Diagramming Sarah: Can Palin's sentences stand up to a grammarian?

[charlie and algernon]

http://www.slate.com/id/2201158/

There are plenty of people out there—not only English teachers but also amateur language buffs like me—who believe that diagramming a sentence provides insight into the mind of its perpetrator. The more the diagram is forced to wander around the page, loop back on itself, and generally stretch its capabilities, the more it reveals that the mind that created the sentence is either a richly educated one—with a Proustian grasp of language that pushes the limits of expression—or such an impoverished one that it can produce only hot air, baloney, and twaddle.

I found myself considering this paradox once again when confronted with the sentences of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. No one but a Republican denial specialist could argue with the fact that Sarah Palin's recent TV appearances have scaled the heights of inanity. The sentences she uttered in interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and Katie Couric seem to twitter all over the place like mourning doves frightened at the feeder. Which left me wondering: What can we learn from diagramming them?

[A-Schwarzenegger]

1. I looked at those and entered an alternate reality.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. His final diagram that summed up her thinking process with her own words

[nc4bo]

2. Went to a strict Catholic school - we learned to diagram sentences.......

and have never seen anything like that ^^!! What schools did Sarah attend again?

Confirmed nonsensical gibberish and wholesale butchery of the English language. We won't discuss the grammar.

She should stick to simple - it works better and people can at least understand what you are trying to say.

Gosh those diagrams brought back some memories.

[patrice]

4. I love diagramming sentences!! I hate listening to SP!!!

[jberryhill]

5. What a coincidence - here's the diagram I got: