English grammar - Roger Berry 2012

C9 Exploring texts (1)
Section C Exploration

From now on in the exploration sections we will be looking at authentic texts rather than concordances or made-up sentences. Studying texts can be somewhat problematic because the grammarian has no control over them; they can involve many features that are not part of the current focus, and include structures that have not been discussed so far. And sometimes the structure can become very complicated, but you must be prepared to analyse such texts.

The text below is from the novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, first published in 1989 and made into a film in 1993. In it the narrator, a young Chinese girl, is watching her mother at the death-bed of her grandmother (’Popo’). We have already seen paragraph B in section A9, and you will need to check this section for most of the concepts in the activities, in particular the different sentence types.

Note the American spelling: honors. Shou in paragraph H is a rendering of a dialect word meaning filial piety, or respect for one’s parents and grandparents.

(Paragraph letters and sentence numbers have been added for ease of reference.)

A (1) I worshipped this mother from my dream. (2) But the woman standing by Popo’s bed was not the mother of my memory. (3) Yet I came to love this mother as well. (4) Not because she came to me and begged me to forgive her. (5) She did not. (6) She did not need to explain that Popo chased her out of the house when I was dying. (7) This I knew. (8) She did not need to tell me she married Wu Tsing to exchange one unhappiness for another. (9) I knew this as well.

B (1) Here is how I came to love my mother. (2) How I saw in her my own true nature. (3) What was beneath my skin. (4) Inside my bones.

C (1) It was late at night when I went to Popo’s room. (2) My auntie said it was Popo’s dying time and I must show respect. (3) I put on a clean dress and stood between my auntie and uncle at the foot of Popo’s bed. (4) I cried a little, not too loud.

D (1) I saw my mother on the other side of the room. (2) Quiet and sad. (3) She was cooking a soup, pouring herbs and medicines into the steaming pot. (4) And then I saw her pull up her sleeve and pull out a sharp knife. (5) She put this knife on the softest part of her arm. (6) I tried to close my eyes, but could not.

E (1) And then my mother cut a piece of meat from her arm. (2) Tears poured from her face and blood spilled to the floor.

F (1) My mother took her flesh and put it in the soup. (2) She cooked magic in the ancient tradition to try to cure her mother this one last time. (3) She opened

Popo’s mouth, already too tight from trying to keep her spirit in. (4) She fed her this soup, but that night Popo flew away with her illness.

G (1) Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.

H (1) This is how a daughter honors her mother. (2) It is shou so deep it is in your bones. (3) The pain of the flesh is nothing. (4) The pain you must forget. (5) Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. (6) You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. (7) Until there is nothing. (8) No scar, no skin, no flesh.

Activity C9.1

Look at paragraph D and identify the minor sentence in it. How could you include it in the previous sentence?

Activity C9.2

Look at paragraph A and identify the conjunctions. How do they relate their clause to the main clause?

Activity C9.3

Look at paragraph H and study the sentences in it.

a) How many finite verb phrases (see A6) are there, i.e. how many clauses? Which sentence does not have a finite verb phrase?

b) Which other sentences are also incomplete (minor), although they have a finite verb phrase?

c) Analyse the major sentences according to whether they are simple or multiple, compound or complex.)

d) Analyse the main clause elements in these sentences. Which one has an unusual word order?

e) How many grammatical (as opposed to graphological) sentences are there? How could you rewrite the whole paragraph in ’grammatical’ sentences?

Activity C9.4

In sentence (4) of the above activity the object has been ’fronted’. Why is this so? Can you find another sentence in the text where this has taken place?

Activity C9.5

Another feature of the text is ellipsis (see B11). Look at sentence (A5) and the second clause in (D6) and rewrite them in full.

Comments

Activity C9.1: (2) is a minor sentence. It could be added to (1) as follows:

I saw my mother, quiet and sad, on the other side of the room.

Technically, (4) is also a minor sentence (a clause fragment) that could be added to sentence (3).

Activity C9.2:

There are four conjunctions: but (2), because (4), and (4), and when (6). Both but and because are used to initiate their graphological sentences (and so are part of minor sentences), while and and when are used ’properly’, to join their clause to the previous one.

Activity C9.3:

a) In total there are 10 finite verb phrases - and therefore 10 clauses. (The verbs are underlined in the version below.) Sentence (8) has no finite verb phrase - in fact it has no verb at all.

b) (5) and (7) are minor sentences - clause fragments, in fact. (5) contains another (subordinate) clause.

c) (1) and (2) are multiple (complex) sentences; (3), (4) and (6) are simple sentences.

d) (1) SVPs. There is also a subordinate clause introduced by how.

(2) SVPs. There is also a subordinate clause introduced by so . . . that.

(3) SVPs. Note the repetition of this basic clause pattern in the first three sentences.

(4) OSV. This is an unusual word order; the object has been ’fronted’ (see A11).

(6) SVO. Note the co-ordinated object, with and repeated.

e) overall there are five grammatical sentences. The graphological sentence (5) would be joined to (4), and (7) and (8) would be joined to (6).

This is how the paragraph would be if written using only grammatical sentence divisions (the original ’sentence’ numbers have been left in place):

(1) This is how a daughter honors her mother. (2) It is shou so deep it is in your bones. (3) The pain of the flesh is nothing. (4) The pain you must forget, (5) because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. (6) You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her, (7) until there is nothing: (8) no scar, no skin, no flesh.

This separation of ’grammatical’ sentences into smaller graphological sentences is typical of a certain ’literary’, creative style of writing.

Activity C9.4:

The reason for fronting The pain is so that it parallels sentence (3). The other sentence with a fronted object is A(7).

Activity C9.5:

(A5) She did not come to me and beg me to forgive her.

(D6) . . . but could not close my eyes.