject complement, because it complements (works along with) the subject. But don’t be confused—subject complements are still part of the predicate!



Modifiers …

• Take a look at this sentence: “Because he

wanted to do well, the determined young

man worked very hard in the course.”

• If you wanted to strip the sentence down to the simplest subject and simplest predicate, what would it look like?



… More Modifiers

Answer: “The man worked.”

That is the skeleton of the sentence. Everything else affects or modifies the skeleton, and so we call the other things modifiers. Modifiers include:

a)Adjectives (things that modify nouns), such as “determined” and “young” b)Adverbs/adverbial phrases (things that modify verbs), such as “very hard” c)Prepositional phrases (phrases introduced by a preposition), such as “in the course” d)Dependent clauses (we’ll get to them soon!) such as “Because he wanted to do well.”

Just for practice, try identifying the skeleton of the following sentence, and then categorizing all the modifiers:

•“The best seat in the classroom was taken by a big, dumb guy who wouldn’t get up.”



Apposition

Here is another sentence to look at: “Barack

Obama, the president of the United States, was

elected in 2008.”

How would you describe the phrase, “the

president of the United States”?

How about here: “I spoke to Dr. Tokaryk, the instructor of the class”? What is “the instructor of the class” doing?



Apposition continued

Both these phrases are a sort of modifier. They are called

appositive phrases, and their job is to give you more information

about an element of the sentence, or present it in a different

light. Notice that they are separated from the things that they

modify by commas. We’ll get back to this later, but for now, note

that commas function to remove an element from the main line

of the sentence: appositives are substitutes for subjects or

objects, but they aren’t necessary to the sentence. You could

just write “Barack Obama was elected in 2008” and that would

be a grammatical sentence.



Identify the Appositive

• Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a model for sculptors and artists, in Paris in 1904, and many of his later paintings are influenced by his warm relationship with her.

A) Fernade Olivier

B) a model for sculptors and artists

C) later paintings

D) warm relationship with her

E) met



Identify the Appositive (Answer)

• Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a model for sculptors and artists, in Paris in 1904, and many of his later paintings are influenced by his warm relationship with her.

B) a model for sculptors and artists



Dependent Clauses

• Earlier in this lesson, we described a clause as

a group of words with a subject and predicate.

We’ve been talking a lot about independent

clauses, ones that can be complete sentences

in themselves. But there are also dependent

clauses, and they come in two varieties.



Adverbial Dependent Clauses

– Start with subordinating conjunction (such as although, because, when)

– Answer a question (such as How, Why, When or Under what Circumstances)

about an independent clause:

• “Although it is raining, I will bike to school.”

• “The police caught the criminal because he left his fingerprints at the

crime scene.”

• Note that it is only the presence or absence of the subordinating conjunction that

differentiates these clauses from independent clauses. In other words, “I like

physics” is an independent clause that can stand on its own; “because I like

physics” and “although I like physics” are dependent clauses that need an

independent clause to complete them.



Adjectival Dependent Clauses, a.k.a. Relative Clauses

• Start with a relative pronoun (who, which,

that) or relative adverb (when or where)

• Modify the noun or pronoun they follow:

– “The car that the thief took is red.”

– “The day when the team wins a game will arrive

soon.”



Four types of sentences

Sentences must include independent clauses; they can include dependent

clauses. We can divide sentence structures into four categories:

• Simple (one independent clause only)

• Compound (two or more independent clauses)

– Clauses connected by coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS: for, and,

nor, but, or, yet, so) OR semi-colon

• Complex (one independent clause and at least one dependent clause)

• Compound-Complex (two or more independent clauses and at least one

dependent clause)



Sentence Classification

How would you classify the following sentences structurally?

• “Although Canada is a rich country, it still has many poor

people.”

• “Canada is a rich country, but still it has many poor people.”

• “When Canada eliminates homelessness, it will be a rich

country, and it will provide a decent quality of life for all its

citizens.”

• “Canada is a rich country. “



Review of New Terms

• Define the following terms in your own words:

a) Subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object

b) Simple subject, simple predicate, simple sentence;

c) Compound subject, compound predicate, compound

sentence; complex sentence;

d) Complete subject, complete predicate;

e) Modifier;

f) Independent clause; dependent clause; appositive phrase



Practice Question 1

Identify the Simple Subject:

• After the movie, Emma and her brother

bought a birthday present for their mother.

A) Emma

B) present

C) Emma and brother

D) Emma, brother

E) movie



Practice Question 1: Answer


• After the movie, Emma and her brother

bought a birthday present for their mother.

D) Emma, brother



Practice Question 2


• Would you willingly exchange half your

intelligence for one million dollars?

A) you

B) intelligence

C) exchange

D) one million dollars

E) none of the above





• Would you willingly exchange half your

intelligence for one million dollars?

A) you



Practice Question 3

Identify the simple subject:

• There will be three concerts in the arts

centre tonight.

A) will be

B) arts centre

C) tonight

D) there

E) concerts





• There will be three concerts in the arts

centre tonight.

E) concerts



Practice Question 4

Identify the simple predicate:

• Picasso’s work is often categorized into

periods.

A) work

B) is

C) is often

D) is categorized

E) is often categorized





• Picasso’s work is often categorized into

periods.

D) is categorized



Practice Question 5


• In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist

Party, attended an international peace

conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the

Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.

A) joined

B) in

C) from

D) joined, attended, received

E) attended





• In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist

Party, attended an international peace

conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the

Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.

D) joined, attended, received



Practice Question 6


• From the age of seven, Picasso received

formal artistic training from his father in

figure drawing and oil painting.

A) received

B) training

C) drawing, painting

D) training, drawing, painting

E) received training








A) received



Practice Question 7

Identify the direct object:




A) figure drawing and oil painting

B) formal artistic training

C) Picasso

D) figure, oil

E) none of the above




Identify the direct object:




B) formal artistic training



Practice Question 8

Identify the indirect object:

• The advertising executive drove a flashy

red Porsche to work.

A) executive

B) Porsche

C) work

D) flashy red Porsche

E) drove





• The advertising executive drove a flashy

red Porsche to work.

D) flashy red Porsche



Practice Question 9


• Her secret admirer gave her a bouquet of

flowers.

A) bouquet of flowers

B) flowers

C) admirer

D) her

E) gave





• Her secret admirer gave her a bouquet of

flowers.

D) her



Practice Question 10


• Several paintings by Picasso rank among

the most expensive paintings in the world

A) several

B) Picasso

C) paintings

D) world

E) rank





• Several paintings by Picasso rank among

the most expensive paintings in the world

C) paintings





• “Garçon à la pipe” sold for USD $104 million at Sotheby's on May 4, 2004, establishing a new price record.

A) $104 million

B) Sotheby’s

C) new price record

D) “Garçon à la pipe”

E) establishing





• “Garçon à la pipe” sold for USD $104 million at Sotheby's on May 4, 2004, establishing a new price record.

D) “Garçon à la pipe”





• Since Picasso left no will, his death duties (estate tax) to the French state were paid in the form of his works and others from his collection.

A) paid

B) left

C) from

D) were

E) were paid





• Since Picasso left no will, his death duties (estate tax) to the French state were paid in the form of his works and others from his collection.

E) were paid


grammar workshop series unit 1 sentence structure · · 2015-02-26grammar workshop series unit 1...

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