Chunky Language (It's Delicious with Milk)

Grammar is all about connections. What words go with what other words? Where does one phrase end and the next begin? How can you have does is in the middle of a sentence? It's all about the chunks.

As far as I know, I invented the term Chunky Language. This refers to the natural grouping of words into phrases and clauses in English. A chunk is any group of two or more words that naturally go together. Every chunk has an anchor word, meaning the main word in the chunk. For example, a warm sunny day is one chunk anchored on the noun day. This particular chunk would be called a noun phrase.

Another simple example is We went to the beach. The second chunk is anchored on the first word to, which is a preposition, so this kind of chunk would be called a prepositional phrase. The first chunk, on the other hand, is anchored by the word went. Since this is the main verb and we is the subject of went, then this chunk is a clause. A slightly weird chunk would be something like three weeks ago. The anchor word, ago, is an adverb*, which might seem a little unusual, although it is common.

What's the difference between a clause and a phrase? The answer is quite simple. A clause has a subject and a main verb, a phrase does not. For example, the sentence I left my book in my locker has two chunks. The first chunk is a clause because it has a subject (I) and a verb (left). The object (book) is also a part of the chunk. The second chunk is a prepositional phrase.

The basic chunks are pretty easy to figure out. For example, read the following sentence out-loud with a clear pause between the first and second chunks.

• I took my dog for a walk in the park.

It is obvious that this sounds extremely weird and that the following would be the correct way to chunk up** the sentence.

• I took my dog for a walk in the park.

This is a nice, neat sentence with three chunks: one SVO clause and two prepositional phrases. Students rarely mis-chunk a sentence like this. (I love inventing new words.) The biggest problem students seem to have is knowing when one chunk stops and the next begins. Their chunks are too long and they consistently run through the STOP SIGNS.

What are the STOP SIGNS for chunks in English? Basically there are five: commas, conjunctions, prepositions, postpositions*** and connecting pronouns.

Commas: Commas are easy to identify and the majority of commas are stop signs. Most commas divide information. For example:

• Yesterday, it rained all day.
• On Wednesdays, school finishes at 2:15.
• Barack Obama, who became the 45th President last year, was educated in Hawaii.

The information before or between the commas is separated from the rest of the sentence. Therefore, the chunk stops at the comma. (Don't forget that a chunk must have two or more words, so in the first sentence, yesterday is not a part of any chunk. I'll elaborate more in my next blog entry.)

However, not all commas are stop signs. Sometimes commas can be connectors, specifically in lists. Look at the following examples.

• We took a long, relaxing walk in the park.
• My mother, father, brother and I drove from Pennsylvania to Seattle in a tiny Volkswagen Rabbit.

In these examples, the commas are replacing the conjunction and. The original chunks would be long and relaxing and my mother and my father and my brother and I.

Prepositions: The simple prepositions, like in, on or by, are easy to see. They begin the chunk and the chunk ends with a noun or a pronoun. However, some pronouns are trickier to identify. Chunking up a sentence can help. For example:

• A bunch of fans were shirtless in spite of the freezing temperatures.
• The girl who sits in front of me in math class is really nice.

Look at two specific parts and decide which sounds better when you say it out-loud. Don't forget to exaggerate the pause in the middle.

• in spite of the freezing temperatures / in spite of the freezing temperatures
• in front of me / in front of me

Each one sounds much, much better as one chunk. Therefore, in spite of and in front of are both what I call phrasal prepositions.

Conjunctions: There are two types of conjunctions: coordinating and subordinating. The difference is pretty important, but I'll save that for another blog. For chunks, conjunctions like because, when and as long as are always stop signs that divide two clauses. For example:

• I will call you as soon as I wake up tomorrow morning.
• The Cowboys lost the game even though they didn't give up an offensive touchdown.
• Santa Clause delivered the presents while the children were sleeping.

Notice that the conjunctions as soon as, even though and while are included in the chunk. This will be important later.

Pronouns: Again, there are two kinds of connecting pronouns. The first group is called relative pronouns and they include which, that, who and whom. They connect adjective clauses to nouns. For example:

• My iPad, which I bought in July, has become my most valuable productivity tool.
• Anyone whose first language is English should consider themselves very fortunate.

A new chunk begins with the connecting pronoun. Each sentence actually has only two chunks because the first word(s) are connected the main verbs of the main clauses.

The other kind of connecting pronoun is actually called a noun clause marker, but I still call them pronouns. (See a blog soon to be written on The Grammar Geek Sez about this.) I don't have a name for them yet. If you have a good suggestion, I'm all ears. These are the words that, obviously, connect noun clauses to the rest of the sentence. For example:

• I didn't know that you had lived in Japan for so long.
• She hasn't told me if she has decided what college she is going to attend.

I'm extra proud of the second sentence because it contains two noun clauses.

There are a lot of little tricks and exceptions and things to remember that I will elaborate on in a second installment of Chunky Language. But for now, this is an overview of the first step in your quest to develop Grammar Vision. This can be very subjective and there are usually multiple correct answers depending on whether you think something should be one larger chunk or two smaller chunks, especially with clauses. The best rule I can give you is the Three Bears Rule. A chunk should be neither too long nor too short. It should be just right. (And this rule probably doesn't help you at all. Sorry.)

Practice makes perfect. For second-language learners, this will get easier over time with practice. It is an art, not a science. If you find and interesting sentence, copy it and send it to me via my Facebook group Mr. K's Grammar Page. We'll see what happens.

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*I have seen words like ago referred to as postpositions, which makes sense to me. A PREposition is an anchor word that goes at the beginning of a chunk. A POSTposition is an anchor word that goes at the end of a chunk. Other postpositions would include early (ten minutes early) and adjectives like long (ten feet long) or thick (three millimeters thick).

**Chunk up is another original term that means to divide a sentence into chunks.