Drawing Syntax before Syntactic Trees: Stephen Watkins Clark’s Sentence Diagrams (1847)

Nicolas Mazziotta
Université de Liège & Universität Stuttgart
Summary

This contribution investigates the syntactic conceptions of, and the diagramming system introduced by, the American grammarian Stephen Watkins Clark (1810–1901), who introduced the first comprehensive syntactic diagramming system. The structure of the English sentence is illustrated by agglutinated ‘bubbles’ expressing the relations between words by the means of their relative position. The sentence consists of two or three horizontally aligned bubbles containing words that are called principal elements. These principal elements can be complemented with adjunct elements, that appear in bubbles attached below them. For grammatical words the conventions differ depending on whether the grammatical word is a preposition or a conjunction. Coordination is never named as such, but there is an orthogonal abstract relation that connects elements performing the same role in a “compound” construction. The system allows recursivity in two different ways: by wrapping bubbles into other bubbles, thus following a mereological logic (i.e., partwhole relations) close to IC analysis or by hierarchically aggregating bubbles that resemble dependency trees. Clark’s conceptions thus prefigure modern graphical formalizations.

Quick links
Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

A.Primary sources

Barnard, Frederick Augustus Porter
1836 Analytic Grammar, with symbolic illustration. New York: French.Google Scholar
Barrett, Solomon Jr
1845 Principles of English Grammar: being a compendious treatise on the languages, English, Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, and French. Founded on the immutable principle of the relation which one words sustains to another. Albany, N. Y.: Munsell.Google Scholar
Becker, Karl Ferdinand
1836 Ausführliche deutsche Grammatik als Kommentar der Schulgrammatik. Frankfurt: Kettembeil.Google Scholar
Billroth, Johann Gustav Friedrich
1832 Lateinische Syntax für die obern Klassen gelehrter Schulen. Leipzig: Weidmann.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Leonard
1984 [1933] Language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brown, James
1831 The American Grammar. Prepared for the use of Schools by the author. Philadelphia: Clark & Raser.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1957 Syntactic Structures. Mouton: The Hague. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, Stephen Watkins
1847 Science of English Language. A practical Grammar: in which words, phrases, and sentences are classified according to their offices, and their relations to each other. Illustrated by a complete system of diagrams. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. [= PG1 ]. Revised edition 1855 [= PG2 ].Google Scholar
1851 Analysis of the English Language, with a complete classification of sentences and phrases according to their grammatical structure; designed as an introduction to English grammar. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. [= AE].Google Scholar
1856 First Lessons in English Grammar. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co.Google Scholar
1859 A Key to Clark’s Grammar. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. [= Key ].Google Scholar
1870a The Normal Grammar: Analytic & Synthetic. Illustrated by diagrams. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. [= NG].Google Scholar
1870b A Key to Clark’s Normal Grammar, in which the analysis of the sentences in the grammar are indicated by the diagrams, and the examples of grammatic fallacies are corrected. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co.Google Scholar
1871 A Critical Grammar. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co.Google Scholar
1874 English Grammar for Beginners, with illustrations and diagrams. New York & Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co.Google Scholar
1875 Easy Lessons in Language; with illustrations and diagrams. New York & Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co.Google Scholar
1876 Brief English Grammar, with illustrations and diagrams. New York & Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co.Google Scholar
Kern, Franz
1883 Zur Methodik des deutschen Unterrichts. Berlin: Stricker.Google Scholar
Arnauld, Antoine & Lancelot, Claude
1660 Grammaire générale et raisonnée; contenant les fondements de l’art de parler; expliquez d’une manière claire et naturelle; les raisons de ce qui est commun à toutes les langues et des principales différences qui s’y rencontrent; et plusieurs remarques nouvelles sur la langue françoise. Paris: Pierre le Petit.Google Scholar
Lowth, Robert
1762 A Short Introduction to English Grammar with critical notes. London: Millar & Dodsley.Google Scholar
Murray, Lindley
1795 English Grammar, adapted to the different classes of learners. With an appendix, containing rules and observations for promoting perspicuity in speaking and writing. York, England: Wilson, Spence & Mawman.Google Scholar
1828a [1808] An English Grammar, comprehending the principles and the rules of the language. Illustrated by appropriate exercises and a key to the exercises. A new edition. Vol. I. New York: Thomas Wilson & Co.Google Scholar
1828b [1808] An English Grammar, comprehending the principles and the rules of the language. Illustrated by appropriate exercises and a key to the exercises. A new edition. Vol. II. New York: Thomas Wilson & Co.Google Scholar
Nida, Eugene A.
1960 A Synopsis of English Syntax. Norman, Oklahoma: University Book Exchange.Google Scholar
Peirce, Oliver B.
1843 The Grammar of the English Language. Watertown, New York: Knowlton & Rice.Google Scholar
Putnam, John March
1831 [1828] English Grammar, with an improved syntax. Concord: Hoag & Atwood.Google Scholar
Reed, Alonzo & Brainerd Kellogg
1876 Graded Lessons in English. New York: Clark & Maynard.Google Scholar
1877 Higher Lessons in English. New York: Clark & Maynard.Google Scholar
Sweet, Henry
1892 A New English Grammar: Logical and historical. Part I: Introduction, phonology, and accidence. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Tesnière, Lucien
1959 Éléments de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
2015 Elements of Structural Syntax. Translated by Timothy Osborne and Sylvain Kahane. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wundt, Wilhelm
1900 Völkerpsychologie. Vol. I: Die Sprache. Leipzig: Kröner.Google Scholar

B.Secondary sources

Aarts, Bas & April McMahon
eds. 2006 The Handbook of English Linguistics, Malden, Oxford–Victoria: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Becker, Tilman & Hans-Ulrich Krieger
eds. 1997 Proceedings of the 5th Meeting of the Mathematics of Language (MOL5). Saarbrücken: DFKI.Google Scholar
Bingen, Jean, André Coupez & Francine Mawet
1980 Recherches de linguistique: hommage à Maurice Leroy, Bruxelles: Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Brittain, Richard Coutler
1973 A Critical History of Systems of Sentence Diagramming in English. Austin: University of Texas [Ph.D., unpublished.]Google Scholar
Caddéo, Sandrine, Marie-Noëlle Roubaud, Magali Rouquier & Frédéric Sabio
eds. 2012 Penser les langues avec Claire Blanche-Benveniste. Aix-en-Provence: Presses universitaires de Provence.Google Scholar
Coseriu, Eugenio
1980 “Un pécurseur méconnu de la syntaxe structurale: H. Tiktin”. Bingen et al. 1980.48–62.Google Scholar
Downey, Charlotte
1991 “Trends that Shaped the Development of 19th Century American Grammar Writing”. Leitner 1991.27–38.Google Scholar
Florey, Kitty Burns
2006 Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The quirky history and lost art of diagramming sentences. Hoboken: Melville House Publishing.Google Scholar
Gammon, E. G.
1963 “On Representing Syntactic Structure”. Language 39.369–397. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Görlach, Manfred
1998 An Annotated Bibliography of 19th-Century Grammars of English. Amsterdam & Philadephia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Graffi, Giorgio
2001 200 Years of Syntax: A critical survey. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hagen, Karl
undated]. Polysyllabic [online blog] http://​www​.polysyllabic​.com/
Hays, David G.
1965 An Annotated Bibliography of Publications on Dependency Theory. Santa Monica, Calif.: The RAND Corporation.Google Scholar
Hudson, Richard
2010 An Introduction to Word Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 “Sentence Diagramming”. Language Log [online blog] http://​languagelog​.ldc​.upenn​.edu​/nll​/?p​=9431
Huston, Jon
1954 An Analysis of English Grammar Textbooks Used in American Schools before 1850. University of Pittsburgh. [Ph.D., unpublished; cf. Nietze 1961: 110]Google Scholar
Kahane, Sylvain
1997 “Bubble Trees and Syntactic Representations”. Becker & Krieger 1997.70–76.Google Scholar
2012 “De l’analyse en grille à la modélisation des entassements”. Caddéo et al. 2010.101–114.Google Scholar
Law, Vivien
2003 The History of Linguistics in Europe, from Plato to 1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leitner, Gerhard
ed. English Traditional Grammars: an International Perspective Amsterdam & Philadelphia John Benjamins DOI logo
Linn, Andrew
2006 “English Grammar Writing”. Aarts & McMahon 2006.72–92. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mel’čuk, Igor
1988 Dependency Syntax. Albany: State University of New York.Google Scholar
Nietze, John A.
1961 Old Textbooks: Spelling, Grammar, Reading, Arithmetic, Geography, American History, Civil Government, Physiology, Penmanship, Art, Music, as Taught in the Common Schools from Colonial Days to 1900. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Osborne, Timothy
2006 “Shared Material and Grammar: Toward a dependency grammar theory of non-gapping coordination for English and German”. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 25.39–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Percival, W. Keith
1976 “On the Historical Source of Immediate-Constituent Analysis”. http://​people​.ku​.edu​/~percival​/ICanalysis​.html. [online article] DOI logo
2007 “On the Historical Source of Immediate-Constituent Analysis. Further thougths”. http://​people​.ku​.edu​/~percival​/ICanalysis​.html. [online article]
Swiggers, Pierre
1997 Histoire de la pensée linguistique: analyse du langage et réflexion linguistique dans la culture occidentale, de l’Antiquité au XIX e siècle, Paris: PUF.Google Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
ed. 2008a Grammars, Grammarians and Grammar-writing in Eighteenth Century England. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008b “Grammars, Grammarians and Grammar Writing: An introduction”. Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2008a.1–14.Google Scholar
Trips, Carola
2015 English Syntax in Three Dimensions: History-Synchrony-Diachrony. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar