A sentence diagram is a pictoral representation of the gramatical structure of a sentence in a natural language.
A sentence diagram is a form of a parse tree.
System
A simple sentence is shown as
- subject | verb
for example:
- I | am
The diagram of a simple sentence begins with a single basic horizontal line. The "main content" of the sentence will be placed here. On the left side of the line, a single word is placed; it is a noun or a pronoun and functions as the subject of the sentence's main clause. To the right of the subject, a vertical line is drawn intersecting the base line; the base line bisects it. To the right of this vertical line a single word is placed; it is a verb and it is the verb of the function's main clause. If the verb is a linking verb, and a predicate noun or predicate adjective is present, it is placed to the right of the verb, separated by a backslash. If the verb is not a linking verb an a direct object is present, it is placed to the right of a vertical line intersecting the base line but not passing all the way through.
Modifiers of the subject, verb, or object are placed below the base line. Adjectives (including articles) are placed on slanted lines below the word they modify. Prepositional phrases are also placed beneath the word they modify; the preposition goes on a slanted line and the slanted line leads to a horizontal line on which the object of the preposition is placed.
Compound subjects, verbs, objects, etc. are drawn with as multiple horizontal lines stacked vertically, joined at each end by a fan of diagonal lines; the coordinating conjunction goes on a vertical line through the left ends of the horizontal lines.
History
Sentence diagrams have been used for teaching grammar.
External links
