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I found this on leithart.com under the subheading: The History of
the Sentence
Ian Robinson's The Establishment of Modern English Prose in the
Reformation and the Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1998) is a fascinating
discussion of the history of the sentence and of English punctuation, and,
despite its heavy-handed title, is a delight to read.
Does the sentence have a history? Robinson shows that it does. Even in our
day, when the well-formed sentence is described as the key to prose writing,
there are many intelligible uses of language that do not employ well-formed
sentences - lists, lecture notes, football broadcasts. (Robinson is not an
opponent of the well-formed sentence; his are wonderful; but he recognizes
that it is not the only possible unit of sense.)
Prior to the modern period, Robinson argues, the sentence was not
recognized as a syntactical unit at all: "Medieval grammar, following
the classical tradition, was of course highly developed, but there never
emerged in the medieval period any conception of the sentence as syntactical
unit." The word "sentence" is used in the Middle Ages, but
means something like "sense" or "gist." "Thou
speakest sentences" says a character in Ben Jonson's Poetaster,
and he does not mean that someone "is speaking dramatically but that he
is speaking sense and, in particular, uttering weighty, authoritative
dicta."
--- On Wed, 6/18/08, Spruiell, William C <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
From: Spruiell, William C
<[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: The Death of the Sentence?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 4:42 PM
Anyone who thinks that abbreviations and "squiggle" notations like ":-)" are a problem in current writing should be forced to try to read medieval manuscripts. Start with really expensive writing materials (vellum anyone?), make the writing process laborious (sharpen quill, grind stuff for ink, blot the vellum...) and throw in a bunch of insular monks (well, insular even for monks), and you get pages of squigglefest. At least the computer environment prevents some of the excesses of calligraphy that would otherwise occur. I suspect that the comments about sentences in that piece were actually comments about punctuation. If so, I'm not really sure how to maintain the claim that clearly demarcated sentences are necessary for clear thought, given that -- in all probability -- Plato, Aristotle, etc. didn't mark sentence boundaries in writing at all. Languages always have clause complexes; writing systems may or may not orthographically mark these in various ways. All that having been said (I don't usually adopt absolute positions, but I'll certainly use absolutes), I *do* tend to notice a link between orthographically-unstructured writing, etc. and bad argumentation in my students -- but I don't think the first causes the second. Instead, it's simply that students who don't read much good argumentation tend not to argue well, and if they're reading mainly text messages from other students, they're not reading much good argumentation. Other studies (including something from NCTE that I may be able to dig out later) have shown that students *are* reading a good bit -- but I suspect what they're reading is the kind of texts that are produced by others in their age group, and that emphasize easy social interaction over critical thinking. "U R teh uber-newb, d00d!" is fascinating in its own right, but if that's the kind of thing you're used to, you'll find academic or business writing quite alien. Bill Spruiell Dept. of English Central Michigan University -----Original Message----- From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 1:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: The Death of the Sentence? > Carol, I read the article in part because the inbox announced that Martha Kolln had been consulted. Martha's comments are about the only thoughtful part of it. It left me thinking that it's not the death of the sentence that's a problem, but the general shallowness of conversation about it, including those (Martha the main exception) in our "discipline" of English who weighed in. I suspect they thought any working journalist could handle the topic, but the results in this case are comic. The idea that the sentence was "invented several centuries" ago and "brought order to chaos" is the sort of silliness that fills the bulk of the article. It's high tine for NCTE to begin advocating at least some direct teaching about language. Craig > Hi everyone. This was in my NCTE inbox this morning, so some of you may > have read it. (This is only part of the article). I bolded the second to > last line because it interests me: Does anyone know who "invented" the > sentence? > > The Fate of The Sentence: Is the Writing On the Wall? > By Linton Weeks > Washington Post Staff Writer > Sunday, June 15, 2008; Page M01 > > The demise of orderly writing: signs everywhere. > One recent report, young Americans don't write well. > In a survey, Internet language -- abbreviated wds, :) and txt msging -- > seeping into academic writing. > But above all, what really scares a lot of scholars: the impending death > of the English sentence. > Librarian of Congress James Billington, for one. "I see creeping > inarticulateness," he says, and the demise of the basic component of human > communication: the sentence. > This assault on the lowly -- and mighty -- sentence, he says, is > symptomatic of a disease potentially fatal to civilization. If the > sentence croaks, so will critical thought. The chronicling of history. > Storytelling itself. > He has a point. The sentence itself is a story, with a beginning, a middle > and an end. Something happens in a sentence. Without subjects, there are > no heroes or villains. Without verbs, there is no action. Without objects, > nothing is moved, changed, destroyed or created. > Plus, simple sentences clarify complex situations. ("Jesuswept.") > Since its invention centuries ago, the sentence has brought order to > chaos. It's the handle on the pitcher, a tonic chord in music, a stair > step chiseled in a mountainside. > > > > > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface > at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ |