I wish I were still teaching so I could use that one.  My favorite had
been "The policeman the boy the dog bit called came," but Jack's
left-branching house beats that one hands down.

Herb

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Edmond Wright
Sent: 2008-02-27 05:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Right- and left-branching sentences

I invented an example that readily demonstrates the difference between
right- and left-branching as regards the relative demands they place on
the
short-term memory.

Take the nursery rhyme 'This is the house that Jack built'.  The first
few
lines run thus:

     This is the house that Jack built.

     This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

     This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack
built.

     This is the cat that ate the rat that ate the malt that lay in the
house that Jack built.

     This is the dog that worried the cat that ate the rat that ate the
malt
that lay in the house that Jack built . . .[etc.]

It is plain that, from the second sentence onwards, the sentences are
all
right-branching and cause no trouble in understanding, even for the
little
children the nursery rhyme is for.  However, as in Herb's example, to
left-branch causes a real problem, thus:

         The malt the rat ate lay in the house that Jack built.

No problem so far -- we can make sense of that. Next:

       The malt the rat the cat ate ate lay in the house that Jack
built.

If you lower the pitch for each adjective clause as it comes along, and
then
raise it again (matching pitch for the appropriate subject and verb),
one
can still say this and make sense of it.  Now try this:

     The malt the rat the cat the dog worried ate ate lay in the house
that
Jack built.

I have found that, if again you do the step-lowering and step-lifting of
pitch and in addition say 'the cat the dog worried' very fast all in one
breath, and pause after the last 'ate', you can just about hold on to
the
meaning.

The next stage I find utterly impossible to understand:

     The malt the rat the cat the dog the cow tossed worried ate ate lay
in
the house that Jack built.

So there is a memory limit here because there are now too many for the
brain
to match the subject and objects in the down-up order demanded.  You can
stand back from the sentence easily enough and see which goes with
which,
but one can't say the sentence through and know what it means!

Edmond



Dr. Edmond Wright
3 Boathouse Court
Trafalgar Road
Cambridge
CB4 1DU
England

Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/elw33/
Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256

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