Re: Whence "subject, predicate"?

From: Leon Zaks (zaks_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 07/22/04 

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 02:03:12 GMT

"Jacques Guy" <jguy@alphalink.com.au> wrote in message
news:40FEB55C.4129@alphalink.com.au...
> In primary school "l'analyse logique" ("parsing" in English)
> taught us to look for the verb first, then for its dependents:
> subject (if one), direct object (if one), indirect object
> (if one), "complements circonstanciels" and so on, all of
> them linked directly to the verb. (I gather that the same
> was/is taught in Russian primary schools.) As a result,
> a sentence is a central element (the verb) surrounded
> by a variable number of ancillary elements. An octopus,
> as it were, with a varying number of arms.
>
> English-speaking children, on the other hand, are taught
> to analyze a sentence into two elements: subject, predicate.
> (Whence the famous rewrite rule: S = NP VP).
>
> There is quite a drastic difference between the two approaches.
>
> I wonder. What is the origin of the English approach to
> parsing a sentence? From when does it date? Does anyone
> here know?
>
> Same question about the French (Russian?) approach.
>
> And further, which do they teach in, say, Germany, Spain,
> Italy, and so on?

This post brought back for me quite a few memories of "sintaksicheskiye
razbori" (syntaxical analyses) of sentences which used to frustrate me so
much during my Moscow school days. The different parts of a sentence had to
be underlined in pencil, each in its own particular way. If I remember this
correctly, a single straight line was drawn under the subject, two straight
lines under the verb, an interrupted line (_ _ _ _ _) under the object,
a squiggly line under an adjective that modifies the object or the subject,
and a line-and-dot pattern (_ . _ . _ . _) under adverbs or adverb-like
constructions. It's been so long since I was actually forced to do this that
I would not be surprised if the above description was either inaccurate or
incomplete. For example, I have a vague memory of having to write something
above the words as well, but for some reason I can't remember what it was.
I'm as curious as you are about the time and place of origin of this system.

Leon

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