Sentence Definition and Examples in English Grammar

Sentence Definition and Examples in English Grammar A sentence is the largest independent unit of grammar: it begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. The word sentence is from the Latin for to feel. The adjective form of the word is sentential. The sentence is traditionally (and inadequately) defined as a word or group of words that expresses a complete idea and that includes a subject and a verb. Types of Sentence Structures The four basic sentence structures are the: Simple: A  sentence  with only one  independent clause.Compound: Two (or more)  simple sentences  joined by a  conjunction  or an appropriate  mark of punctuation.Complex: A sentence that contains an  independent clause  (or  main clause) and at least one  dependent clause.Compound-complex: A  sentence  with two or more  independent clauses  and at least one  dependent clause. Functional Types of Sentences Declarative: Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.  (Mark Twain)Interrogative:  But what is the difference between literature and journalism? Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. (Oscar Wilde)Imperative:  Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. (Mark Twain)Exclamatory:  To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!  (H. L. Mencken) Definitions and Observations on Sentences I am trying to say it all in one sentence, between one Cap and one period. (William Faulkner in a letter to Malcolm Cowley) The term sentence is widely used to refer to quite different types of unit. Grammatically, it is the highest unit and consists of one independent clause, or two or more related clauses. Orthographically and rhetorically, it is that unit which starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. (Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2006) I have taken as my definition of a sentence any combination of words whatsoever, beyond the simple naming of an object of sense. (Kathleen Carter Moore, The Mental Development of a Child, 1896) [A sentence is a] unit of speech constructed according to language-dependent rules, which is relatively complete and independent in respect to content, grammatical structure, and intonation. (Hadumo Bussmann, Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. Trans. by Lee Forester et al. Routledge, 1996) A written sentence is a word or group of words that conveys meaning to the listener, can be responded to or is part of a response, and is punctuated. (Andrew S. Rothstein and Evelyn Rothstein, English Grammar Instruction That Works! Corwin Press, 2009) None of the usual definitions of a sentence really says much, but every sentence ought somehow to organize a pattern of thought, even if it does not always reduce that thought to bite-sized pieces. (Richard Lanham, Revising Prose. Scribners, 1979) The sentence has been defined as the largest unit for which there are rules of grammar. (Christian Lehmann, Theoretical Implications of Grammaticalization Phenomena, Published in The Role of Theory in Language Description, ed. by William A. Foley. Mouton de Gruyter, 1993) The Notional Definition of a Sentence Sidney Greenbaum and Gerald Nelson give a different take in explaining what a sentence is and does: It is sometimes said that a sentence expresses a complete thought. This is a notional definition: it defines a term by the notion or idea it conveys. The difficulty with this definition lies in fixing what is meant by a complete thought. There are notices, for example, that seem to be complete in themselves but are not generally regarded as sentences: Exit, Danger, 50 mph speed limit...On the other hand, there are sentences that clearly consist of more than one thought. Here is one relatively simple example: This week marks the 300th anniversary of the publication of Sir Isaac Newtons Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, a fundamental work for the whole of modern science and a key influence on the philosophy of the European Enlightenment. How many complete thoughts are there in this sentence? We should at least recognize that the part after the comma introduces two additional points about Newtons book: (1) that it is a fundamental work for the whole of modern science, and (2) that it was a key influence on the philosophy of the European Enlightenment. Yet this example would be acknowledged by all as a single sentence, and it is written as a single sentence. (Sidney Greenbaum and Gerald Nelson, An Introduction to English Grammar, 2nd ed. Pearson, 2002) Another Definition of a Sentence D.J. Allerton provides an alternative definition of a sentence: Traditional attempts to define the sentence were generally either psychological or logical-analytic in nature: the former type spoke of a complete thought or some other inaccessible psychological phenomenon; the latter type, following Aristotle, expected to find every sentence made up of a logical subject and logical predicate, units that themselves rely on the sentence for their definition. A more fruitful approach is that of [Otto] Jespersen (1924: 307), who suggests testing the completeness and independence of a sentence, by assessing its potential for standing alone, as a complete utterance. (D. J. Allerton. Essentials of Grammatical Theory. Routledge, 1979) Two-Part Definition of a Sentence Stanley Fish felt that a sentence can only be defined in two parts: A sentence is a structure of logical relationships. In its bare form, this proposition is hardly edifying, which is why I immediately supplement it with a simple exercise. Here, I say, are five words randomly chosen; turn them into a sentence. (The first time I did this the words were coffee, should, book, garbage and quickly.) In no time at all I am presented with 20 sentences, all perfectly coherent and all quite different. Then comes the hard part. What is it, I ask, that you did? What did it take to turn a random list of words into a sentence? A lot of fumbling and stumbling and false starts follow, but finally someone says, I put the words into a relationship with one another....Well, my bottom line can be summarized in two statements: (1) a sentence is an organization of items in the world; and (2) a sentence is a structure of logical relationships. (Stanley Fish, Devoid of Content. The New York Times, May 31, 2005. Also How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One. HarperCollins, 2011) The Lighter Side of Sentences Some authors a humorous view of a sentence: One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.An adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence... (Kenneth Koch, Permanently. Published in The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch. Borzoi Books, 2005)

The Life and Death of Marie-Antoinette

The Life and Death of Marie-Antoinette Marie Antoinette (born Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna von Ãâ€"sterreich-Lothringen; November 2,  1755–October 16,  1793) was an Austrian noble and French Queen Consort whose position as a hate figure for much of France helped contribute to the events of the French Revolution, during which she was executed. Fast Facts: Marie-Antoinette Known For:  As the queen of Louis XVI, she was executed during the French Revolution. She is often quoted as saying, Let them eat cake (there is no proof of this statement).Also Known As:  Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna von Ãâ€"sterreich-LothringenBorn:  November 2, 1755,  in Vienna (now in Austria)Parents: Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Austrian Empress Maria TheresaDied:  October 16, 1793, in Paris, FranceEducation: Private palace tutors  Spouse: King Louis XVI of FranceChildren: Marie-Thà ©rà ¨se-Charlotte, Louis Joseph Xavier Franà §ois, Louis Charles, Sophie Hà ©là ¨ne Bà ©atrice de FranceNotable Quote: I am calm, as people are whose consciences are clear. Early Years Marie-Antoinette was born on November 2nd, 1755. She was the eleventh daughter - eighth surviving - of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. All the royal sisters were called Marie as a sign of devotion to the Virgin Mary, and so the future queen became known by her second name – Antonia – which became Antoinette in France. She was bought up, like most noble women, to obey her future husband, an oddity given that her mother, Maria Theresa, was a powerful ruler in her own right. Her education was poor thanks to the choice of tutor, leading to later accusations that Marie was stupid; in fact, she was able with everything she was competently taught. Marriage to Dauphin Louis In 1756 Austria and France, long term enemies signed an alliance against the growing power of Prussia. This failed to quell the suspicions and prejudices each nation had long held for each other, and these problems were to affect Marie Antoinette deeply. However, to help cement the alliance it was decided that a marriage should be made between the two nations, and in 1770 Marie Antoinette was married to the heir to the French throne, Dauphin Louis. At this point her French was poor, and a special tutor was appointed. Marie now found herself in her mid-teens in a foreign country, largely cut off from the people and places of her childhood. She was in Versailles, a world where almost every action was governed by fiercely employed rules of etiquette which enforced and supported the monarchy, and which the young Marie thought ridiculous. However, at this early stage, she tried to adopt them. Marie Antoinette displayed what we would now call humanitarian instincts, but her marriage was far from happy to start with. Louis was often rumored to have had a medical problem which caused him pain during sex, but it’s likely he simply wasn’t doing the right thing, and so the marriage initially went unconsummated, and once it was there was still little chance of the much-desired heir being produced. The culture of the time - and her mother - blamed Marie, while close observation and attendant gossip undermined the future queen. Marie sought solace in a small circle of court friends, with whom later enemies would accuse her of hetero- and homosexual affairs. Austria had hoped that Marie Antoinette would dominate Louis and advance their own interests, and to this end first Maria Theresa and then Emperor Joseph II bombarded Marie with requests; in the end, she failed to have any effect on her husband until the French Revolution. Queen Consort of France Louis succeeded to the throne of France in 1774 as Louis XVI; at first, the new king and queen were wildly popular. Marie Antoinette had little regard or interest in court politics, of which there was a lot, and managed to offend by favoring a small group of courtiers in which foreigners seemed to dominate. It’s not surprising that Marie seemed to identify more with people away from their homelands, but public opinion often angrily interpreted this as Marie favoring others instead of the French. Marie masked over her early anxieties about children by growing ever more interested in court pursuits. In doing so she gained a reputation for outward frivolity - gambling, dancing, flirting, shopping - which has never gone away. But she was irreverent out of fear, self-doubting rather than self-absorbed. As Queen Consort Marie ran an expensive and opulent court, which was to be expected and certainly kept parts of Paris employed, but she did so at a time when French finances were collapsing, especially during and after the American Revolutionary War, so she was seen as a cause of wasteful excess. Indeed, her position as a foreigner to France, her expenditure, her perceived aloofness and her early lack of an heir led extreme slanders to be spread about her; claims of extramarital affairs were among the more benign, violent pornography was the other extreme. Opposition grew. The situation isn’t as clear cut as a gluttonous Marie spending freely as France collapsed. While Marie was keen to use her privileges - and she did spend - Marie rejected the established royal traditions and began to reshape the monarchy in a new fashion, rejecting stark formality for a more personal, almost friendly touch, possibly derived from her father. Out went the previous fashion on all but key occasions. Marie Antoinette favored privacy, intimacy, and simplicity over the previous Versailles regimes, and Louis XVI largely agreed. Unfortunately, a hostile French public reacted badly to these changes, interpreting them as signs of indolence and vice, as they undermined the way the French court had been built to survive. At some point, the phrase ‘Let them eat cake’ was falsely attributed to her. Queen, and Finally a Mother In 1778 Marie gave birth to her first child, a girl, and in 1781 the much longed for male heir arrived. Marie began to spend more and more time involved with her new family, and away from previous pursuits. Now the slanders moved away from Louis’ failings to the question of who the father was. The rumors continued to build, affecting both Marie Antoinette - who had previously managed to ignore them - and the French public, who increasingly saw the queen as a debauched, idiotic spendthrift who dominated Louis. Public opinion, on the whole, was turning. This situation worsened in 1785-6 when Maria was publicly accused in the ‘Affair of the Diamond Necklace’. Although she was innocent, she took the brunt of the negative publicity and the affair discredited the whole French monarchy. As Marie did begin to resist the pleas of her relatives to influence the King on behalf of Austria, and as Marie became more serious and engaged in the politics of France fully for the first time - she went to government meetings on issues which didn’t directly affect her - it so happened that France began to collapse into revolution. The King, with the country paralyzed by debt, tried to force reforms through an Assembly of Notables, and as this failed he became depressed. With an ill husband, a physically ill son, and the monarchy collapsing, Marie too became depressed and deeply afraid for her future, although she tried to keep the others afloat. Crowds now openly hissed at the Queen, who was nicknamed ‘Madame Deficit’ over her alleged spending. Marie Antoinette was directly responsible for the recall of Swiss banker Necker to the government, an openly popular move, but when her eldest son died in June 1789, the King and Queen fell into distraught mourning. Unfortunately, this was the exact moment when politics in France decisively changed. The Queen was now openly hated, and many of her close friends (who were also hated by association) fled France. Marie Antoinette stayed, out of feelings of duty and the sense of her position. It was to be a fatal decision, even if the mob only called for her to be sent to a convent at this point The French Revolution As the French Revolution developed, Marie had an influence over her weak and indecisive husband and was able to partly influence royal policy, although her idea of seeking sanctuary with the army away from both Versailles and Paris was rejected. As a mob of women stormed Versailles to harangue the king, a group broke into the queen’s bedroom shouting they wanted to kill Marie, who had just escaped to the king’s room. The royal family was coerced into moving to Paris, and effectively made prisoners. Marie decided to remove herself from the public eye as much as possible, and hope that she wouldn’t be blamed for the actions of aristocrats who had fled France and were agitating for foreign intervention. Marie appears to have become more patient, more pragmatic and, inevitably, more melancholic. For a while, life went on in a similar manner to before, in a strange sort of twilight. Marie Antoinette became then more pro-active again: it was Marie who negotiated with Mirabeau on how to save the crown, and Marie whose distrust of the man led to his advice being rejected. It was also Marie who initially arranged for her, Louis and the children to flee France, but they only reached Varennes before being caught. Throughout Marie Antoinette was insistent she would not flee without Louis, and certainly not without her children, who were still held in better regard than the king and queen. Marie also negotiated with Barnave on what form a constitutional monarchy might take, while also encouraging the Emperor to start armed protests, and form an alliance which would - as Marie hoped - threaten France into behaving. Marie worked frequently, diligently and in secret to help create this, but it was little more than a dream. As France declared war on Austria, Marie Antoinette was now seen as a literal enemy of the state by many. It is perhaps ironic that at the same instance as Marie began to distrust Austrian intentions under their new Emperor - she feared they would come for territory rather than in defense of the French crown - she still fed as much information as she could gather to the Austrians to aid them. The Queen had always been accused of treason and would be again at her trial, but a sympathetic biographer like Antonia Fraser argues Marie always thought her missives were in the best interest of France. The royal family was threatened by the mob before the monarchy was overthrown and the royals properly imprisoned. Louis was tried and executed, but not before Marie’s closest friend was murdered in the September Massacres and her head paraded on a pike before the royal prison. Trial and Death Marie Antoinette now became known, to those more charitably disposed to her, as Widow Capet. Louis’ death hit her hard, and she was allowed to dress in mourning. There was now debate over what to do with her: some hoped for an exchange with Austria, but the Emperor wasn’t overly worried about his aunt’s fate, while others wanted a trial and there was a tug of war between French government factions. Marie now grew very physically ill, her son was taken away, and she was moved to a new prison, where she became prisoner no. 280. There were ad hoc rescue attempts from admirers, but nothing came close. As influential parties in the French government finally got their way - they had decided the public should be given the head of the former queen - Marie Antoinette was tried. All the old slanders were trotted out, plus new ones like sexually abusing her son. While Marie responded at key times with great intelligence, the substance of the trial was irrelevant: her guilt had been pre-ordained, and this was the verdict. On October 16, 1793, she was taken to the guillotine, exhibiting the same courage and coolness with which she had greeted each episode of danger in the revolution, and executed. A Falsely Maligned Woman Marie Antoinette exhibited faults, such as spending frequently in an era when royal finances had been collapsing, but she remains one of the most incorrectly maligned figures in Europe’s history. She was at the forefront of a change in royal styles which would be widely adopted after her death, but she was in many ways too early. She was let down deeply by the actions of her husband and the French state to which she had been sent and cast aside much of her criticized frivolity once her husband had been able to contribute a family, allowing her to ably fulfill the role society wanted her to play. The days of the Revolution confirmed her as an able parent, and throughout her life as consort, she exhibited sympathy and charm. Many women in history have been the subject of slanders, but few ever reached the levels of those printed against Marie, and even fewer suffered as greatly from the way these stories affected public opinion. It is also unfortunate that Marie Antoinette was frequently accused of exactly what her relatives demanded of her - to dominate Louis and push policies favoring Austria - when Marie herself had no influence over Louis until the revolution. The question of her treason against France during the revolution is more problematic, but Marie thought she was acting loyally to the best interests of France, which was to her the French monarchy, not the revolutionary government.