Diagramming the Preamble to the US Constitution.

JMT sez, "I can't remember the last time I diagrammed a sentence, but this breakdown of the Preamble to the US Constitution is almost beautiful in structure. Very awesome."

Indeed. Plus, I hear the Schoolhouse Rock version in my head whenever I see this. Link (Thanks, JMT!)

[#1 posted by hernandez , January 17, 2008 10:19 AM]

ths s wht r frfthrs nvsnd

[#2 posted by Tommy , January 17, 2008 10:30 AM]

We need to modify that diagram to conform with God's standards.

[#3 posted by Steaming Pile , January 17, 2008 10:39 AM]

A want a T-shirt with that on it.

[#4 posted by jahknow , January 17, 2008 10:41 AM]

We need to modify that diagram to conform with the new Global War On Terror guidelines.

[#5 posted by brundlefly , January 17, 2008 10:43 AM]

I was thinking the same thing, steaming pile.

[#6 posted by Moon , January 17, 2008 10:47 AM]

There are no diagramming geeks here to say "This is all wrong!"???

:D

[#7 posted by OM , January 17, 2008 11:25 AM]

...Some entreprenurial individual needs to do a version of this on parchment, then do a sequel with the Declaration of Independence!

[#8 posted by Khonsu , January 17, 2008 11:45 AM]

Awesome. I used to love doing this in my spare time during class. >__>;

[#9 posted by hlsamples , January 17, 2008 12:19 PM]

There is a lovely essay, originally printed in Harper's and now collected in the 2005 Best American, called "Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog". It's all about the pleasures of sentence diagramming (images included). The writer, Kitty Burns Florey, later published a slim book expanding it: http://tinyurl.com/376j8e

[#10 posted by Andy , January 17, 2008 12:36 PM]

They need to make a t-shirt out of this! I know a lot of English/History nerds (like myself) who would totally wear it.

[#11 posted by datsuzoku , January 17, 2008 12:46 PM]

When read from left to right, this sounds like Miss Teen South Carolina's infamous 'such as, the Iraq' address.

[#12 posted by dogu4 , January 17, 2008 4:41 PM]

I'd like to have the entire constitution diagramed like this on a handkerchief so I could rub peoples' noses in it.

[#13 posted by Takuan , January 17, 2008 5:08 PM]

you'd be arrested for blasphemy

[#14 posted by Moon , January 17, 2008 5:42 PM]

Where is the "and assault weapons for EVERYBODY" clause?

:D

[#15 posted by mannakiosk , January 18, 2008 2:17 PM]

Never heard of this kind of diagramming. Do they do this in all English-speaking coutries? Do other languages have this kind of thing?

[#16 posted by Nix , January 23, 2008 1:57 PM]

I've never seen this done in the UK (probably because the UK's English grammar teaching is basically nonexistent). It strikes me as notably ugly and unpleasant compared to a simple annotated parse tree, but maybe that's just me.

I'm not sure what the point is of English grammar teaching at sub-university level anyway: native speakers handle it automatically, everyone else of lower-school age picks it up from the native speakers pretty effectively, and the 'grammar' they teach in most schools is so inaccurate as to be worthless (no, `the' is not an adjective).

Just hit them over the head with the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, I say. :)