In my vain effort to “get me more smartness” I find myself in Comprehensive Greek trying to remember how to diagram sentences. While trying to learn how to do this (I never had to do this in school), I’ve come across this sentence diagram of the Preamble to the Constitution. It looks almost like Greek to me!
12 responses so far ↓
Steve // October 3, 2007 at 11:54 am |
Two books for you: one for Greek and one for English
1. Greek to Me (Lyle Story)
2. Woe is I (Patricia O’Conner)
Great books. As a product of the SC Public School System, I ain’t never diagrammed no sentence neither.
John // October 7, 2007 at 9:10 am |
This is very important, because many advocates of big, intrusive government use the “in order that” statement of the preamble to justify all manner of unconstitutional programs, when that statement is one of intention, not authorization.
scott // March 10, 2008 at 4:41 am |
typo in the diagram, should be “ensure”, not “insure”
Richard // March 27, 2008 at 8:13 pm |
The word Order isn’t capitalized in your diagram… why not?
jimmorrow // March 27, 2008 at 8:55 pm |
Richard,
1. I didn’t make the diagram! That’s why!
2. It appears that this diagram maintains capitals for nouns and that it doesn’t interpret order (as a part of this prepositional phrase) to be a noun.
3. It appears that the writers of the preamble either had different grammatical conventions or they wanted to emphasize these capitalized words.
Richard // March 28, 2008 at 4:31 am |
1. k.
2. Nouns or not, changing capitalizations reinterprets sentence intent.
3. All words carry emphasis, so to British words.
a. Why, in as much, did the framers write ‘the U.S.’ vs ‘the U.S.A’ (as diagrammed by someone), …two different institutions?
b. And, it was interesting that ‘the’ wasn’t treated the same as the other ‘the’s’ above (again, as diagrammed by someone).
just a thought
jimmorrow // March 28, 2008 at 8:42 am |
You should un-capitalize British–it’s not proper!
We run into this in Biblical diagramming and interpretation, too. Changing the words is not a good practice.
a. this is an interesting point. Also note that the people “OF” the United States ordain and establish the constitution “FOR” the United States of America. This may point to a change in condition because of the Constitution. This may indicate that because they are already of the U.S., that it is fitting that they write this for land that is theirs. It may be that kind of statement.
As for the use of USA at th end, it is either a dramatic closing or, like I said above, a change in condition. I’m not exactly sure.
b. It is interesting and I’m not sure why it is diagrammed that way. Any thoughts?
Diagramming the Preamble « The Greatest Story Ever Told // March 28, 2008 at 8:46 am |
[...] Thoughts. Tags: constitution, converstation, debate, diagram, grammar, preamble trackback FYI: There is some interesting grammatical and interpretive conversation going on with the diagram of the… as I lamented over not knowing how to diagram sentences. Visit and weigh [...]
prone to wander « The Greatest Story Ever Told // April 24, 2008 at 5:01 pm |
[...] Honest. Personal. Surrounded on all sides by journey-stanzas. Not to mention that the first sentence is a grammatical marvel–untie that knot if you will. Diagram if you will. [...]
Kenyonna Carter // April 27, 2008 at 11:58 am |
what are the dummest term can you put thr preamle in
Punctuality Rules! » Blog Archive » Punctuation is Not Grammar // July 23, 2008 at 10:33 pm |
[...] Looks pretty complicated, doesn’t it? (Image borrowed from here.) [...]
Ariella // August 23, 2008 at 8:17 pm |
I have a strange request.
I have an impossible sentence to diagram. And I was wondering if you could help.
“Once I am sure there’s nothing going on I step inside, letting the door thud shut.”
I’m pretty sure there should be a comma after “on,” but there wasn’t one.