Thursday, July 10, 2008
I'd Like Some Thoughts On This One...
I had a thought today, and it's one of those things that I think is original, but it could be something that is everyday stuff for everyone except me.
Just as George Carlin used to have a list of oxymorons (postal service, jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, etc.). I think I came up with one today:
Incomplete sentence
Now think about this. A sentence is defined as a unit that contains a subject and a predicate. If a thought does not have these elements, it is not a sentence, but a phrase. So isn't the phrase incomplete sentence self defeating? Since a sentence by nature cannot be incomplete (since if it does not have a subject and a predicate, it is not a sentence), it would seem that the phrase "incomplete sentence" is nonsensical. Thoughts?
Just as George Carlin used to have a list of oxymorons (postal service, jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, etc.). I think I came up with one today:
Incomplete sentence
Now think about this. A sentence is defined as a unit that contains a subject and a predicate. If a thought does not have these elements, it is not a sentence, but a phrase. So isn't the phrase incomplete sentence self defeating? Since a sentence by nature cannot be incomplete (since if it does not have a subject and a predicate, it is not a sentence), it would seem that the phrase "incomplete sentence" is nonsensical. Thoughts?
# posted by Unknown @ 9:09 PM 
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I think you're right, but certainly having "incomplete sentence" scrawled in red ink on your paper sounds worse than "phrase."
No! I think you are getting tripped up by an inadequate definition of a sentence. As I used the word no it is a complete sentence. An incomplete sentence could have both a subject and verb yet fail to communicate a complete
# posted by 
: 2:12 PM
: 2:12 PM
From wikipedia:
A major sentence is a regular sentence; it has a subject and a predicate. For example: I have a ball. In this sentence one can change the persons: We have a ball. However, a minor sentence is an irregular type of sentence. It does not contain a finite verb. For example, "Mary!" "Yes." "Coffee." etc. Other examples of minor sentences are headings (e.g. the heading of this entry), stereotyped expressions (Hello!), emotional expressions (Wow!), proverbs, etc. This can also include sentences which do not contain verbs (e.g. The more, the merrier.) in order to intensify the meaning around the nouns (normally found in poetry and catchphrases) by Judee N..[2]
I had never heard of "major" and "minor" sentences....learn something new every day.
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A major sentence is a regular sentence; it has a subject and a predicate. For example: I have a ball. In this sentence one can change the persons: We have a ball. However, a minor sentence is an irregular type of sentence. It does not contain a finite verb. For example, "Mary!" "Yes." "Coffee." etc. Other examples of minor sentences are headings (e.g. the heading of this entry), stereotyped expressions (Hello!), emotional expressions (Wow!), proverbs, etc. This can also include sentences which do not contain verbs (e.g. The more, the merrier.) in order to intensify the meaning around the nouns (normally found in poetry and catchphrases) by Judee N..[2]
I had never heard of "major" and "minor" sentences....learn something new every day.
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