European Tribune - Comments - American Pie (Fight?)

American Pie (Fight?) | 283 comments (283 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Do you remember graphing sentences? No other educational system I know engages in that preposterous exercise.

And yes, my friends would know the difference between who and whom, and they do say "you and me" instead of "you and I" and one even knows what an ablative absolute is!

by Upstate NY on Sat Dec 9th, 2006 at 08:08:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (none / 0)

Graphing sentences? What's that? Something like underlining usbject, object and verb?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Dec 9th, 2006 at 08:12:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (4.00 / 2)

Maybe Upstate's referring to diagramming sentences? I don't really remember exactly how to do it, but I recall vividly that it was my favorite thing in elementary school. I'm sorry to hear it's fallen out of fashion.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

by Izzy (izzy at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Dec 9th, 2006 at 08:41:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (none / 0)

Thanks for the link. Upstate is at least right in my case, such diagrammatic grammar education is new to me. (Thus I can't say anything about its positiveness or negativeness.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Dec 10th, 2006 at 03:02:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (none / 1)

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. My God, I spent thousands of hours of my life doing that. 4 straight years of English instruction doing that, plus more homework.

Can I have those hours back?

by Upstate NY on Sun Dec 10th, 2006 at 04:58:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (none / 0)

Pretty much, though you can also do it with a tree diagram, etc.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Dec 9th, 2006 at 09:30:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (none / 0)

Check this out:

http://www.polysyllabic.com/images/hoenshel286.jpg

http://userpages.burgoyne.com/bdespain/grammar/gif/rk7803.gif

by Upstate NY on Sun Dec 10th, 2006 at 05:04:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (4.00 / 2)

Spain does engage in Graphing sentences. It's often called syntactic analysis.

The whole point of this discussion is that, if you don't have even a basic grasp of syntax, you're going to find it hard to learn a Foraign language. And God help you if you need to learn a flexive (case-based) language without understanding syntax and parts of speech.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Dec 9th, 2006 at 09:37:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That doesn't explain (none / 0)

Migueru, I think syntax is practically in the flexible-past in public schools, from my observation.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Sun Dec 10th, 2006 at 08:12:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

American Pie (Fight?) | 283 comments (283 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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