Building Phrases
A phrase is a group of two or more grammatically linked words without a subject and predicate -- a group of grammatically-linked words with a subject and predicate is called a clause.
The group "teacher both students and" is not a phrase because the words have no grammatical relationship to one another. Similarly, the group "bay the across" is not a phrase.
In both cases, the words need to be rearranged in order to create phrases. The group "both teachers and students" and the group "across the bay" are both phrases.
You use a phrase to add information to a sentence and it can perform the functions of a subject, an object, a subject complement or object complement, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb.
The highlighted words in each of the following sentences make up a phrase:
She bought some spinach when she went to the corner store.
Lightning flashed brightly in the night sky.
They heard high pitched cries in the middle of the night.
In early October, Giselle planted twenty tulip bulbs; unfortunately, squirrels ate the bulbs and none bloomed.
Small children often insist that they can do it by themselves.
A phrase may function as a verb, noun, an adverb, or an adjective.
A verb phrase consists of a verb, its direct and/or indirect objects, and any adverb, adverb phrases, or adverb clauses which happen to modify it. The predicate of a clause or sentence is always a verb phrase:
Corinne is trying to decide whether she wants to go to medical school or to go to law school.
He did not have all the ingredients the recipe called for; therefore, he decided to make something else.
After she had learned to drive, Alice felt more independent.
We will meet at the library at 3:30 p.m.
A noun phrase consists of a pronoun or noun with any associated modifiers, including adjectives, adjective phrases, adjective clauses, and other nouns in the possessive case.
Like a noun, a noun phrase can act as a subject, as the object of a verb or verbal, as a subject or object complement, or as the object of a preposition, as in the following examples:
subject
Small children often insist that they can do it by themselves.
object of a verb
To read quickly and accurately is Eugene's goal.
object of a preposition
The arctic explorers were caught unawares by the spring breakup.
subject complement
Frankenstein is the name of the scientist not the monster.
object complement
I consider Loki my favorite cat.
Since some verbals -- in particular, the gerund and the infinitive -- can act as nouns, these also can form the nucleus of a noun phrase:
Ice fishing is a popular winter pastime.
However, since verbals are formed from verbs, they can also take direct objects and can be modified by adverbs. A gerund phrase or infinitive phrase, then, is a noun phrase consisting of a verbal, its modifiers (both adjectives and adverbs), and its objects:
Running a marathon in the Summer is thirsty work.
I am planning to buy a house next month.
An adjective phrase is any phrase which modifies a noun or pronoun. You often construct adjective phrases using participles or prepositions together with their objects:
I was driven mad by the sound of my neighbour's constant piano practising.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase "of my neighbour's constant piano practising" acts as an adjective modifying the noun "sound."
My father-in-law locked his keys in the trunk of a borrowed car.
Similarly in this sentence, the prepositional phrase "of a borrowed car" acts as an adjective modifying the noun "trunk."
We saw Peter dashing across the quadrangle.
Here the participle phrase "dashing across the quadrangle" acts as an adjective describing the proper noun "Peter."
We picked up the records broken in the scuffle.
In this sentence, the participle phrase "broken in the scuffle" modifies the noun phrase "the records."
A prepositional phrase can also be an adverb phrase, functioning as an adverb, as in the following sentences.
She bought some spinach when she went to the corner store.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase "to the corner store" acts as an adverb modifying the verb "went."
Lightning flashed brightly in the night sky.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase "in the night sky" functions as a adverb modifying the verb "flashed."
In early October, Giselle planted twenty tulip bulbs; unfortunately, squirrels ate the bulbs and none bloomed.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase "in early October" acts as an adverb modifying the entire sentence.
We will meet at the library at 3:30 P.M.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase "at 3:30 P.M." acts as an adverb modifying the verb phrase "will meet."
The dogs were capering about the clown's feet.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase "about the clown's feet" acts as an adverb modifying the verb phrase "were capering."
A clause is a collection of grammatically-related words including a predicate and a subject (though sometimes the subject is implied). A collection of grammatically-related words without a subject or without a predicate is called a phrase.
Clauses are the building blocks of sentences: every sentence consists of one or more clauses. This chapter will help you to recognise and (more importantly) to use different types of clauses in your own writing.
Consider these examples:
clause
cows eat grass
This example is a clause, because it contains the subject "cows" and the predicate "eat grass."
phrase
cows eating grass
What about "cows eating grass"? This noun phrase could be a subject, but it has no predicate attached to it: the adjective phrase "eating grass" show which cows the writer is referring to, but there is nothing here to show why the writer is mentioning cows in the first place.
clause
cows eating grass are visible from the highway
This is a complete clause again. The subject "cows eating grass" and the predicate "are visible from the highway" make up a complete thought.
clause
Run!
This single-word command is also a clause, even though it does seem to have a subject. With a direct command, it is not necessary to include the subject, since it is obviously the person or people you are talking to: in other words, the clause really reads "[You] run!". You should not usually use direct commands in your essays, except in quotations.
Building Sentences
Some English sentences are very basic:
Shakespeare was a writer.
Einstein said something.
The Inuit are a people.
You could write an entire essay using only simple sentences like these:
William Shakespeare was a writer. He wrote plays. It was the Elizabethan age. One play was Hamlet. It was a tragedy. Hamlet died. The court died too.
It is not likely, however, that your essay would receive a passing grade. This chapter helps you learn to recognise different types of sentences and to use them effectively in your own writing.
Why Sentence Structure Matters
Although ordinary conversation, personal letters, and even some types of professional writing (such as newspaper stories) consist almost entirely of simple sentences, your university or college instructors will expect you to be able to use all types of sentences in your formal academic writing. Writers who use only simple sentences are like truck drivers who do not know how to shift out of first gear: they would be able to drive a load from Montréal to Calgary (eventually), but they would have a great deal of trouble getting there.
If you use phrases and clauses carefully, your sentences will become much more interesting and your ideas, much clearer. This complex sentence develops a major, central idea and provides structured background information:
Since it involves the death not only of the title character but of the entire royal court, Hamlet is the most extreme of the tragedies written by the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare.
Just as a good driver uses different gears, a good writer uses different types of sentences in different situations:
· a long complex sentence will show what information depends on what other information;
· a compound sentence will emphasize balance and parallelism;
· a short simple sentence will grab a reader's attention;
· a loose sentence will tell the reader in advance how to interpret your information;
· a periodic sentence will leave the reader in suspense until the very end;
· a declarative sentence will avoid any special emotional impact;
· an exclamatory sentence, used sparingly, will jolt the reader;
· an interrogative sentence will force the reader to think about what you are writing; and
· an imperative sentence will make it clear that you want the reader to act right away.
If a clause can stand alone as a sentence, it is an independent clause, as in the following example:
Independent
the Prime Minister is in Ottawa
Some clauses, however, cannot stand alone as sentences: in this case, they are dependent clauses or subordinate clauses. Consider the same clause with the subordinating conjunction "because" added to the beginning:
Dependent
when the Prime Minister is in Ottawa
In this case, the clause could not be a sentence by itself, since the conjunction "because" suggests that the clause is providing an explanation for something else. Since this dependent clause answers the question "when," just like an adverb, it is called a dependent adverb clause (or simply an adverb clause, since adverb clauses are always dependent clauses). Note how the clause can replace the adverb "tomorrow" in the following examples:
adverb
The committee will meet tomorrow.
adverb clause
The committee will meet when the Prime Minister is in Ottawa.
Dependent clauses can stand not only for adverbs, but also for nouns and for adjectives.
A noun clause is an entire clause which takes the place of a noun in another clause or phrase. Like a noun, a noun clause acts as the subject or object of a verb or the object of a preposition, answering the questions "who(m)?" or "what?". Consider the following examples:
noun
I know Latin.
noun clause
I know that Latin is no longer spoken as a native language.
In the first example, the noun "Latin" acts as the direct object of the verb "know." In the second example, the entire clause "that Latin ..." is the direct object.
In fact, many noun clauses are indirect questions:
noun
Their destination is unknown.
noun clause
Where they are going is unknown.
The question "Where are they going?," with a slight change in word order, becomes a noun clause when used as part of a larger unit -- like the noun "destination," the clause is the subject of the verb "is."
Here are some more examples of noun clauses:
about what you bought at the mall
This noun clause is the object of the preposition "about," and answers the question "about what?"
Whoever broke the vase will have to pay for it.
This noun clause is the subject of the verb "will have to pay," and answers the question "who will have to pay?"
The Toronto fans hope that the Blue Jays will win again.
This noun clause is the object of the verb "hope," and answers the question "what do the fans hope?"
adjective clause is a dependent clause which takes the place of an adjective in another clause or phrase. Like an adjective, an adjective clause modifies a noun or pronoun, answering questions like "which?" or "what kind of?" Consider the following examples:
Adjective
the red coat
Adjective clause
the coat which I bought yesterday
Like the word "red" in the first example, the dependent clause "which I bought yesterday" in the second example modifies the noun "coat." Note that an adjective clause usually comes after what it modifies, while an adjective usually comes before.
In formal writing, an adjective clause begins with the relative pronouns "who(m)," "that," or "which." In informal writing or speech, you may leave out the relative pronoun when it is not the subject of the adjective clause, but you should usually include the relative pronoun in formal, academic writing:
Adjective Clauses
An
informal
The books people read were mainly religious.
formal
The books that people read were mainly religious.
informal
Some firefighters never meet the people they save.
formal
Some firefighters never meet the people whom they save.
Here are some more examples of adjective clauses:
the meat which they ate was tainted
This clause modifies the noun "meat" and answers the question "which meat?".
about the movie which made him cry
This clause modifies the noun "movie" and answers the question "which movie?".
they are searching for the one who borrowed the book
The clause modifies the pronoun "one" and answers the question "which one?".
Did I tell you about the author whom I met?
The clause modifies the noun "author" and answers the question "which author?".
An adverb clause is a dependent clause which takes the place of an adverb in another clause or phrase. An adverb clause answers questions such as "when?", "where?", "why?", "with what goal/result?", and "under what conditions?".
Note how an adverb clause can replace an adverb in the following example:
adverb
The premier gave a speech here.
adverb clause
The premier gave a speech where the workers were striking.
Usually, a subordinating conjunction like "because," "when(ever)," "where(ever)," "since," "after," and "so that," will introduce an adverb clause. Note that a dependent adverb clause can never stand alone as a complete sentence:
independent clause
they left the locker room
dependent adverb clause
after they left the locker room
The first example can easily stand alone as a sentence, but the second cannot -- the reader will ask what happened "after they left the locker room". Here are some more examples of adverb clauses expressing the relationships of cause, effect, space, time, and condition:
cause
Hamlet wanted to kill his uncle because the uncle had murdered Hamlet's father.
The adverb clause answers the question "why?".
effect
Hamlet wanted to kill his uncle so that his father's murder would be avenged.
The adverb clause answers the question "with what goal/result?".
time
After Hamlet's uncle Claudius married Hamlet's mother, Hamlet wanted to kill him.
The adverb clause answers the question "when?". Note the change in word order -- an adverb clause can often appear either before or after the main part of the sentence.
place
Where the whole Danish court was assembled, Hamlet ordered a play in an attempt to prove his uncle's guilt.
The adverb clause answers the question "where?".
condition
If the British co-operate, the Europeans may achieve monetary union.
The adverb clause answers the question "under what conditions?"
The Structure of a Sentence
Remember that every clause is, in a sense, a miniature sentence. A simple sentences contains only a single clause, while a compound sentence, a complex sentence, or a compound-complex sentence contains at least two clauses.
The most basic type of sentence is the simple sentence, which contains only one clause. A simple sentence can be as short as one word:
Run!
Usually, however, the sentence has a subject as well as a predicate and both the subject and the predicate may have modifiers. All of the following are simple sentences, because each contains only one clause:
Melt!
Ice melts.
The ice melts quickly.
The ice on the river melts quickly under the warm March sun.
Lying exposed without its blanket of snow, the ice on the river melts quickly under the warm March sun.
As you can see, a simple sentence can be quite long -- it is a mistake to think that you can tell a simple sentence from a compound sentence or a complex sentence simply by its length.
The most natural sentence structure is the simple sentence: it is the first kind which children learn to speak, and it remains by far the most common sentence in the spoken language of people of all ages. In written work, simple sentences can be very effective for grabbing a reader's attention or for summing up an argument, but you have to use them with care: too many simple sentences can make your writing seem childish.
When you do use simple sentences, you should add transitional phrases to connect them to the surrounding sentences.
A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses (or simple sentences) joined by co-ordinating conjunctions like "and," "but," and "or":
Simple
Canada is a rich country.
Simple
Still, it has many poor people.
Compound
Canada is a rich country, but still it has many poor people.
Compound sentences are very natural for English speakers -- small children learn to use them early on to connect their ideas and to avoid pausing (and allowing an adult to interrupt):
Today at school Mr. Moore brought in his pet rabbit, and he showed it to the class, and I got to pet it, and Kate held it, and we coloured pictures of it, and it ate part of my carrot at lunch, and ...
Of course, this is an extreme example, but if you over-use compound sentences in written work, your writing might seem immature.
A compound sentence is most effective when you use it to create a sense of balance or contrast between two (or more) equally-important pieces of information:
Montéal has better clubs, but Toronto has better cinemas.
There are two special types of compound sentences which you might want to note. First, rather than joining two simple sentences together, a co-ordinating conjunction sometimes joins two complex sentences, or one simple sentence and one complex sentence. In this case, the sentence is called a compound-complex sentence:
compound-complex
The package arrived in the morning, but the courier left before I could check the contents.
The second special case involves punctuation. It is possible to join two originally separate sentences into a compound sentence using a semicolon instead of a co-ordinating conjunction:
Sir John A. Macdonald had a serious drinking problem; when sober, however, he could be a formidable foe in the House of Commons.
Usually, a conjunctive adverb like "however" or "consequently" will appear near the beginning of the second part, but it is not required:
The sun rises in the east; it sets in the west.
A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Unlike a compound sentence, however, a complex sentence contains clauses which are not equal. Consider the following examples:
Simple
My friend invited me to a party. I do not want to go.
Compound
My friend invited me to a party, but I do not want to go.
Complex
Although my friend invited me to a party, I do not want to go.
In the first example, there are two separate simple sentences: "My friend invited me to a party" and "I do not want to go." The second example joins them together into a single sentence with the co-ordinating conjunction "but," but both parts could still stand as independent sentences -- they are entirely equal, and the reader cannot tell which is most important. In the third example, however, the sentence has changed quite a bit: the first clause, "Although my friend invited me to a party," has become incomplete, or a dependent clause.
A complex sentence is very different from a simple sentence or a compound sentence because it makes clear which ideas are most important. When you write
My friend invited me to a party. I do not want to go.
or even
My friend invited me to a party, but I do not want to go.
The reader will have trouble knowing which piece of information is most important to you. When you write the subordinating conjunction "although" at the beginning of the first clause, however, you make it clear that the fact that your friend invited you is less important than, or subordinate, to the fact that you do not want to go.
The Order of a Sentence
Not all sentences make a single point -- compound sentences, especially, may present several equally-important pieces of information -- but most of the time, when you write a sentence, there is a single argument, statement, question, or command which you wish to get across.
When you are writing your sentences, do not bury your main point in the middle; instead, use one of the positions of emphasis at the beginning or end of the sentence.
If you put your main point at the beginning of a long sentence, you are writing a loose sentence:
loose
I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada, considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters.
The main point of this sentence is that the writer prefers to live in Canada, and the writer makes the point at the very beginning: everything which follows is simply extra information. When the readers read about the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, they will already know that these are reasons for living in Canada, and as a result, they will be more likely to understand the sentence on a first reading.
Loose sentences are the most natural for English speakers, who almost always talk in loose sentences: even the most sophisticated English writers tend to use loose sentences much more often than periodic sentences. While a periodic sentence can be useful for making an important point or for a special dramatic effect, it is also much more difficult to read, and often requires readers to go back and reread the sentence once they understand the main point.
Finally, it is important to remember that you have to structure a loose sentence as carefully as you would structure a periodic sentence: it is very easy to lose control of a loose sentence so that by the end the reader has forgotten what your main point was.
If your main point is at the end of a long sentence, you are writing a periodic sentence:
periodic
Considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada.
The main point of this sentence is that the writer prefers to live in Canada. At the beginning of this sentence, the reader does not know what point the writer is going to make: what about the free health care, cheap tuition fees, low crime rate, comprehensive social programs, and wonderful winters? The reader has to read all of this information without knowing what the conclusion will be.
The periodic sentence has become much rarer in formal English writing over the past hundred years, and it has never been common in informal spoken English (outside of bad political speeches). Still, it is a powerful rhetorical tool. An occasional periodic sentence is not only dramatic but persuasive: even if the readers do not agree with your conclusion, they will read your evidence first with open minds. If you use a loose sentence with hostile readers, the readers will probably close their minds before considering any of your evidence.
Finally, it is important to remember that periodic sentences are like exclamatory sentences: used once or twice in a piece of writing, they can be very effective; used any more than that, they can make you sound dull and pompous.
The Purpose of a Sentence
The other classifications in this chapter describe how you construct your sentences, but this last set describes why you have written the sentences in the first place. Most sentences which you write should simply state facts, conjectures, or arguments, but sometimes you will want to give commands or ask questions.
The declarative sentence is the most important type. You can, and often will write entire essays or reports using only declarative sentences, and you should always use them far more often than any other type. A declarative sentence simply states a fact or argument, without requiring either an answer or action from the reader. You punctuate your declarative sentences with a simple period:
Ottawa is the capital of Canada.
The distinction between deconstruction and post-modernism eludes me.
He asked which path leads back to the lodge.
Note that the last example contains an indirect question, "which path leads back to the lodge." An indirect question does not make a sentence into an interrogative sentence -- only a direct question can do that.
An interrogative sentence asks a direct question and always ends in a question mark:
Who can read this and not be moved?
How many roads must a man walk down?
Does money grow on trees?
Note that an indirect question does not make a sentence interrogative:
Direct/Interrogative
When was Lester Pearson prime minister?
Indirect/Declarative
I wonder when Lester Pearson was prime minister.
A direct question requires an answer from the reader, while an indirect question does not.
Normally, an essay or report will not contain many regular direct questions, since you are writing it to present information or to make an argument. There is, however, a special type of direct question called a rhetorical question -- that is, a question which you do not actually expect the reader to answer:
Why did the War of 1812 take place? Some scholars argue that it was simply a land-grab by the Americans ...
If you do not overuse them, rhetorical questions can be a very effective way to introduce new topics or problems in the course of a paper; if you use them too often, however, you may sound patronising and/or too much like a professor giving a mediocre lecture.
An exclamatory sentence, or exclamation, is simply a more forceful version of a declarative sentence, marked at the end with an exclamation mark:
The butler did it!
How beautiful this river is!
Some towns in Upper Canada lost up to a third of their population during the cholera epidemics of the early nineteenth century!
Exclamatory sentences are common in speech and (sometimes) in fiction, but over the last 200 years they have almost entirely disappeared from academic writing. You will (or should) probably never use one in any sort of academic writing, except where you are quoting something else directly. Note that an exclamation mark can also appear at the end of an imperative sentence.
An imperative sentence gives a direct command to someone -- this type of sentence can end either with a period or with an exclamation mark, depending on how forceful the command is:
Sit!
Read this book for tomorrow.
You should not usually use an exclamation mark with the word "please":
Wash the windows!
Please wash the windows.
Normally, you should not use imperative sentences in academic writing. When you do use an imperative sentence, it should usually contain only a mild command, and thus, end with a period:
Consider the Incas.
Your diction is simply your choice of words. There is no single, correct diction in the English language; instead, you choose different words or phrases for different contexts:
To a friend
"a screw-up"
To a child
"a mistake"
To the police
"an accident"
To an employer
"an oversight"
All of these expressions mean the same thing -- that is, they have the same denotation -- but you would not likely switch one for the other in any of these three situations: a police officer or employer would take "screw-up" as an insult, while your friends at the bar after a hockey game would take "oversight" as an affectation.
Catch Phrases
Under pressure to create (usually against a deadline), a writer will naturally use familiar verbal patterns rather than thinking up new ones. Inexperienced writers, however, will sometimes go further, and string together over-used phrases or even sentences. Consider the following example:
When all is said and done, even a little aid can go a long way in a country suffering from famine.
The argument is commendable, but its written expression is poor and unoriginal. First, consider the phrase "when all is said and done." Once, this phrase was clever and original, but so many millions of writers and speakers have used it so many times over so many years that the phrase has become automatic and nearly meaningless. This type of worn-out phrase is called a catch phrase, and you should always avoid it in your writing, unless you are quoting someone else: you own, original words are always more interesting.
A particularly stale catch phrase -- especially one which was once particularly clever -- is a cliché. In the example given above, the phrase "a little aid can go a long way" fits into the formula "a little *** can go a long way," seriously lowers the quality of the writing. Essentially, a cliché is a catch phrase which can make people groan out loud, but the difference between the two is not that important -- just remember that neither usually belongs in your writing.
Here are some more sample clichés and catch phrases from students' essays:
the dictionary defines *** as ...
key to the future
facing a dim future
drive a wedge between
starving students
enough (for ***) to handle
in today's world
the *** generation
the impossible dream
enough to worry about without ...
putting the cart before the horse
a bird in the hand
glitzy, high-tech world
There is no simple formula that you can apply to decide what is a cliché or a catch phrase, but the more you read, the better your sense of judgement will become. Remember, though -- if you think that a phrase in your writing is clever, and you know that someone has used the phrase before, then you are best rewriting it into your own words.
While clichés and catch phrases have no place in academic essays, there are some times of writing where you should use pre-existing formulas. Such documents include scientific papers, legal briefs, maintenance logs, and police reports (to name a few) -- these are highly repetitive and largely predictable in their language, but they are meant to convey highly technical information in a standard, well-defined format, not to persuade or entertain a reader -- creativity in an auditor's report, for example, would not be highly prized.
On the other hand, catch phrases are not appropriate in less technical areas. Journalists, especially, are under a pressure to produce a large amount of writing quickly, and those who are less talented or unable to meet the pressure will often end up writing entire articles made up of over-used catch phrases like "war-torn Bosnia," "grieving parents," or "besieged capital."
Connotations and Denotations
The relationship between words and meanings is extremely complicated, and belongs to the field of semantics. For now, though, what you need to know is that words do not have single, simple meanings. Traditionally, grammarians have referred to the meanings of words in two parts:
a literal meaning of the word
an association (emotional or otherwise) which the word evokes
For example, both "woman" and "chick" have the denotation "adult female" in North American society, but "chick" has somewhat negative connotations, while "woman" is neutral.
For another example of connotations, consider the following:
negative
There are over 2,000 vagrants in the city.
neutral
There are over 2,000 people with no fixed address in the city.
positive
There are over 2,000 homeless in the city.
All three of these expressions refer to exactly the same people, but they will invoke different associations in the reader's mind: a "vagrant" is a public nuisance while a "homeless" person is a worthy object of pity and charity. Presumably, someone writing an editorial in support of a new shelter would use the positive form, while someone writing an editorial in support of anti-loitering laws would use the negative form.
In this case, the dry legal expression "with no fixed address" quite deliberately avoids most of the positive or negative associations of the other two terms -- a legal specialist will try to avoid connotative language altogether when writing legislation, often resorting to archaic Latin or French terms which are not a part of ordinary spoken English, and thus, relatively free of strong emotional associations.
Many of the most obvious changes in the English language over the past few decades have had to do with the connotations of words which refer to groups of people. Since the 1950's, words like "Negro" and "crippled" have acquired strong negative connotations, and have been replaced either by words with neutral connotations (ie "black," "handicapped") or by words with deliberately positive connotations (ie "African-Canadian," "differently-abled").
