![]() TIP: One way to recognize sentence fragments is to learn which words often signal phrases or incomplete thoughts, such as these: although, because, especially, even, except, for example, if, including, instead of, so that, since, such as, that, which, who, and when. Sentence fragments don't begin necessarily with such tip-off words, but when you see one in your writing, check to make sure it doesn't introduce a fragment. Cornelia Lacey, who was active in the Civil Rights Commission, is still productive.The corrected sentence merges the two thoughts: Cornelia Lacey who was active in the Civil Rights Commission. In this second example, words have to be moved so the sentence and phrase fragment make sense together: Genna and Zach worked on their art project instead of going to the meeting about overpopulation.The second phrase should be part of the previous complete sentence: The second "sentence" is a fragment because it has no noun or pronoun as a subject and is an incomplete thought. Instead of going to the meeting about overpopulation. Genna and Zach worked on their art project.Most unacceptable sentence fragments are phrases that belong to the previous sentence. You can turn this fragment into a sentence by completing the thought: "What will you be doing tonight?" "Dinner, movie, and sleep."Įxample of a sentence fragment missing a verb:."What's the weather like today?" "Not bad.Sentence fragments often are used in conversation or dialogue as simple answers to questions. ![]() Some simple sentences are adequate with a subject and a verb because the verb doesn't need an object to make sense: This sentence has a subject and a verb but no words to complete the thought. ![]() A fragment usually lacks a subject (noun or pronoun) or a verb but has been punctuated as a complete sentence. Sentence fragments, unless artfully used, suggest that thinking is underveloped, because only a piece of a complete thought is presented. Complete sentences convey complete thoughts. This one only differs in how many smaller components form the verb phrase: "the dog" (NP) -> "of the dog" (PP) -> "take care of the dog" (VP) -> "who else can take care of the dog" (NP) -> "find out who else can take care of the dog" (VP).Īssume his identity is real - same as before.Sentence Fragments What is a sentence fragment?Ī sentence is a grammatical unit that has a subject (noun or pronoun), a verb, and usually other words, (a combination of the eight parts of speech: verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection) to complete the thought. In this reading, unless context suggested otherwise, I'd say that there's a missing article: "The useless detective" or "A useless detective" "can't catch the criminals."įind out who else can take care of the dog. We have multiple phrases forming this sentence. can be read as a sentence with a subject ("useless detective"), verb ("can't catch"), and direct object ("the criminals"). Useless detective can't catch the criminals. You're just adding a bit more complexity.įind the keys to the door - same as before It can be read as a verb phrase formed from the verb "hit" and the noun phrase "a nerve." Hit a nerve - could be read as an imperative sentence ordering someone to hit a nerve, so it's not a sentence fragment unless the context makes it clear that a subject is missing. In the example above, all of those phrases could be considered incomplete sentences if they appeared alone, but I could also form sentence fragments that are not phrases, like "looks" or "tasty." That said, when someone labels something a sentence fragment, it's usually because they're expecting a complete sentence. Maybe it's missing a syntactic element like a subject or verb maybe it doesn't express a complete thought. We could also talk about verb phrases - "looks tasty" is a verb phrase formed from the main verb and its complement.Ī sentence fragment is any set of words that don't form a complete sentence. ![]() I can use any of these phrasal units to describe parts of the sentence. 'I read and reread the same books, but all of them were necessary to me.' 'Their presence, their smell, the letters of their titles. 'But all of them were necessary' is a fragment: it is a dependent clause without a main one. So in the sentence "A vanilla ice cream with sprinkles looks tasty," "with sprinkles" is a prepositional phrase, "A vanilla ice cream" is a noun phrase, and "A vanilla ice cream with sprinkles" is a larger noun phrase. A grammatically complete sentence might read, 'I couldnt help accumulating books, books, books' or some such thing. Gramatically a phrase is a group of words that functions as a unit in the syntax of a sentence. ![]() Something can be both a phrase and a sentence fragment, but they aren't the same thing. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |