Edmond, 
 
Yes, the virtues are apparent for all the reasons you say, and I will make use of this model. Again, thanks. But am I alone in finding that my college-level students are unable to identify parts of speech, let alone phrasal and syntactic structures? I ask in all seriousness because in January I will teach, for only the second time, a grammar course "for everyone" but especially for future teachers of English. My expectations were completely dashed the first time through. Is the kind of remarkable attention and methodology you describe here in wide use? 
 
I'd also be grateful to you and everyone else for recommendations on a good grammar book to use. I used Longman in conjunction with a Diana Hacker book (and handouts from Artful Sentences) last time to give an overview of descriptive and prescriptive approaches, but I found working with the two texts difficult. I'm considering Graeme Kennedy's Structure and Meaning in English, and I've requested a review copy of the new book discussed on this listserv about a week ago. Any other suggestions?
 
Natalie
 

________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Edmond Wright
Sent: Tue 12/9/2008 2:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Graphic Syntax



> Natalie,

The great advantage of the Christensen method is that one can introduce it
by stages over the years.  For example, 7th graders can manage both sentence
combining and analysis of repeated noun clusters, and of present participle
phrases;  one can get them used to two levels of dependence.  And thus one
can introduce past participle phrases and  preposition phrases at the next
stage.  Clauses  and absolutes can come in at the ninth grade, and so on,
increasing the possible levels of dependence as one goes.

Edmond






Edmond,
> 
> Thank you for pointing out a valuable resource, which is indeed new to me. I
> look forward to reading it. I don't believe this method will describe all
> free-verse, perhaps I should say, organic-verse or experimental poets, since
> they strain against syntactic groupings, but it certainly goes far toward
> making precise judgments possible, and describes much free-verse poetry. You
> may already know this, but I thought I'd mention that the groupings you
> identify below are also relevant to generative metrical accounts of poems
> written in meter. Placement of the caesura in relation to complete, or
> athwart, syntactic entities is one way of creating cola and rhythmical
> complexity within conventional metrical verse. I believe Bruce Hayes has done
> interesting work with this in relation to several meters.
> 
> May I ask at what level are the students with whom you use this method?
> 
> Natalie
> 
> 
> 
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Edmond Wright
> Sent: Sun 12/7/2008 8:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Graphic Syntax
>
>
>
> As regards 'graphic syntax' no one seems to have noticed that they are
> trying to do what Francis Christensen demonstrated (pages 9-13 of his 'Notes
> Toward a New Rhetoric' [New York, Harper & Row, 1967]) -- as I described in
> my email of a few days ago, and which I use with my students.  According to
> his method, Carolyn Harnett's sentence ought to appear thus:
>
> 1 Poets . . . chunk their poems
>         2 who write in traditional forms . . . (RC)
>                  3 based on metre and rhyme (VC)
>         but    3 in a different way from graphic syntax (PP)
>                            4 which chunks . . . (RC)
>                                       5 based on grammatical units (VC)
>
> RC:  Relative Clause
> VC:  Verb Cluster
> PP:  Prepositional Phrase
>
> I prefer to split 'Verb Clusters'  into Past Participle Phrase (as both the
> examples here), Present Participle Phrase, and Infinitive Phrase;
> Christensen lumps them all together.
>
> Christensen's numbers indicate the hierarchy of grammatical dependence.
> Hence my suggestion for students of drawing vertical lines down the page to
> correspond.
>
> His other suggested groupings are as follows:
>
> SC:  Subordinate Clause.  This is an confusion, since Relative Clauses [his
> RC] are subordinate clauses.  He already has
>
> NC for Noun Cluster. Again possibly confusing, since it looks like Noun
> Clause.  He uses it for such extensions of meaning as 'a quick shake' in the
> sentence 'He dipped his hands in the bichloride solution and shook them, a
> quick shake.'
>
> AC:  Adjective Cluster (e.g. for the two phrases attached here:  'They
> huddled, wild as deer, deadly as rattlesnakes.')
>
> A + A:  Adjective series (e.g. For the three adjectives here:  'They
> huddled, gaudy, motionless and alert.')
>
> Abs:  Absolute Phrase (e.g. for the two phrases attached here:  He stood at
> the top of the stairs and watched me, I waiting for him to call me up, he
> hesitating to come down.')
>
>
> I prefer the following:
>
> ADJP  (Adjective Phrase) for both his AC and A + A.
>
> NP for Noun Phrase (e.g. the noun phrase in apposition, 'an expert swimmer'
> in 'The scout, an expert swimmer, was soon across the lake.'
>
> ADVC for Adverbial Clause.
>
> ADJC for Adjectival Clause.
>
> ADJ PREP for Adjectival Prepositional Phrase (e.g. 'in the white suit' in
> 'The man in the white suit.'
>
> ADV PREP for Adverbial Prepositional Phrase (e.g. 'over the bridge' in 'The
> procession was filing over the bridge').
>
> ABS for Absolute Phrase (e.g. 'He stopped at the corner, the rain lashing at
> the windscreen.')
>
> ING for Present Participle Phrases (e.g. The rooks, cawing in comical
> surprise, rose clumsily into the air.')
>
> ED for Past Participle Phrases (this included the strong verbs which do not
> use 'ed' to indicate the past participle -- e.g. 'thrown out of the car' in
> 'The gun, thrown out of the car, had disappeared into the grass.').
>
>
> When I reverse the process in sentence combining (for all these can be used
> to indicate to students how to combine), I also include 'HYPH' for the
> collapsing of a sentence into a hyphenated word.  For example:
>
>     The child delighted them all.
>     The child loved fun. (HYPH)
>
> Becomes  'The fun-loving child delighted them all.'
>
> One is helped by the fact that many distinguished writers enjoy creating new
> hyphenated words from such combining.  For example:
>
> [Gerard Manley Hopkins]  'Some of the pigeons are dull thunder-colour or
> black-grape-colour.'
>
> [James Joyce] 'Suddenly the dog made off like a bounding hare, ears flung
> back, chasing the shadow of a low-skimming gull.'
>
> [Shakespeare]          '. . .who knows
>      If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
>      His powerful mandate to you.'
>
> [William Barnes] 'and the sheep, little-kneed, with a quick-dipped nod'
>
> Hopkins, Barnes -- and Barnes' friend, Thomas Hardy -- were all
> unconsciously aware that the Anglo-Saxon words of English have rarely been
> hyphenated (compare the cognate German language, full of such compounds),
> and they started to look for original linkages. This can still provide an
> amusing exercise for students:  for example, instead of words of Latin
> origin, suggest Anglo-Saxon substitutes, thus -- for OEcollision¹ a two-bang;
> OEauction¹ a step-buy;  OEfrustration¹ foot-bind-hood;  OEdentist¹,
> tooth-soother;  OEvaccinate¹, cow-sting.
>
>
> Edmond Wright
>
>
> 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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>> Poets
>>      who write
>>                in traditional forms
>>  based on meter and rhyme
>> chunk their poems
>>                   but
>>                   in a different way
>>                          from graphic syntax,
>>                                        which chunks based on grammatical
>> units.
>> Both,
>>      I believe,
>> can make text easier to comprehend.
>> --- On Sat, 12/6/08, Carolyn Hartnett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> From: Carolyn Hartnett <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Graphic Syntax
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Date: Saturday, December 6, 2008, 9:51 AM
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Isn't the way much poetry is printed somewhat similar to graphic syntax?
>> It makes poems easier to read, I believe.
>> 
>> Carolyn Hartnett
>> Professor Emeritus, College of the Mainland
>> 2027 Bay St.
>> Texas City, Texas 77590To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the
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