Session 4: Syntax

What is Syntax?It is not only being able to say what something is (this is periodic, or this is complex-compound). That won't get you anything unless it comes with a why or an explanation of the effect it creates or evokes.

I. A Syntax Cheat Sheet

A. LOOSE (CUMULATIVE) sentences: are long, stop at any point, are rambling; could end earlier but go on adding more detail, sound more and more rambling (the more you add the more it sounds rambling).

Effect: adds more information; creates less drama (main point up front); easier to understand (main point right away); more informal (more rambling).

B. PERIODIC sentences: build up to sense, withholding the main point until it's built up to at the end (Considering the x, y, and z...I wept).

Effect: adds more suspense; we wait to hear the main clause, whose completion is withheld for a time; sounds more formal; harder to understand.

C. PARALLEL sentences: deploy repeated grammatical structures. Sometimes called parallelism, sometimes parallel construction.

Effect: clearer; more formal; equal importance given to various ideas.

D. INVERTED sentences: reverse standard word order (subject / verb / object:: You, I love.)

Effect: more formal, more sophisticated; attention grabbing.

E. BALANCED sentences: deploy repeated, parallel rhythms (which may or may not be syntactical: parallelism is therefore a specific, special form of balance).

Effect: lyrical; poetic.

F. ANTITHESIS in sentences: creates another kind of balance; juxtapose opposing ideas which are yet expressed in the same grammatical structure.

Effect: highlights contrast (she likes ice cream; i hate it); draws more attention to the contrast by putting opposing ideas in the same structure.

G. REPETITION in sentences: uses repeated words, sounds, or structures (like anaphora).

Effect: emphasis; emphasis on formality or drama of something.

II. Sentence Types

clause=subject and verb

A. Simple: one main clause (or one independent clause).

    "In june, in the summertime, i like to eat Locopops."

B. Complex: one main clause and one or more dependent clauses (while, although, when).

    "I ate a burger while he had fries."
    "Although I like Locopops, I never go there."

C. Compound: two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction (fanboys).

    "I like to eat Locopops, but I never go there."

D. Compound-Complex: two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

III. Sentence Function

Declarative: statement
Interrogative : question
Exclamatory: exclaiming
Imperative: command

IV. Sentence Length

Telegraphic: very short : "Quit!"