SYNTAX (Sentence Structures, Phrasing)
On the AP English Language & Comp exam you will need to be able to recognize
elements of an author’s syntax (for the multiple choice section), or you might want to
analyze sentence structures if they contribute to the rhetorical purpose of the piece.
SYNTAX
means the ordering of words into sentences.
Every language has its own
syntax.
In English, for example, the usual grammatical order of a declarative sentence is
SUBJECT (+ MODIFIERS) + PREDICATE (+ MODIFIERS).
(e.g., The young woman
went to the library.)
Questions usually invert this order. (e.g., Are you going to the
library?) Adjectives, for the most part in English, precede nouns (e.g., The young
woman).
French and Spanish, on the other hand, reverse this order; i.e., most adjectives
follow nouns.
When you analyze a writer’s syntax, you might look for (and AP may question you
about) the following concepts (from easiest to most difficult)
1.
Sentence length:
!
Are the sentences long or short?
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- Fall '17
- Nelson
- English, Notes, AP English Language, Writer, sentence length, analyze sentence structures
