Chapter 7: Parsing Sentences

What Is Parsing?

Parsing is the systematic analysis of a sentence into its grammatical components. For each word, you identify:

1. Its part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.)
2. Its grammatical form (tense, case, number, etc.)
3. Its syntactic function (subject, object, modifier, etc.)
4. Its relationships to other words

If you can parse English sentences accurately, you can parse sentences in any language. The grammatical categories are the same — only the surface markers differ.

Part One: Parsing English Sentences

The Basic Questions

For every sentence, ask:

1. What is the main verb? (This is the heart of the sentence)
2. Who or what is the subject? (Who/what does the action or is described?)
3. Are there any objects? (Who/what receives the action?)
4. Are there any complements? (What completes the meaning?)
5. What modifies what? (Which words describe other words?)
6. Are there subordinate clauses? (Embedded sentences within the sentence?)

Simple Sentences: One Clause

Pattern 1: Subject + Verb (SV)

The simplest possible sentence: someone/something does something.

Example 1.1: Birds sing.

Example 1.2: The old clock ticked loudly.

Subject NP: The old clock - HEAD: clock - Determiner: The - Pre-modifier: old

Example 1.3: My grandmother’s cat sleeps peacefully on the warm windowsill every afternoon.

Subject NP: My grandmother’s cat - HEAD: cat - Possessive phrase: My grandmother’s

Adverbial PP: on the warm windowsill Adverbial NP: every afternoon (time expression)

Pattern 2: Subject + Verb + Direct Object (SVO)

The subject does something to something/someone.

Example 2.1: The dog bit the man.

Test for direct object: The dog bit WHAT? → the man

Example 2.2: She carefully opened the old wooden box.

Note on adjective order: old wooden not wooden old — age before material.

Example 2.3: The exhausted marathon runner finally crossed the finish line.

Example 2.4: I have never seen such a beautiful sunset in my entire life.

Verb analysis: - have = auxiliary (perfect aspect) - seen = past participle (HEAD of VP)

Pattern 3: Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object (SVOO)

The subject gives/sends/tells something to someone.

Example 3.1: She gave him a book.

Test: She gave WHAT? → a book (direct object) Test: She gave a book TO WHOM? → him (indirect object)

Example 3.2: The teacher asked the students a difficult question.

Example 3.3: My grandfather told us fascinating stories about the war every Christmas.

Pattern 4: Subject + Verb + Subject Complement (SVC)

With linking verbs (be, seem, become, appear, etc.), the complement describes the subject.

Example 4.1: She is a doctor.

Key: doctor refers back to she — they are the same person.

Example 4.2: The weather became extremely cold.

Example 4.3: Your explanation seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Example 4.4: After the accident, he remained unconscious for three days.

Pattern 5: Subject + Verb + Object + Object Complement (SVOC)

The complement describes or renames the object, not the subject.

Example 5.1: They elected her president.

Key: president describes her, not they.

Example 5.2: The news made everyone extremely happy.

Example 5.3: I consider this book absolutely essential for beginners.

Passive Voice

In passive sentences, the subject receives the action rather than performing it.

Example 6.1: The letter was written by the secretary.

Active equivalent: The secretary wrote the letter.

Example 6.2: The children were being carefully watched by their grandmother.

Tense: Past progressive passive

Example 6.3: This problem has never been properly addressed.

Note: No agent expressed — we don’t know who should have addressed it.

Questions

Questions rearrange the normal word order.

Example 7.1: Did she write the letter?

Declarative equivalent: She did write the letter. / She wrote the letter.

Example 7.2: What did the witness see?

Answer would replace what: The witness saw the accident.

Example 7.3: Who gave you this information?

Example 7.4: Why has the project been delayed so many times?

Complex Sentences: Multiple Clauses

Relative Clauses

A relative clause modifies a noun, introduced by who, whom, whose, which, that.

Example 8.1: The woman who lives next door is a famous author.

Full parse:

Example 8.2: The book that I borrowed from the library has been lost.

Example 8.3: The students whose essays were submitted late received a penalty.

Adverbial Clauses

Adverbial clauses modify the main verb, answering when, why, how, where, under what condition.

Example 9.1: When the bell rang, the students rushed out of the classroom.

Example 9.2: Although she was exhausted, she continued working until midnight.

Example 9.3: If you heat water to 100 degrees Celsius, it boils.

Conditional type: Zero conditional (general truth)

Example 9.4: Because the traffic was terrible, we arrived late even though we had left early.

Three clauses:

Noun Clauses

Noun clauses function as subjects, objects, or complements.

Example 10.1: I believe that she is telling the truth.

The entire clause that she is telling the truth functions as the direct object of believe.

Example 10.2: What you said surprised everyone.

The clause What you said functions as the subject of the sentence.

Example 10.3: The question is whether we can afford it.

The clause whether we can afford it functions as the subject complement.

Compound Sentences

Two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions.

Example 11.1: The sun was setting, and the birds were returning to their nests.

Connection: and (addition)

Example 11.2: She wanted to stay, but her train was leaving in an hour.

Connection: but (contrast)

Example 11.3: Either you apologize immediately, or I will never speak to you again.

Connection: Either…or (alternative, correlative conjunction)

Compound-Complex Sentences

Multiple independent clauses plus at least one dependent clause.

Example 12.1: When the alarm went off, everyone panicked, and several people rushed toward the exits.

Example 12.2: The professor who taught the course retired last year, but his methods are still being used by other instructors.

Part Two: Features Requiring Other Languages

Some grammatical structures don’t exist in English but are essential for other languages.

Case (Latin, Greek, German)

English shows grammatical function through word order. Inflected languages show it through case endings.

English: The soldier saw the enemy. (SVO order tells us who saw whom)

Latin: Mīles hostem vīdit. OR Hostem mīles vīdit. OR Vīdit hostem mīles. (All mean the same — mīles is nominative, hostem is accusative)

Grammatical Gender Agreement (All except English)

English: the good farmer (no change) Latin: agricola bonus (masc.) / puella bona (fem.) / oppidum bonum (neut.)

Subjunctive Mood (Limited in English)

English: If I were rich… (rare subjunctive) Latin/Greek/Spanish/French: Subjunctive used extensively in subordinate clauses

The Aorist (Greek, Spanish, French)

A past tense viewing action as a simple complete event (vs. imperfect for ongoing).

Accusative + Infinitive (Latin)

Latin: Dīcō eum venīre. (I say him to-come = I say that he is coming)

The subject of the indirect statement goes into the accusative.

The Middle Voice (Greek)

The subject acts on or for itself.

Practice Sentences

Parse these English sentences completely:

1. The frightened child quickly ran to his mother.
2. After the concert ended, we walked slowly through the park.
3. The book that my professor recommended has finally arrived.
4. She told me that the meeting had been postponed.
5. Although everyone disagreed with him, the chairman refused to change his decision.
6. What really matters is how you treat other people.
7. The old house on the corner, which has been empty for years, was finally sold yesterday.
8. If I had known about the problem earlier, I would have tried to help.
9. Neither the manager nor the employees were satisfied with the outcome.
10. Having finished her homework, the student went outside to play.

Punctuation and Sentence Boundaries

Before parsing, you must identify where sentences begin and end. See Punctuation and Sentence Boundaries for full coverage of:

• Sentence-ending punctuation (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark)
• Internal punctuation (comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe)
• Quotation marks and reported speech
• Brackets and parentheses
• Punctuation differences across languages
• The sentence boundary algorithm

Key principle: Parse each independent clause as a complete unit. Use the punctuation to identify clause boundaries before analysing grammatical structure.

Summary: The Parsing Process

1. IDENTIFY the main verb(s)
2. FIND the subject of each verb
3. IDENTIFY objects and complements
4. ANALYZE modifiers (adjectives → nouns, adverbs → verbs)
5. IDENTIFY prepositional phrases and their functions
6. MAP clause structure (main vs. subordinate)
7. DETERMINE clause types and relationships

Key Questions for Each Word

Previous: Chapter 6A: Conditional Sentences

Next: Appendix A: Glossary