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KISS Level 3.1.3. - Embedded
Clauses and the Analytical Process
Technically,
any subordinate clause is embedded in a main clause. But students do not
have much of a problem seeing the structure of a subordinate clause within
a main clause. They do, however, have problems untangling subordinate clauses
that are embedded in subordinate clauses that are embedded in subordinate
clauses. The exercises in this KISS Level are, therefore, simply aimed
at helping students untangle these levels of embedding.
Because
it is a classic and an excellent example of embedded subordinate clauses
(twelve deep), the last sentence of “The House That Jack Built” is the
first exercise in each of the KISS Level 3.1.3 sections. Exercises two
through six are just that. Most students will need practice at untangling
heavily embedded clauses. Exercise seven insures that every grade-level
will have at least one exercise based on a complete passage.The “suppose
you say that I said that she said” play in 78-word passage from Kipling’s
“The Beginning of the Armadilloes” makes it another humorous, but challenging
exercise with third and fourth level embeddings of subordinate clauses.
Suggested Directions for Analytical Exercises
[Note that these are identical to the
directions for Level 3.1.2]
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements
(“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or “DO”).
3. Place brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause. If the clause
functions as a noun, label its function. If it functions as an adjective
or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening bracket to the word that the
clause modifies.
4. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
For review, add:
5. Label each interjection (“Inj”), each noun used as an adverb (“NuA”),
and each example of direct address (“DirA”).
Probable Time Required
If you have been taking the low learning curve
apporach to clauses [See Level 3.1.2], you'll probably want to do three
or four exercises from this section. Ideally, at this point in your work
with KISS, your students should be spending most of their time with KISS
on logic and style exercises and on analyzing selections from their own
reading and writing.
The
Analytical Process
[Instructional
Material] |
| As the essay on "The
Importance of Method" suggests, method is always important, but
it is particularly important in learning to untangle deeply embedded subordinate
clauses. I have tried to suggest this in two sets of exercises, one on
twelve cut jokes about children in church, and one from "The
Fishhawk," McGuffey's Second Reader. The method, of course, is highly
repetitive, which makes the analysis keys extremely long. I have thus not
included these materials in the "complete" books, but you may want to look
at them on-line for ideas about how you may want to have students analyze
sentences in class (thereby leading them to use the method). |
 Exercise
# 1 An Example of Embedded Clauses |
| Because it is an extreme example of the depth at which subordinate
clasues can be embedded, "The House That Jack Bulit" is the first exercise
in KISS Level 3.1.3 in all of the "complete" workbooks. |
| Exercises
2 a - e: Embedded Clauses |
For Single Year Plan
| Exercise
3, A Passage for Analysis |
| Ambiguities
That Result from Embedding |
Embedding increases naturally with age, but
as more and more words are packed into a single main clause, words and
constructions begin to get in the way of each other, thereby causing ambiguity.
Consider the following sentence which was written by a college Freshman:
The stage at the Bucks County Playhouse impresses any actor
who performs there with such things as the thirty-six fly ropes that line
the stage left wall and the roof that rises three stories.
There are several ways of interpreting the clause structure of this sentence,
each of which results in a slight, but perhaps significant difference in
meaning. For one, the "who" clause can be explained as ending at "there,"
or it may extend all the way to "stories":
The stage at the Bucks County Playhouse impresses any actor
[who performs there] with such things
as the thirty-six fly ropes that line the stage left wall and the roof
that rises three stories.
or
The stage at the Bucks County Playhouse impresses any actor
[who
performs there with such things as the thirty-six fly ropes that line the
stage left wall and the roof that rises three stories].
Syntactically, the difference is that in the first version, the phrase
"with such things" (and the rest of the sentence, all of which modifies
"things") is viewed as modifying "impresses," whereas in the second version,
it is considered to be modifying "performs." The different, but equally
correct, syntactic analyses, however, lead to two different possible meanings.
In the first version, anyone who performs on the stage, for example, a
singer, would be impressed. In the second version, however, only those
who perform with the fly ropes and tall stage would be impressed.
The second ambiguity involves the "and"
between "wall" and "the roof." What does it join? Some of my students see
it as connecting "wall" and "roof" as direct objects of "line":
The stage at the Bucks County Playhouse impresses any actor
[who performs there with such things as the thirty-six fly ropes
[that
line the stage left wall and the roof
[that
rises three stories]]]. |
This would mean that the fly ropes are hung such that they form lines along
both the left wall of the stage and the roof. Other students, however,
see the "and" as joining "roof" with "fly ropes" as compound objects of
the preposition "as":
The stage at the Bucks County Playhouse impresses any actor
[who performs there with such things as the thirty-six fly ropes
[that
line the stage left wall] and *as* the roof
[that
rises three stories]]. |
In this version, there is no indication that the fly ropes form lines along
the roof. Some people may consider the ambiguities in this sentence as
unimportant, but if they do, they miss the point. If your sentences become
too heavily embedded, not only will they be difficult for readers to process,
but readers will also be more likely to misinterpret what you meant. |