I
Simple Sentences

The material for logical analysis consists of little rolls of fairly stiff paper, on which are printed simple, compound and complex sentences, in carefully prepared series.

There is also a chart, divided into two columns of rectangular spaces, with the name of one sentence element printed in each space. The sentence read on the roll can be torn off part by part, and each of these parts is placed in one of the rectangles, according to the name printed on it. This is another application of the compartment box method used to analyze first the alphabet, then the sounds which go to make up the word, finally the words as parts of speech. Here, the compartments are reduced to a simple design.

The charts for logical analysis are on colored paper and are artistically drawn and decorated. We have charts of four different kinds as regards ornament and color, for such details exert a considerable influence upon the work of the children. On the following page is a sample of the charts with its "sections."

Chart A

The two spaces at the top, subject and predicate, are somewhat larger and are more conspicuously decorated than the other rectangles below. The words subject and verb are printed entirely in large capitals. The other[125]
[126] spaces, however, are much more simply decorated and the words are in small letters. This helps to distinguish the principal from the secondary elements in the sentences. The names of the parts of speech, and the questions which bring out the meaning of these names, are in different colors: for instance, the names may be black and the questions red, or the names may be in red and the questions in green. And the letters of the questions are larger than the letters of the names, except in the two upper spaces, where the words subject and verb are in the largest type.

The child begins to see what a sentence is: that is, he begins to concentrate on this particular question. How many times he has read sentences, pronounced sentences, composed sentences! But now he is examining them in detail, studying them. The simple sentence is a short proposition, with completed meaning, which expresses an action or a situation, organizing its different parts around a verb.

The first exercise for the child must be to find the verb, a task not very difficult after the preceding exercises on the parts of speech have been performed. When he has found the verb, it becomes essential for him to find the subject. The subject may be found by asking the question: Who is it that—? For example:

The word reads is the verb. The section of the roll where the word reads appears is torn off and placed in the space marked Verb. Then ask: "Who is it that reads?" The answer is, "The child reads." The section containing the word the child is torn off and placed in the space marked Subject.

Another sentence: on the roll the child finds written:

The teacher can briefly explain that the verb taken by itself, has no special meaning. Is means nothing! "Is? Is what?" Some attribute must be added: "Is broken!" Here we get a nominal predicate. When the verb contains some definite meaning in terms of action, for instance reads, we get a verbal predicate. The section of the roll containing is broken is torn off, accordingly, and placed in the space of the verb. But what is broken? The glass! The section containing the words the glass is placed in the space of the subject. All of this can be copied off by the child by hand, as follows:

The first roll contains the following simple sentences without modifiers of any kind:

The roll contains the following sentences, written one after another:

Example of application: The section containing the first sentence,

Now the child can copy off these analyses immediately or make others, as he thinks best. The copy may be as follows:

In classifying the vocatives and attributives, a little help from the teacher may be required. Example:

The word Louis can be dramatized somewhat into a kind of invocation, as—O Louis, you may keep the book and so on. Vocatives can almost always be identified by trying the exclamatory O before them.

In the sentence,

The roll contains the following sentences in sections which may be read and torn off one after the other as the child unrolls the strip:

[This situation does not however arise in English, which, save in the imperative, always requires at least a pronominal subject for the verb.]

Here, the child interprets the sentence, completing it and finding the element that is lacking.

The Order of Elements in the Sentence: Permutations

The English (the Italian) language tends to follow the direct order in prose, inversion being very rare.

In poetry, inversion is very common.

The direct order consists in placing: first, the subject, then the predicate, then the objects, direct and indirect; then the modifiers follow according to the importance they derive from the meaning of the sentence.

These ideas are after all so simple and clear that the child rarely has any difficulty in understanding them. Nevertheless, it is much easier to give the child a vivid impression of them by the permutation of parts than by explanation. This permutation is made very convenient by the sentences being printed in sections which may be moved about and combined at will. Just as the sequence of the various parts of speech was made clear by transposing the parts, here the same result can be accomplished by transposing the sections of the printed slip. Example:

The following combinations are possible results of permutation:

We—heard—the clatter—of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement.

We—the clatter—heard—on the pavement—of the horse's hoofs.

We—of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement—the clatter—heard.

Of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement—heard—the clatter—we, etc., etc.

The effect of direct and inverted order can be shown in every sentence. But it is better to try examples of inversion from poetic language. In this series, all the sentences show inversion of one type or another:

Exercises on the putting together of sentence elements can lead to practise in the identification and use of grammatical forms as parts of speech, which the study of single words would not at first permit; as for instance, forms of the verbs used as nouns (infinitive and gerund as subject and object), the difference between personal pronouns used as direct or indirect objects, and so on.

The roll contains the two forms of the verb, active and passive, in sections. The analysis is conducted on the chart for the simple sentence:

The sentences previously given for analysis in teaching the personal pronouns can be used over again at this point for analysis on the sentence-chart.

The exercise in permutation brings out the relative positions of the direct and indirect objects; as also the conditions under which the preposition to is required before the indirect object.

II
Compound and Complex Sentences

Here we are dealing with a number of propositions (clauses) which combine into one complete meaning. The clauses fit together in the sentences just as did the various elements in the simple sentence. The material for the analysis is therefore analogous to that used in the analysis of the simple sentence: strips of paper in rolls on which are written the sentences to be analyzed, and a chart with spaces where the detached pieces may be placed, according to the designation of these spaces.

The principal space on the chart is reserved for the main clause, around which the other clauses are arranged, as coordinate or subordinate.

Since the work of logical analysis of the complex sentence is sufficiently interesting to attract the attention of the child to various forms of study, the material contains in addition to the rolls and the chart, a number of test-cards where the analysis is completed and logically demonstrated. These cards serve as tests of the accuracy of the work done by the children, and as actual charts for analytical study. Of course, when the child is doing his exercise with the strips of paper and the chart, he does not have these test-cards before him. He should, however, always have free access to them. His interest in the game is to succeed by himself in placing the different propositions where they belong.

The clauses are independent of each other. Each contains a complete meaning, and each therefore could stand alone. It is a question of simple sentences coordinated with each other.

The child divides these sentences into clauses, analyzing each separately. Then, placing one under the other, he is impressed by the fact that each has a complete meaning and can stand by itself; save that in English the subject of the first clause is often carried over to the second:

Here only the main clause has a complete meaning. The other clauses make sense only when they are united with the main clause. On this roll, the subordinate clauses are attributes of one of the elements of the main clause (relative clauses).

In the preceding roll, the subordinate clauses completed the meaning and constituted an attribute of one word of the principal clause. Here, however, the subordinate clauses refer to the whole content of the main clause and complete the whole thought of the main clause. They have, therefore, a logical dependence on the main clause. The child will be guided in finding the place of the different subordinate clauses and in classifying them according to the designations of the spaces by the questions which appear in the analytical chart. It is presupposed that he can readily identify the main clause itself.

The following sentences come one after the other on the rolled strip of paper:

Here we have sentences both compound and complex, containing both coordinate and subordinate clauses.

The clauses are here dependent upon each other:

Our material makes it very easy for the children to understand the mutual dependence of the subordinate clauses. We take the commonest cases within easy reach of the children. There are clauses of the first degree of subordination, dependent directly on the principal clause. There are others of the second degree of subordination which depend on a subordinate clause (clause subordinate to a subordinate). We have the same situation in coordinates. We have the first degree of coordination when the clause is parallel with the principal clause, and the second degree when the clause is parallel with a subordinate clause.

Since the slips have as many sections as there are clauses, the clauses may be arranged on the table in the order of their subordination, keeping, for example, the principal clause to the left, and arranging the subordinate clauses downward and downward to the right. Take, for instance, the sentence:

As the different clauses are torn off they are placed on a chart marked into sections by vertically placed arrows: the principal clause to the right of the first arrow; the first subordinate clause to the right of the second; the subordinate to the subordinate to the right of the third, and so on. The above sentence results as follows:

CHART C

Permutations

The preceding exercises have created in the child a notion of sentence construction and of the position of the clauses which make it up. Our material permits, of course, as an exercise supplementary to the analyses, dislocations and translocations of parts just as was true with the simple sentence. To derive the full benefit of this possibility, the teacher should have in mind the general rules for location of clauses:

Adjective clauses (relative, attributive) always follow, and most often directly, the noun they modify.

Subject subordinate clauses may stand either before or after the principal clause. If the subject clause follows, it is usually anticipated before the verb by the pronoun it (just as a following noun subject is anticipated by there).

(In Italian, if the object clause precedes the main clause, it is usually repeated before the noun by a conjunctive object personal pronoun.)

The position of the other clauses depends on considerations of emphasis.

The direct order for complex sentences is in general similar to that for simple sentences:

The special exercises on the complex sentence conclude with some practise in turning simple inversions as found in poetry into direct sentence order.

The detachable strips are used here also. The exercise should be conducted with reference to the sentence charts.

(Note: the best English poetry makes far less use of inversion than does Italian. Such exercises as the above could be profitably applied to the analysis of the different kinds of phrases (adjective, adverbial, etc.). It should be noted that Dr. Montessori in her own exercises treats verbal phrases (participles and infinitives) as subordinate clauses.—Tr.)

Coordinating and Subordinating Conjunctions

This study of the complex sentence leads the child to a more precise comprehension of the values of certain parts of speech as, notably, the conjunction. We have found, in fact, that little difficulty is experienced in realizing the distinction between the terms coordinating and subordinating as applied to conjunctions which unite clauses but in different ways. The following charts serve to cover the vast majority of cases that the child is likely to meet. We may add that at this point it may be found useful to have the child analyze the complex sentences which appeared in the commands and readings already familiar to him (see below under Reading).

Sequence of Tenses

A special series of exercises on the relations of the subordinate to the principal clause brings out the changes in tense made necessary in the subordinate clause as the tense of the principal clause varies.