What is a good sentence? How do we know one when we see one? What can we learn from good sentences? Can we become better readers and writers by stopping occasionally to notice sentences and to examine them? We address these questions here by examining sentences from all types of sources.
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Interesting sentences often come along, but we are not always ready to stop and examine them. This 69-word sentence is one to return to for a closer look:
I have hunted and trapped and fished and have been exposed to almost all kinds of wilderness animals; I've had bear come at me, been stalked by a mountain lion, been bitten by snakes and punctured by porcupines and torn by foxes and once pecked by an attacking raven, but I have never seen anything rivaling the madness that seems to infect a large portion of the moose family. (Paulsen, pp. 30-31)
In this sentence Gary Paulsen reviews briefly his experiences in the wilderness as he lead into his discussion of his encounters with moose in the wilderness. In this sentence we find three independent clauses and one dependent clause. With three independent clauses we expect to find two coordinators which hold together the independent clauses. Indeed, the semicolon (";") and "but" do just that. So, the first independent clause is everything up to the semicolon, the second is everything after the semicolon and up to "but," and the third is "I have never seen anything rivaling the madness." The remaining words in the sentence, the ones that follows the end of the third independent clause, "that seems to infect a large portion of the moose family," forms the dependent clause. But we return to that later in the discussion.
The first independent clause in this sentence, "I have hunted and trapped and fished and have been exposed to almost all kinds of wilderness animals," contains one subject and four verbs. So the subject-verb combination here is "I have hunted...trapped...fished...have been exposed." All of the verbs appear in the present perfect (in this case "have" + verb + "ed"), and the last verb also appears in the passive voice (in this case "have" + "been + verb + "ed"). We find a nice variety of verbs in this clause which create a nice rhythm for the clause. We also find four examples of the SV structure. Each verb in this clause combines with the subject to form a verb pattern. In this case, none of the verbs has an object and we find no complements of the subject so we find only examples of the SV verb pattern here.
The second dependent clause in this sentence, "I've had bear come at me, been stalked by a mountain lion, been bitten by snakes and punctured by porcupines and torn by foxes and once pecked by an attacking raven," contains one subject ("I") and six verbs. These verbs all appear in the present perfect, and all but one of them is in the passive voice. The first verb, "'ve had," is the only one that appears in the active voice. In the second and third verbs, "been stalked" and "been bitten," the passive begins and "been" appears in each of these forms. In the other three verb forms, "been" does not appear but we recognize that they all go back to "been bitten" even though "been" does not appear in any of the last three. In other words, this clause is a nice example of how we list a number of verbs that all combine with the same subject and how we omit various verb forms when the repetition is not necessary. For example, consider this clause with all the complete verbs forms: "I've had bear come at me, (have) been stalked by a mountain lion, (have) been bitten by snakes and (have been) punctured by porcupines and (have been) torn by foxes and once (have been) pecked by an attacking raven." The complete verb forms make the expression awkward and do nothing to clarify the meaning. Therefore, the author has very appropriately left them out.
The third independent clause in this sentence, "I have never seen anything rivaling the madness," is clearly the shortest. Although just like the first two independent clauses the third has only one subject ("I"), it does not continue in the multiple-verb format of the first two independent clauses as the third has only one verb ("have...seen"). So, the third independent clause is a classic example of the SVO structure with the pronoun "anything" functioning as an object of the verb "have...seen."
One more clause remains in this sentence. The dependent clause in here is "that seems to infect a large portion of the moose family." This clause modifies the common noun "madness" in the third independent clause, so this is an adjective clause. The subject-verb combination of this clause is "that seems." The subject here is also the subordinator. Although is many cases "that" as a subordinator in an adjective clause may be omitted, "that" cannot be admitted here as it is also the subject of the subject-verb combination. The verb pattern of this clause is SVC as the infinitive "to infect" functions as a complement of the subject "that."
With three independent clauses and one dependent clause, this sentence is compound-complex. Its 69 words do not make it compound-complex; its clauses do. We read sentences like this often; we write sentences like this; we certainly speak in sentences like this. Occasionally we need to stop and examine one or two such sentences to see what they can teach us.
References
Paulsen, G. (2001). Guts. New York: Laurel-Leaf Books.
Today we finally get back to the business of reviewing sentences. As the end of a semester approaches, the list of things to do seems to grow exponentially, and we can easily lose focus of what we have started and what we need to continue. Life does not end with the closing of another semester however. Learning goes on beyond the walls of the classroom as it always has and as it always should. These sentences I need to continue. And today’s sentence is one I had in mind a long time ago when I first started thinking about doing this. With only five other sentences preceding it, the route to this sentence has been direct. Today’s sentence comes from Frederick Douglass, specifically from Chapter 4 of his Narrative of the Life of a Slave. To which of the first five sentences does this one relate? And how does it relate exactly?
Sentence 6: To be accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished; the one always following the other with immutable certainty. (Douglass, Chapter 4)
There are some fascinating aspects of this sentence, and it opens a window into the ability Frederick Douglass had with the English language in spite of his early life and as a result of his persistent effort to learn to read and write. Such an ability most people can only dream about.
The first independent clause in this sentence deserves serious examination and appreciation: “To be accused was to be convicted.” The grammatical balance of the clause provides an immediate impression. Only someone who thoroughly enjoyed constructing sentences would construct one like this. The rest of us can only marvel at the construction. This is the same basic structure as Stephen King’s “Writing is refined thinking” (see Sentence 3), in that Frederick Douglass’s sentence also forms the SVC pattern, but with different elements making up the subject and the complement.
In the first independent clause in Sentence 6, we find an infinitive that functions as the subject (“To be accused”) and another infinitive that functions as a complement of the first (“to be convicted”). The verb in this clause (“was”) acts as the equals sign for the equation the words create: “To be accused” = “to be convicted.” If this weren’t nice enough, the infinitives appear in the passive voice. Hence, “be” appears in each.
This can be an opportunity for an aside. Infinitives are formed by putting together the preposition “to” and the base form of a verb. For example, “to give,” “to discover,” and “to enjoy” are all infinitives. In addition, infinitives come from verbs but function in sentences as nouns function. Consider the function of infinitives in each of the following examples.
(a) To give your time is really generous.
(b) His goal is to discover a cure for that disease.
(c) I wanted to enjoy the movie.
In these examples, the infinitives function as nouns. In the first example, the infinitive “To give” functions as the subject of the verb “is.” In the second, the infinitive “to discover” functions as a complement of the subject “goal.” In the third example, the infinitive “to enjoy” functions as an object of the verb “wanted.” These are all common functions of infinitives in English sentences. Now we move back to Frederick Douglass.
The nice structure and fine grammatical balance we find in the first independent clause in Sentence 6 also appears in the second independent clause: “to be convicted was to be punished” (Douglass, Chapter 4). Once again, mirroring the structure of the first independent clause, one infinitive functions as the subject of the clause while another functions as a complement of the subject. In other words, infinitives make up both sides of the equation the words form. To further mirror the first independent clause, both infinitives in the second independent clause appear in the passive voice. Hence, “to be convicted” functions as the subject of the second independent clause while “to be punished” functions as a complement of the subject. The repetition and symmetry of the structures of these two clauses ring poetic.
We’ve not quite finished yet as more of the sentence remains for us to consider. Immediately following the last word of the second independent clause is a semicolon (“;”), and following that we find “the one always following the other with immutable certainty.” In academic writing, what often follows a semicolon is another independent clause. In this case, what follows the semicolon does not have its own subject-verb combination, so we do not consider it a clause. Groups of words that function as one unit that do not have their own subject-verb combinations are phrases. So, what we find following the semicolon in this sentence is a phrase. What follows the semicolon reinforces what appears before it. In other words, with this phrase, Frederick Douglass states that for slaves conviction always followed accusation, and punishment always followed conviction.
Sentence 6: To be accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished; the one always following the other with immutable certainty.
In other words, with the phrase that appears after the semicolon, Frederick Douglass reinforces the point that being convicted always followed being accused, and that being punished always followed being convicted. Therefore, being accused was the same as being punished. As we recall the world that he describes, slaves had no recourse if their owner or another slaveholder accused them of something. Most assuredly they were punished as a result. This fine writing is a firm reminder of what for slaves was a grim truth: accusation led to conviction, which in turn led to punishment. They could not interrupt or amend the process in any way. Theirs was not a role that could effect any change; theirs was a role of doing as they were told. If that doing entailed being punished, then they were punished.
This is an example of fine writing by a fine author. Look into Frederick Douglass’s work for numerous examples of outstanding sentence making.
References
Douglass, F. Narrative of the Life of a Slave. Retrieved 3 May 2005 from World Wide Web: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/04.html
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