Martha wrote:

>Here's
> another problem sentence you might have cited, one that I discuss in UEG5
> to explain Chomsky's point further: The shooting of the hunters was
> astonishing.  The subject is a gerund phrase, no matter whether the
hunters
> are shooting or being shot!

Or whether the hunters are making an astonishing movie! Diagrams, as Martha
and others point out, are not about meaning, but about surface structures
and word relationships.

> I always told my students that the ten basic sentence patterns and their
> diagrams provide a framework on which they can organize the details of
> sentence expansions.  The students understood that concept when I asked
> them to visualize a closet without hooks and hangers and shelves, where
> they tossed all their stuff into a big pile on the floor.  The diagrams of
> the basic sentences are the hooks and hangers for the their conscious
> understanding of sentences.
>
> And, yes, there are exceptions.  I can't diagram every structure via Reed
&
> Kellogg.  But for many--if not most--students, the visual aid of the
> diagram is a valuable learning tool.

Yes, and thanks! When, so many years ago, I decided to re-teach myself what
the NYC school system of the 1960s couldn't or didn't teach me, I found
sentence diagramming (ala Reed/ Kellogg,a very helpful "learning tool."  If
it works, use it -- that's a good educational philosophy, isn't it?

Paul E. Doniger
The Gilbert School