Post by jdesmond on Apr 15, 2018 21:23:14 GMT
Salutations, gentlefolk !
A decade or so ago, when I was compiling the GELIDIS rules, I wondered if anyone had ever tried 'diagramming' some of Mr. Barker's multi-clause sentences...
In the interim, I became a follower of Dr. Lynne Murphy's blog, _SeperatedByACommonLanguage.blogspot.com_ She teaches linguistics at the University of Sussex, and has written a new book, _The Prodigial Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship between American and British English_. She appeared at Columbia U. this past week, on her book tour, and is erudite and charming in person, as well as online. Bought two copies, had her autograph them as presents for friends. Was looking thru them, and found...
"In the 1870's Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg... developed their method for sentence diagramming. ... Americans are often surprised to discover that Reed-Kellogg-style diagrams are unknown outside the US and that no equivalent system takes their place in the UK." (pp 249-50, Penguin US paperback edition) ("If you'd like to make such beautiful creatures yourself, instruction is available at www.wikihow.com/diagram-sentence" (footnote 53))
Well, I am surprised - indeed, gobsmacked. But a bit more tolerant of Phil's prosody, as he's 'someone who hasn't had our advantages...'. And now that I know where to find the rules and procedure for diagramming sentences (and not forced to remember what I learned in 6th grade, waybackwhen), will take a whack, inter alia, at the second sentence of the first paragraph under 'Moving Into Contact With Enemy'. But not tonight.
Anyway, read her book, you should.
