Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Kristie 4
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Posted: Nov 03 2011 at 4:07pm | IP Logged Quote Kristie 4
Diagramming is definitely not something I did in school My son and I were working through our diagramming book today and got stumped on this sentence:

He could hear the goblins singing.


Where does singing go?
We came up with, so far,

He l could hear l goblins
      l    &nbs p;                `
                               `the (this is on an angle)
                                    `

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MichelleW
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Posted: Nov 03 2011 at 5:05pm | IP Logged Quote MichelleW
Ok, it's been many years and I may be rusty...but this is what I would do:

singing goes on a bendy line hanging off of goblins. You already hung "the" off of goblins. Now, hang sing on the angled part of the bendy line and -ing on the horizontal part.

The gerund "singing" is a present participle acting as a modifier. It modifies "goblins" so it needs to hang out with the goblins.

Can you imagine that?

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hylabrook1
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Posted: Nov 03 2011 at 5:30pm | IP Logged Quote hylabrook1
I'm confused about the idea of "singing" modifying "goblins". Is the diagram of "He could hear the goblins singing" the same as the diagram of "He could hear the singing goblins"? In the second sentence, "singing" is definitely a gerund modifying "goblins". It answers the question, "what sort of goblins? " "Singing" goblins. In the original sentence, though, the goblins are engaged in the act of singing, singing is acting as a verb there. I think the phrase "the goblins singing" is a direct object. "He could hear..." "What could he hear?" "Goblins" and then the goblins were doing their own verb, more like they are the subject of a clause and singing is the simple predicate of that clause. Maybe there isn't really a difference, but, as I said, I wonder...

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MichelleW
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Posted: Nov 03 2011 at 9:23pm | IP Logged Quote MichelleW
Participles show action but function as adjectives. The difference (in terms of diagramming) between "singing goblins" and "goblins singing" is that "singing" as an adjective would hang on a slanty line from "goblins." "Singing" as a present participle is divided into "sing" on the slanty part of the line and "-ing" on the horizontal bar that sticks out of the slanty line (alternatively it could be written as one continuous word in the elbow of the slanty+horizontal line).

Does that make sense?

I should mention that grammar is DEscriptive rather than PREscriptive, so it is modified and updated regularly. The above is my best interpretation but I have been out of the field for a very long time. Umm, 17 years? Yikes!

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MaryM
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Posted: Nov 04 2011 at 2:55am | IP Logged Quote MaryM
I believe Michelle's interpretation is correct.

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hylabrook1
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Posted: Nov 04 2011 at 9:30am | IP Logged Quote hylabrook1
Yes, that makes sense, Michelle. Thanks for the thorough explanation - I don't think you've gotten at all rusty after 17 years!

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Kristie 4
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Posted: Nov 04 2011 at 10:49am | IP Logged Quote Kristie 4
WOW! Thanks! My analytical husband, who has never diagrammed a sentence, came up with the same answer deductively!! I will let my ds know!!!

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