| Traditional grammar classifies sentences when based on syntactic structure into anywhere from three to five kinds: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex (Kimball 1900:18f). Some grammarians may consider the compound-complex class as a subclass of the compound class or of the complex class (Reed & Kellogg 1907:133, Curme 1947:152). Sometimes there is a class called complex-compound (Greenbaum & Quirk 1990). The next section will demonstrate the utility of paraphrasing compound sentences. It is also a relatively straightforward task to paraphrase complex, compound-complex, and complex-compound sentences as multiple simple sentences. As we continue this grammar we will enumerate numerous principles of paraphrase that will describe certain kinds of sentences in terms of multiple sentences. This practice takes advantage of the idea that each more primitive sentence represents some logical proposition that the original assertion seems to contain. |
Understanding composition by paraphrase.An important guiding principle emerging from this study is paraphrase. There are at least two meanings for the term paraphrase (Merriam-Webster 1987:854). The first is the more important for this study: a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form. The idea is that the meaning remains constant, the words and the structure that the words bring with them change. The art in paraphrase is to keep the semantics in the sentence constant when compared to the semantics in its paraphrase. The science in paraphrase is the analysis needed to draw salient parallels between analogous parts in a logically consistent way. |
Another meaning for paraphrase.The second definition is: the use or process of paraphrasing in studying or teaching composition. This points to the value of certain kinds of paraphrase in pedagogy. The student who learns more easily from a structured mathematical approach may find composition more appealing if it is presented as structured and systematic. Many of the exercises at the ends of the chapters will be to give the student opportunity to hone paraphrasing skills. |
Paraphrasing the sentence.In analyzing constituent structure one seems always to be in a quandary as to whether the whole still has the meaning of the various parts into which the paraphraser has broken it up. We have found it extremely useful to reformulate the expression of the various parts of a sentence as full sentences, each expressing some proposition. In this way each proposition involved is laid bare and the analyst may then decide what the appropriate logical arguments and predicate might be, formulating the proposition as an assertion (question, etc.) in English. This is a process of sentence paraphrase. This kind of paraphrase depends on the analyst being able to conceptualize the meaning of certain parts of the sentence as logical propositions. In the case of the compounding of simple sentences as independent clauses such paraphrasing will be relatively easy. |