Michael Cysouw

@cysouw

Graphical Grammar: a history of visual analysis of syntactic structure before Chomsky and Tesnière Radical-open-access manuscript in progress:

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Michael Cysouw@cysouw· 26d

Samuel Stillman Greene (1810-1883), professor at Brown, wrote many popular grammatical textbooks. In 1874 (by then he was professor for astronomy) he used an algebraic system for sentence analysis which is more a puzzle than a useful didactic method IMHO. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.1

"System of significant symbols" from Greene (1874), here showing an analysis of a quotation from William Prescott "The Conquest of Mexico":

I: Cortez received this remonstrance with the embarrassed air of one by whom it was altogether unexpected.
II: He modestly requested time for deliberation, and promised to give his answer on the following day.
III: At the time appointed he called his troops together, and made them a brief address.
IV: He concluded by declaring his willingness to take measures for settling in the country.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· 27d

David Cruttenden (1816-1874) was an ambitious teacher from New York. In 1859/1860 he published two volumes on *the philosophy of sentential language*. His formulae deal with subordination, but only X=agent, Y=predicate and Z=patient are distinguished. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.4.8

Formula for a sentence from Cruttenden (1859/1860) with multiple subordination. Roughly speaking, X=agent, Y=predicate, Z=patient. This formula represents the following sentence:

Mr. Webster once replied to a gentleman, who pressed him to speak on a subject of a great importance; "The subject interests me deeply, but I have not time."

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· 27d

Henry Buckham (1827-1914) left Vassar College after teaching there for its inaugural year and became a teacher's teacher in Buffalo. In *The analysis of sentences* (1881) he proposes a six-step syntactic analysis. The first step is a formula like Gibbs'. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.6

Step 1, 4 and 5 from the 6-step syntactic analysis of Buckham (1881). The first step is from Gibbs, the fourth from Greene, the fifth from Becker/Gibbs. The sentence analysed here is:

The daughter of the miller, who was a very poor man, went timidly to the king, as he sat in state, and while she stood before him in not a little fear a great shout arose from the people who had assembled to see the games and were becoming impatient at the long delay.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· 27d

Der Klassiker aus der Einführungsvorlesung 😬

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· 29d

William Alcott (1798-1859) in 1842 explained teachers how to use the blackboard. For grammar he proposes that "we may draw a curved line from the governing word to the word which is governed; or at least require a pupil to do it, in view of the rest." cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.4.6

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· 29d

Josiah Willard Gibbs (1790-1861), professor at Yale and father of the more famous physicist with the same name, in 1857 introduced Becker's syntactic analysis to the USA. In 1858 he uses German-style *Periodenbilder* for the analysis of Latin sentences. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.2

Notation of compound propositions from Gibbs (1858: 54) for the Latin quotation from Cicero: Non promissa servanda sunt ea, quae sint iis, quibus promisseris, inutilia.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jul 9

William Jevons (1835-1882) was an economist and logician at Owens College in Manchester. In *Elementary lessons in logic* (1870) he has a chapter on *The logical analysis of sentences*. He uses diagrams, though they are structurally mostly unconstrained. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.12

Diagram for a quotation from Thomas Burbidge *The Daisy* as analysed by William Jevons (1870).

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 29

However, Meiklejohn considered such "mapping out" to be a kind of discovery procedure, not the actual analysis. A real analysis either has the form of a "continuous analysis" (following Fitch) or a Morell-type table in which "sentences may be pigeon-holed, or placed in marked-off spaces or columns"

Scheme V from Meiklejohn (1887), which he says is the scheme prescribed by the Department for the scholarship examination"

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 29

Later Meiklejohn developed a method he called "mapping out" a sentence, using different kinds of lines for different kinds of subordination and prepositional phrases. This is an example from 1882.

"mapping out" a sentence from Meiklejohn (1882)

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 29

Probably inspired by Dalgleish, Meiklejohn (1866) developed an intricate analysis of sentences with multiple subordination.

Meiklejohn (1866), probably inspired by Dalgleish (1865)

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 29

John Meiklejohn (1830-1902) was a prolific textbook author and in 1876 became professor of education at St. Andrews. He proposed many different kinds of syntactic analyses, synthesising earlier work. This one seems inspired by Clark. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.6

Meiklejohn (1862), probably inspired by Clark

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 29

Alexander Bain (1818-1903), professor in Aberdeen, wrote an English grammar in 1863 as "There was not in existence any single grammar with the amount of fulness that was to be desired". He followed Morell and his friend Findlater for syntactic analysis. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.9

Symbolic expression of a complex sentence from Bain (1863: 168). The notation with the plus symbols and the superscripts is a direct adaptation of the proposals of Findlater.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 28

Walter Scott Dalgleish (1834-1897) was a teacher, textbook author and publicist in Edinburgh. His grammatical analysis from 1865 is clearly influenced by Findlater, but he adds a hierarchical scheme for the "relations of clauses". cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.8

Analytic Notation for a quotation from Shakespeare's *Henry VI* as used in the grammar of Dalgleish (1865)

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 25

Charles Mason (1820-1900) was a teacher in London. In 1858 he wrote his English Grammar, reprinted up to 1901. In the 1870 revision Mason adds hierarchical brackets and letter codes for multiple subordination, inspired by Bain, who took it from Findlater. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.5

Analysis of multiple subordination from Charles Mason (1870) using hierarchical brackets and letter-codes. The idea of the letter codes is from Bain (who had it from Findlater), but Mason adds a distinction between complement clauses (no dash), relative clause (single dash) and adverbial clause (double dash). Also: for each clause the complete pathway of subordination is repeated in these codes.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 24

Andrew Findlater (1810–1885) from Aberdeen in 1857 revised the chapter *English Grammar* in *Chambers’s Information for the People*. He included notation "after the manner of algebraists", clearly influenced by the German *Periodenbilder* of the time. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.4

Notation "after the manner of algebraists" as introduced by Andrew Findlater in 1857. This is clearly inspired by the German tradition of *Periodenbilder*, but it remains unclear which author has influenced Findlater.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 11

John Daniel Morell (1816-1891) was an inspector of schools and introduced the grammatical analysis of Ferdinand Becker to Great Britain in 1852. Morell probably saw this approach while studying philosophy, including a year under Fichte in Bonn in 1841. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.3.3

Analysis by Morell (1852) of a complex sentence by separating all clauses and indicating the hierarchical structure by referencing the indices. This method is directly inspired by Abraham Heussler and indirectly by Ferdinand Becker.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 8

This approach from Picket was adapted by William Livingston in his 1817 *English grammar*. Nothing is known about this person, but it might be the son of the Founding Father by the same name. If right, then William Livingston lived 1754–1817. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.4.1

Analysis of a quotation by Hugh Blair from the grammar of William Livingston. The numbers refer to grammatical rules. Government is indicated by arches above, while concord is indicated by arches below. However, the arches in this example are more an exemplary than an exhaustive analysis.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 8

Albert Picket (1771-1850) was a teacher and ran his own school in Manhattan and later in Cincinnati. In 1815 he wrote *The juvenile instructor* which includes grammar. To indicate government and agreement he proposes to use lines between the words. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.4.2

Analysis of the opening lines of the second act of the play Douglas (1756) by John Home as found in *The juvenile instructor* by Albert Picket. The numbers refer to syntactical rules and the lines indicate government (arches) and agreement/conjunction (straight lines)

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Jun 3

A real grammatical tree this time! Found in the *Common School Grammar* from 1862 by David Tower (1808-1868) as available at id.lib.harvard.edu/curiosity/re...

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· May 21

Abraham Heußler (1803-1855) from Basel in 1840 wrote *Kurzer Abriss der deutschen Sprachlehre*. In a revision he adds a *Satz-analyse* showing the embedding hierarchy with indentation. The use of letters is taken over by John Morell in Great Britain. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec4.3.9

Analysis of a complex sentence with multiple embedded clauses from Heußler (1870), though the first version has to be from the 1840s (because it is cited by John Morell in 1852).

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· May 19

Hugh Doherty (???-1891) was a revolutionary Fourierist. In 1841, in the midst of his activism, he managed to also write an English grammar. He uses an analysis "in the form of a tree": the primary parts are a "trunk" and the auxiliary parts are "branches" cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.6.1

Analysis "in the form of a tree" from Doherty (1841: 134)

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· May 17

Li Jinxi (黎锦熙, 1890-1978) wrote *New grammar of the national language* (新著国语文法) in 1924. He used US-style diagramming (圖解法 *tújiě fǎ*) for the analysis of Chinese sentences. The book has seen many revisions and reprints up to the 21st century. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec6.14.1

*tújiě fǎ* (圖解法) from Li Jinxi (1924). In this grammar of Chinese he uses US-style diagramming for the analysis of Chinese. This example is from a large fold-out sheet:

阿菊的⽗親是給⼈家做零僱的僕役的。
Aju's father worked as a servant for others on a small scale.

⼈家有喜事, 喪‍事, 僱他去: 上賓客們的菜, 伺候賓客們的茶‍⽔煙‍⽕；
he was hired to serve food and tea and tobacco to guests at weddings and funerals;

此外還當碼頭上起貨落貨的脚夫。
in addition, he also worked as a porter at the docks, loading and unloading.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· May 15

This example of Foerster & Steadman is quote verbatim in (of all places) a Chinese grammar by Li Jinxi (黎锦熙, 1890-1978), written in 1924. The only change that Li Jinxi has made is a more accurate tree, which now precisely illustrates the grammatical structure of the example sentence.

Revised illustration of the example from Foerster & Steadman (1919) as found in a Chinese grammar by Li Jinxi (1924). The analysis of the main and subordinate clauses is quoted verbatim from Foerster & Steadman. Note that the relative order and the secondary subordination is now accurately depicted.

1. The child filled us with horror.
a. Standing there looking at a pebble.
b. Quite motionless.
c. Apparently doomed.
d. Such that some of us turned pale as death.
2. Suddenly we saw a man in a dark doorway.
a. Whom we hadn't noticed before.
b. Though he had doubtless been there right along.
c. Coming out like a flash.
d. Who blocked the way.
3. It was Martin.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· May 15

Norman Foerster (1887–1972) and John Steadman (1889-1945) wrote *Sentences and Thinking* in 1919. They use a tree to illustrate the structure of sentences with multiple subordinate clauses. Unfortunately, it only approximates the grammatical structure. cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.7.3

Tree diagram from Foerster & Steadman (1919) for the sentence:

Standing there looking at a pebble, quite motionless, and apparently doomed, the child filled us with such horror that some of us turned pale as death; but suddenly we saw a man in a dark doorway, whom we hadn’t noticed before (though he had doubtless been there right along) and who, coming out like a flash, blocked the way – it was Martin!

Unfortunately, their graphical representation is only a rough approximation of the grammatical structure of the sentence.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Mar 26

Brown also uses another visual sentence analysis using different puzzle pieces with capital letters, roughly one for each parts of speech, but he does not really explain his system. The little pictures below the pieces seem to refer to different example sentences, which are likewise not explained.

Unexplained visual sentence analysis from Brown (1839). The big puzzle pieces seem to refer to different parts of speech, approx. A=conjunction/preposition, B=article, D=adjective, F=subject, H=finite verb, O=non-finite verb, P=adverb, Q=quantifier, X=Object

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Mar 26

The good people at the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (UPenn) have digitised two rare works by James Brown (the grammarian, not the musician): The *Syntascope* and the accompanying large plates from 1839. Read more about Brown here: cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#sec5.4.2

Hierarchical structure by interlocking blocks from Brown's *Syntascope* (1839)

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Feb 25

August Grotefend (1798-1836), teacher in Göttingen and nephew of cuneiform-decipherer G.F.Grotefend, was a big fan of Simon Herling and his analysis of the *Period*. In a commentary directed to Latin teachers he gave an example of a *Zergliederung* of a complex Latin sentence from Livius.

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Feb 5

Léon Vaïsse (1807-1881) was the 13th director of the Deaf Institute in Paris and the 10th president of the Société de Linguistique de Paris. In the 1830 he visited the US where he met Frederick Barnard. They developed highly complex grammatical symbolic systems. Vaïsse published his version in 1839.

Highly detailed grammatical annotation for French from Vaïsse (1839).

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Feb 4

Auguste Bébian (1789-1839), godchild of Sicard, was pushed out of the Deaf Institute in Paris in 1821 after an altercation about class sizes with an administrator [sic!]. He used his godfather's method of sentence analysis. In 1827 he took it one step further, adding simple hierarchical structures.

Basic hierarchical sentence analysis from Bébian (1827: 116). The object of the main clause is indicated by the "3", which itself has its own syntactic structure below the line as indicated by the numbers 1 and 2. The numbers are unfortunately not consistently used in this examples (i.e. some words are unmarked, though Bébian's system clearly provides for numbers)

Michael Cysouw@cysouw· Feb 3

Roch-Ambroise Sicard (1742-1822) was a highly influential teacher for the Deaf in Paris. He uses digits above the words for syntactic functions, with a separate analysis for subordinate clauses. In this figure he explains how a relative clause is derived from a regular main clause structure.