Sentence Diagramming as an Aid to Explaining Scientific and Technical German Sentence Structure

Abstract

The most difficult aspect of scientific and technical German is the often convoluted sentence structure.' Each new sentence encountered represents a unique challenge for students of technical reading and translation, no matter how thorough their preparation and sophisticated their knowledge of German grammar. Sentences which present the most problems include complex and compound-complex sentences containing one or more of the following syntactic features: 1) several dependent clauses introduced by conjunctions, 2) clauses imbedded within clauses, 3) infinitive phrases within clauses, 4) clauses within infinitive phrases, 5) relative pronoun clauses not immediately adjacent to their antecedents, 6) two or more relative pronoun clauses sharing the same antecedent, and 7) extended modifiers. Even after intensive practice in reading and translating texts of gradually increasing difficulty, there comes a point when the structure of a particular sentence seems indecipherable. When perplexed, the students can attempt to analyze the sentence structure themselves by bracketing the extended modifiers, underlining the main clauses, drawing arrows from the relative pronouns to their antecedents, labeling the verbs, and so on.2 In highly complicated sentences, however, these techniques can often add to the confusion because of the sheer length and complexity of the sentence. In the instances where the students' attempts using these methods fail, the instructor must find ways to explain the structure of the sentence as clearly and succinctly as possible. To that end, the sentence often must be dissected and presented schematically. Visual representations of structures can be much more illuminating than verbose explanations and myriad underlinings and labels within the text. My students and I have found sentence diagramming to be a valuable tool for graphically illustrating the interrelationships between clauses and phrases in particularly complicated sentences.3 The technique is easy for the instructor to master and use, and the diagrams can either be prepared in advance on transparencies or drawn spontaneously at the board when the need arises. While the approach described below was specifically developed for students who have already completed two years of traditional college German and are enrolled in the introductory course leading to certification in technical translation, the same technique could also be used in technical reading and translation courses utilizing the minimal grammar approach.4