Learning Grammar - Parts of Speech Analysis and Trees

Fire · April 7, 2022, 11:12am

On some remaining differences:

#15. I seriously think that Ayn Rand was wise.

Some uses of the word ‘that’ are more optional than others. ‘That’ can introduce dependent clauses which function as objects of a verb. In the above sentence, ‘that’ appears to me to be functioning as a conjunction introducing the object of the verb ‘think’. Using ‘that’ here is optional in informal/casual speaking and writing, but does make the meaning of the sentence clearer.

When is ‘that’ a conjunction?

One hint seems to be when ‘that’ follows the verb in a sentence, such as: ‘appears that’, ‘showed that’, ‘deduced that’, ‘asserted that’, or ‘reported that’.
Another way to check is by reformulating the sentence into a question, and seeing if the ‘that’ clause answers any questions about the other parts of the sentence, especially the verb phrase.

When is ‘that’ a modifier?

It looks like most potential modifier uses of ‘that’ are as an adjective. As an adjective ‘that’ is primarily a determiner.
As an adverb ‘that’ is an intensifier or a comparator. ‘That’ can show some degree of surprise (e.g. ‘that bad’, ‘that hard’, or ‘that well’).

When is ‘that’ a pronoun?

When ‘that’ is a pronoun, it can’t be removed from the sentence with the sentence still making sense.
Sometimes ‘that’ refers to a noun in the immediate environment or something that has already been discussed. For example, ‘that was the living room’, refers to something in the surrounding environment. ‘That was the book I was just talking about’ is an example of a reference to a book you had previously brought up in conversation.
As a pronoun, ‘that’ can be helping to answer questions like: Which one/instance/person/thing? Answer: ‘That one/instance/person/thing’. Also, what time/event? Answers: ‘before that/after that/at the same time as that’. Also, what kind/type? Answer: ‘that kind/type’.

Notes from Max Tutoring #4:

Discussion of the sentence ‘I seriously think that Ayn Rand was wise’.
‘That’ is a very commonly omitted word.
Rearranging the sentence into ‘Ayn Rand was wise; I seriously think that’, makes ‘that’ clearly a pronoun which refers to what you thought (about Ayn Rand).
‘That’ serves two roles in the sentence ‘I seriously think that Ayn Rand was wise’. It is a conjunction and a pronoun.
One way that the function of ‘that’ is taught, for a sentence like this one, is that ‘that’ is simply a subordinator creating a subordinate clause. That subordinate clause is the object of think.
What is somewhat odd about the way ‘that’ is taught in these instances is that a clause playing the role typically played by a phrase. I don’t know enough to why clauses playing the role of phrases is strange in this regard.
ET says that he would have ‘that’ as the object of ‘think’. That makes sense when thinking of ‘that’ as a pronoun.
‘That’ can show up twice in the tree diagram since it has two roles. I will be looking out for ‘that’ having multiple roles in sentences. Are these two roles always pronoun and conjunction?
You can think of this sentence as having an implied semi-colon or an implied ‘and’.

I googled ‘can a clause be an object’, and many of the examples of clauses as subject complements or direct objects are sentences with the word ‘that’. I did find a Quora answer that seemed to make sense as to how noun clauses can be objects. That answer had examples using ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ to introduce the noun clause object. I found another example at parentingpatch.com: “The boss did not mention whether you were attending the party.” In this one, ‘whether’ is the conjunction for the object ‘you were attending the party’. I think you could also replace ‘whether’ with ‘that’ to get a similar grammar structure, but with a different meaning.

I’m still pretty confused/overwhelmed with the variety of uses of ‘that’. I think I will need to do more practice and research as problems arise with other sentence diagrams.

Resources for the word ‘that’:

https://repository.urosario.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10336/18635/Noun%20clauses%20for%20advanced%20writing.pdf?sequence=1#:~:text=Correct%20use%20of%20noun%20clauses&text=A%20noun%20clause%20can%20be%20a%20subject%2C%20a%20subject%20complement,a%20person%2C%20animal%20or%20object.

#16. Don’t chew quickly while your mouth is open.

What is the main verb and what is the helping verb? I have ‘chew’ as the main verb and ‘do’ as the helper/auxiliary verb. I watched part of the tutoring video #2 and saw discussion related to this issue in the section: Verbs in “John had been playing golf.” In this sentence ‘playing’ and ‘been’ are in mixed states with regard to their functioning as verbs. ‘Had’ is the only verb that is functioning solely as a verb. In applying that idea to ‘don’t chew’, I’m thinking that ‘do’ is the word functioning solely as a verb, ‘not’ is an adverb, and ‘chew’ has a more mixed function. So, ‘do’ should be the parent of ‘chew’ in the tree.

#18. If universities are full of uncurious professors, don’t attend one.

My tree says there is an imperative statement in the second clause but after consideration I think the conditional, with an implied ‘then’, does make more sense. Perhaps the imperative (you) is still implied within the clause underneath ‘then’.

Is there really an implied (you)? If so, is it important to include the implied (you)?
In this sentence I guess there is not an implied (you) because the meaning of the sentence can be read as more of an abstract statement about the decision to enroll in university. Whether there is an implied (you) depends on context, like whether this statement is in response to someone questioning their decision to go to college in light of some negative information about professors. In that context, I guess there could be an implied (you) but even then, (you) would not necessarily be implied.

#19. After you throw a small, red ball, while you sing, you should stamp your feet loudly, and you should clap your hands energetically, if it’s still daytime.

Many differences/problems/confusions. I have been reading this sentence as two main ideas, with ‘and’ conjoining them. Points one and two in the list below are both part of what I have been seeing as the first idea. The second main idea is a smaller conditional statement; if daytime => clap hands.

After you throw a small, red ball, you should stamp your feet loudly.
The above mentioned ‘feet stamping’ should be happening ‘while you sing’.
‘And’ in addition to all the above, ‘if it’s still daytime, you should clap your hands energetically’.

I can see some problems with the above interpretation, like ‘if it’s still daytime’ makes more sense with the ‘after you throw…ball’ clause. Without the ‘after…’ clause, the only reference that the statement ‘if it’s still daytime’ would have to time is the implied reference to the time at the moment the sentence is said. The ‘after…’ clause makes the sentence more self-contained by providing context for the ‘if…’ clause.

I’m going to try to simplify and reword the sentence to see if I can break it down more effectively. When I read the sentence with an ‘if’ as the root it looks like the following to me:

If it’s still daytime after you have thrown the ball, then you should stamp your feet and clap your hands.
However, I cannot see where the ‘while singing’ comes in.
The confusion that is coming up for me is what I see as possible alternative meanings in this sentence.
Is the singing happening at the same time as the feet stamping and clapping?
Or is the singing happening at the same time as you throw the ball?
Including ‘singing’ and starting with ‘if’ the reworded/simplified sentence looks like this to me:
If it’s still daytime after you have thrown the ball, then you should stamp your feet, clap your hands, and sing.
In that wording, singing, clapping, and stamping are all happening at the same time.

In Max’s tree I see the sequence of events as you throw the ball while singing and then evaluate if it’s still daytime. If it is daytime then go on with the stamping and clapping. I don’t see any reason why this cannot be the meaning of the sentence but I guess it’s just hard for me to tell either way.