Last Updated July 28, 2000
 
The KISS Approach to Sentence Structure
-- by Dr. Ed Vavra
Alternative Explanations

     The object of the KISS approach is to enable teachers and students to use a limited set of categories and concepts to discuss how any word in any sentence is syntactically related to a main subject and verb. Not all grammarians and linguists agree with the explanations of the KISS approach, but the KISS objective is to develop a practical skill without getting bogged down in details. Often, within the KISS approach, more than one explanation is acceptable. Although it may occasionally be fun to explore the different implications of each, in general, teachers should accept both -- and move on. One of the primary reasons for the failure of current instruction in grammar in our classrooms is that it gets too focussed on details -- and students never get to see the big picture. This page is devoted to some of the alternatives, but it should be used as a reference document (Many pages link back to it.) and not as a primary document for study.

Alternative Explanations
"Than" -- Preposition or Subordinate Conjunction?

     As I frequently tell students, little words cause the most problems. My favorite dictionary (Webster's New Collegiate, 1961) claims that "than" is a conjunction, not a preposition. It seems, however, both more logical and easier to consider it as both, depending on the context.
     Because "than" is often used with ellipsis, it is sometimes necessary to consider it as a subordinate conjunction. My favorite example of this is a sentence written by a young lady:

No one can train a horse better than me.
Expanded, this sentence means 
No one can train a horse better than *they can train* me.
That is not what the woman meant, but a number of young men may have, as a result of the sentence, had thoughts in that direction. When we view "than" as a conjunction, we need to consider the full S/V pattern that follows it.
     But should we always consider "than" as a conjunction? If I write:
Her explanation is better than mine.
do I necessarily mean:
Her explanation is better than mine *is good.*
What if mine is bad? What if both hers and mine are bad, but hers is simply a better bad than mine? To me, there are cases in which the explanation using the preposition simply makes more sense.
     It is, of course, also easier, especially because the KISS approach begins with prepositional phrases. At that level of study, I would never consider as incorrect an answer that marked "than" as a preposition. On the other hand, at that level, I would never consider a "than" that was not marked as a preposition as an incorrect answer either. In other words, at the level of prepositional phrases, I would simply ignore the problem of "than." Once students are learning about clauses, we would confront the problem, solving it, as always in the KISS approach, by appeals to meaning.
     The following example from Aesop's fables clearly suggests that, despite the dictionary, "than" can be considered a preposition:
"There is always someone worse off than yourself." (Aesop's "The Hares and the Frogs")
["Yourself" cannot be viewed here as the subject of an ellipsed clause -- "yourself *is bad off.* Certainly it makes more sense to see "than yourself" as a prepositional phrase.]

Alternative Explanations
Prepositional Phrases: Adjective or Adverb?

     Different people often see prepositional phrases as modifying different words in a sentence. For example, in "The Ant and the Grasshopper," Aesop writes:

"I am helping to lay up food {for the winter,"}
Some people will see "{for winter}" as an adjective modifying "food"; others will want to consider it as an adverb (of purpose) explaining "lay up." Because both explanations are within the rules of KISS grammar, both should be considered correct.


Alternative Explanations
Verbal Tags

     Verbal tags are words which look like prepositions, but which do not function as such. Consider:

She ran up the hill; he ran up the flag.
{"Up the hill"} indicates where she ran, but he probably raised the flag up the flagpole.  Sometimes, as in "Come on," it is almost impossible to imagine a word which would make the verbal tag into a preposition. Often the verbal tag can simply be left out without much loss of meaning: "Come on" = "Come." A general rule of KISS grammar is that:
If a verb plus verbal tag can be replaced with one 
      word ("ran up" = "raised"), (More examples.)
or if the verbal tag can be left out without major 
      loss of meaning ("Come on" = "Come"),
then the tag is simply considered either as an adverb 
      or as part of the verb phrase.
This rule enables alternative explanations for several verbs, the most frequently used of which is "look at" (= "watch"). Thus
They were looking at the doggies in the window.
can be analyzed either as "were looking {at the doggies}" or as an S / V / DO pattern: "They / were looking at / the doggies."

Examples of other verbs that can replace verbal tags:

cry out = scream
go on = continue
look like = resemble
look out for = seek, guard, avoid, watch
put up with = endure
think of = remember
think up = invent
went in = entered
went up = approached
Remember that this list is not comprehensive. Just use your head -- yours is as good as mine -- and think about the meaning of what you are analyzing.

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(1881-1973)
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