SYNTAX AND STRUCTURE OBJECTIVE:

Students will be taught methods and strategies which will allow them to recognize how syntax and structure work together with other stylistic techniques to develop meaning in a sentence, a passage, or an entire prose or poetry piece.

Syntax, an important factor in discerning a writer’s style, is, simply put, the arrangement and grammatical relation of words, phrases, and clauses in sentences, and the ordering of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences, according to the NTC’s Dictionary of Literary Terms. In other words, it is sentence structure and design. Most of Franz Kafka’s sentences in The Metamorphosisare long and quite complex. They contain complex thoughts, many of which are not on the same subject. Some sentences are entire paragraphs in themselves. An example of this occurs early in the story in a one-sentence paragraph that explains how Gregor is attempting to get out of bed. “First he tried to get out of bed with the lower part of his body, but his lower part-which by the way he had not seen yet and which he could not form a clear picture of—proved too difficult to budge; it was taking so long and when finally, almost out of his mind, he lunged forward with all his force, without caring, he had picked the wrong direction and slammed himself violently against the lower bedpost, and the searing pain he felt taught him that exactly the lower part of his body was, for the moment anyway, the most sensitive.”

The simplicity of the words and jumble of thoughts has the impression of helplessness and confusion, indicating the complexity of feelings Gregor has throughout the novella. The complex sentences stand antithetical to those found in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, when the old man is catching the marlin. “He looked back at the coils of line and they were feeding smoothly. Just then the fish jumped making a great bursting of the ocean and then a heavy fall. Then he jumped again and again and the boat was going fast although the line was still racing out and the old man was raising the strain to the breaking point and raising it to breaking point again and again. He had been pulled down tight onto the bow and his face was in the cut slice of dolphin and he could not move.” Hemingway’s simple syntax includes short, choppy sentences with very few adjectives. Kafka would somehow make this series of events all one sentence. Although using different styles, both authors get their points across while creating different moods and perspectives for their stories.

SENTENCE PATTERNS

Declarative (strong, active verb):

  1. Two problems perplexed the student.
  2. Washington offers the tourist two unique spots of interest.
  3. Two strange sights startled Steve as he emerged from the cave.

Interrogative (question):

  1. What two places in the world would you like most to visit?
  2. For what two reasons do little boys enjoy stomping in mud puddles?

Exclamatory:

  1. Two terrible things happened today!
  2. I absolutely will not ride that donkey!
  3. What incredible luck I had yesterday!

Imperative:

  1. Pass the salt please.
  2. Don’t say a word about your actions.
  3. You must finish your homework before watching television.

Loose Sentence: Main clause first; subordinate clause / phrases follows

1.The long winding road with its leafless trees suggested solitude and loneliness.

2.The catcher waited patiently for the pitcher to begin.

3.The detective interviewed the witness carefully.

Periodic Sentence: Subordinate constructions first; main clause closes the sentence.

1.Paralyzed by the neurotic lassitude engendered by meeting one’s past at every turn, around every corner, inside every cupboard, I go aimlessly from room to room.

2.By this rude bridge, their flag unfurled, . . . and fired the shot heard round the world.

3.After clearing out the furniture, covering the carpet, and removing the pictures, I began painting the large room.

Balanced or Parallel Sentence: Two or more words or constructions must be in the same

grammatical form – infinitives, verbs, gerunds, participles, prepositional phrases, clauses,

etc. This style is impressive and pleasing to hear, elaborates rhythm and order, and

shows economy by using one element of a sentence to server three or four others.

1.To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.

2.But called by whatever name, it is a most fruitful region; kind to the native, interesting to the visitor.

3.Teenagers who dance the frug or the jerk are either wild or juvenile delinquents or both.

Convoluted Structure: Main clause is split in two; subordinate material is between.

1.Now demons, whatever else they may be, are full of interest.

2.The pizza delivery boy, no matter how late, still expected a hefty tip.

3.The talk-show host, whatever his own opinions were, conducted an excellent interview.

Centered Structure: main clause occupies the middle, subordinate material between.

1.Having wanted to walk on the sea like St. Peter, he had taken an involuntary bath, losing his dignity and the better part of his reputation.

2.After digging a large hole, I planted the tree, which was also large and hard to manage.

3.Before he opening the mail, he answered the phone, which had been ringing insistently.

Freight Train: sentence consisting of short, independent clauses coupled for a sense of immediacy; the effect produces a rhythmical quality to the test.

1.And I’ll look out for you, and you’ll sign out as soon as you see me, And we’ll go down the street arm in arm, and into all the shops, and then I’ll choose my house, and you’ll choose your house, and we’ll live there like princes and good fellows.

Adverbial or Dependent Clause Opener: creates emphasis by putting important iformation first

  1. As I shopped for groceries, I found three ways to save money.
  2. When I was younger, I liked simple foods.
  3. After the dictator seized control, the situation in the country changed dramatically.

Verb Before Subject or inverted word order: again, used for emphasis

  1. Beside the houses grew two large maple trees.
  2. Along the boulevard sped two sleek, fast cars.
  3. On my street live two large families.

Appositive:

  1. London, the English city on the Thames, offers many tourist attractions.
  2. Tucson combines two cultures: the Spanish/Indian and the American West.
  1. Two American cities, New York and Los Angeles, appeal to me.

Rhetorical Question: creates active involvement with reader or audience by asking them to think

1.Wasn’t the cult of James a revealing symbol, a symbol of an age and society which wanted to dwell like him in some false world of false art and false cultures? From “Henry James and His Cult” by Maxwell Geismar

2.A good student-body is perhaps the most important factor in a great university. How can you possibly make good wine from poor grapes? From a student paper

Form Follows Content:

1.. . . if you have a lot of things you cannot move about a lot, that furniture requires dusting, dusters require servants, servants require insurance stamps and the whole tangle of them makes you think twice before you accept an invitation to dinner or go for a bathe in the Jordan. From “My Wood” E. M. Forster

  1. He had listened to it for years: the long legend of corncribs rifled, of shoats and grown pigs and even calves carried bodily into the woods and devoured, or traps and deadfalls overthrown and dogs mangled and slain, and shotgun and even rifle charges delivered at point-blank range and with no more effect than so many peas blown through a tube by a boy – a corridor of wreckage and destruction beginning back before he was born, through which sped, not fast but rather with the ruthless and irresistible deliberation of a locomotive, the shaggy tremendous shape. From “The Bear” by William Faulkner

Sentence Purpose: to help translate loudness, intonation, and gesture into writing, write sentences that produce “partial” emphasis that is not of the whole sentence but of a word or a phrase within a sentence.

Opening and closing positions: These areas of a sentence are especially sensitive to emphasis.

Poor - I suddenly began to rain.

Better – Suddenly, it began to rain

A short sentence in a pool of longer ones stands out and emphasizes the topic.

Ex. As Thompson and the transcript man had said, Vanzetti was naturally and quietly eloquent. So he was electrocuted.

Antimetabole -- repetition of words, in clauses, in reverse grammatical order.

1.Mankind must put an end to war – or war will put an end to mankind. From Inaugural Address, 1961 John F. Kennedy

2.I am stuck on Band-Aid ‘cause Band- Aid’s stuck on me. From television ad

3.If you cannot control your spending, your spending will control you.

Chiasmus –The criss-cross or reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or

clauses.

1.By day the frolic, and the dance by night. From “The Vanity of Human Wishes” by Samuel Johnson

2.His time a moment, and a point his space. From Essay on Man by Alexander Pope

Epanalepsis – Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of

the clause

1.Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer’d blows. From King John, II by William Shakespeare

2.Year chases year, decay pursues decay. From “The Vanity of Human Wishes” by Samuel Johnson

Anadiplosis – Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

1.Labor and care are rewarded with success, success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which diligence had raised. From Rambler No 21 by Dr. Johnson

2.The crime was common, common be the pain. From “Eloisa to Abelard” by Alexander Pope.

3.Queeq: “Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard. Standard performance is sub-standard. Sub-standard performance is not permitted to exist. From The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

Anaphora – repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginnings of successive

sentences.

1.The Lord sitteth above the water floods. The Lord remaineth a King forever. The Lord shall give strength unto his people. The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace. From Psalm 29

2.It is a luxury, it is a privilege, it is an indulgence for those who are at their ease.

From “Letter to a Noble Lord,” 1796 by Edmund Burke

Epistrophe – Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses.

1.Shylock: I’ll have my bond! Speak not against my bond! I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond! The Merchant of Veniceby William Shakespeare

2.We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another.

Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969 by Richard Nixon

3.Free at last; free at last; Thank God Almighty, free at last.

Puns – generic name for those figures of speech, which make a play on words.

1.Your argument is sound, nothing but sound. From Benjamin Franklin

2.Although we’re apart, you’re still a part of me. From song “On Blueberry Hill”

3.If we don’t hang together, we’ll hang separately. From Benjamin Franklin

Understatement – deliberate use of understatement, not to deceive someone but to enhance the

impressiveness of what we say.

1.It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain. From The Catcher in the Ryeby J. D. Salinger

2.For four generations we’ve been making medicines as if people’s lives depended on them. From ad for Eli Lilly Drug Company

Paradox – an apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth.

1.Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth. – Pablo Picasso

2.The Past is prologue. – Paul Newman

3.The less we copy the renowned ancients, the more we shall resemble them.

From Conjectures on Original Composition by Edward Young

  1. Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink

Punctuation – Use of periods, commas, dashes, semi-colons, colons, or other marks in order to

control the pace of effect of a work of prose or poetry.

  1. “No rays from the holy Heaven come down / On the long night-time of the town; / But light from out the lurid sea / Streams up the turrets silently --/ Up domes – up spires – Up kingly halls – Up fanes – up Babylon-like walls --“ From “A City in the Sea” by E. A. Poe

Utilizing negative-positive restatement creates emphasis by using opposites. An idea is stated twice, first in negative terms; then in positive

Using pairing and piling modifiers with sets of adjectives impress themselves upon a reader.

Isolated and interrupting elements cut off by punctuation creates “compression” – to quote Poe – which does impress a reader.

Ex. Children, curled in little balls, slept on straw scattered on wagon beds.

Finally – pay attention to the verbs which determine active and passive voice but also tend to reveal much about the speaker, attitude, and tone of the work.

Methods of Structure / Organization / Movement in Literature

All good writing has a pattern of organization or structure. Syntax is concerned with the sequence of the words as they form sentences; organization is concerned with the sequence of paragraphs or stanzas.

  1. General to specific (deductive) or specific to general (inductive)
  2. Chronological (time sequence)
  3. Narrative (order of occurrence of events}
  4. Association / memory (one object to another or by memories)
  5. Movement or lack of movement (storm to calm or calm to storm)
  6. Sensory (organized by senses)
  7. Spatial (inside to outside, far to near, top to bottom, flight to pursuit etc.
  8. In medias res (beginning in the middle and using flashbacks to fill in background)
  9. Comparison and contrast
  10. Order of importance
  11. Dominant impression to least dominant impression (or reverse)
  12. Abstract to concrete (or reverse)
  13. Past to present or present to past
  14. Disorder to order or order to disorder
EXERCISES – STRUCTURE (AND SYNTAX)
  1. Next morning when the first light came into the sky and the sparrows stirred in the trees, when the cows rattled their chains and the rooster crowed and the early automobiles went whispering along the road, Wilbur awoke and looked for Charlotte. From Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
  2. In the grass and the grain, beside the road, and in some places scattered over the road, there was much material; a field kitchen, it mush have come when things were going well; many of the calfskin-covered haversacks, stick bombs, helmets, rifles, sometimes one butt-up, the bayonet stuck in the dirt, they had dug quite a little at the last; stick bombs, helmet rifles, entrenching tools, ammunition boxes, star-shell pistols, their shells scattered about, medical kits, gas masks, empty gas-mask cans, a squat tri-podded machine gun in a nest of empty shells, full belts protruding from the boxes, the water cooling can empty and on its side, the breech block gone, the crew in odd positions, and around them in the grass, more of the typical papers. From “A Way You’ll Never Be” by Ernest Hemingway

4.Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursley’s front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen the fateful news report about the owls. Only the photograph on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink ball wearing different-colored bonnets—but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. From Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rawlings

5.I hear an army charging upon the land,

And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:

Arrogant, in black armor, behind them stand,

Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.

From “I Hear an Army Charging Upon the Land” by James Joyce

6.No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, then I was answered by a

voice from within the tomb! – by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman – a howl! – a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation. From “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe