| Sample |
Meaning |
|
text
|
moved (e.g. fronted) text |
| «text» |
direct quotation |
| <text> |
complement clause (of "merged sentence") |
| ---------- |
verb gapping |
Constituent chart: "Ordeal in the Winter Woods"
from Longacre, Robert E. 1992. Natural Text Processing and Text Meaning. In Current Advances in Semantic Theory, ed. Maxim Stamenov. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Used with permission. Chart excerpted with permission from "Ordeal in the Winter Woods" by Joseph P. Blank, Reader's Digest January 1988. Copyright 1987 by The Reader's Digest Assn., Inc.
|
Preposed |
S |
V |
O |
Postposed |
| 1 |
Early in the afternoon of the tenth day, a Friday, |
Robin |
suddenly heard |
the swish of skis. |
|
| 2 |
|
He |
saw |
a cross-country skier |
on a course that would bring him about 100 feet away. |
| 3 |
|
Robin |
shrieked, |
«Hello!» |
|
| 4 |
|
The skier |
was |
22-year-old, John Steinmetz |
a state-parks life-guard in Sta. Cruz. |
| 5a |
Also a lone skier, |
he |
was trying |
|
|
| b |
|
|
<to come to grips with
|
a problem of his own.> |
|
| 6a |
A few weeks earlier, |
he and others |
had failed |
|
|
| b |
|
|
<to resuscitate
|
a drowned swimmer.> |
|
| 7 |
|
He |
was ridden |
with remorse. |
|
| 8a |
|
Some quality in Robin's shout |
made |
|
|
| b |
|
<John
|
swerve to a halt and pole his way back.> |
|
|
| 9a |
«How 's
|
it
|
[in Pre] going?» |
|
|
| b |
|
he |
asked |
the injured skier. |
|
| 10 |
|
«I
|
have
|
a broken leg and ankle.» |
|
| 11 |
«How long have
|
you
|
[in Pre] been out here?» |
|
|
| 12 |
|
|
«----------
|
Ten days.» |
|
| 13a |
|
«It
|
took
|
me
|
about 45 minutes
|
| b |
|
|
<to get here
|
|
from McCabe Lake,>» |
| c |
|
John |
said. |
|
|
| 14a |
«Well,» |
Robin |
answered, |
|
|
| b |
|
«It
|
took
|
me
|
six days.» |