Complete sentence

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I'm currently engaged in an argument about grammar and we're at a deadlock. I said that

"It's the image it invokes. A quiet lonely king clothed in black remaining sheltered within the walls of his grim palace on the sun-baked plains of Valladolid."

The argument is whether the second sentence constitutes a complete one. Is it? We can't agree on it.

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IMO, a : needs to be at the end of "invokes."

It ties the ending phrase with the beginning sentence.

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@Bertogne,

Quote:

The argument is whether the second sentence constitutes a complete one. Is it? We can't agree on it.

No, it isn't.

The simplest way to make it a sentence would be to change "remaining" to "remains". Otherwise, join them together as Punkey suggested; and this would be a better solution. But the short answer is no.

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@Bertogne,

I like:
"It's the image it invokes... a quiet lonely king clothed in black remaining sheltered within the walls of his grim palace on the sun-baked plains of Valladolid".

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@Bertogne,

Quote:

I'm currently engaged in an argument about grammar and we're at a deadlock. I said that

"It's the image it invokes. A quiet lonely king clothed in black remaining sheltered within the walls of his grim palace on the sun-baked plains of Valladolid."

The argument is whether the second sentence constitutes a complete one. Is it? We can't agree on it.

The argument isn't a grammatical one, Bertogne. There is nothing grammatically wrong with sentences that are "incomplete", "fragments".

Is it complete in everything that you wanted to say?

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@JTT,

Sure, there is nothing grammatically wrong with incomplete sentences or sentence fragments, assuming that they are grammatical in the first place.

A sentence is ungrammatical, however, when it is incomplete or a fragment and is presented as a complete one as exemplified by Bertogne's example.

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The answer to the question is no.

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@JTT,

Quote:

The argument isn't a grammatical one, Bertogne. There is nothing grammatically wrong with sentences that are "incomplete"

You think? I wonder why.

Sentences that are incomplete are not sentences, grammatically. They may be interesting, they may be many things, but sentences? No.

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@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Quote:
The argument isn't a grammatical one, Bertogne. There is nothing grammatically wrong with sentences that are "incomplete"

You think? I wonder why.

Sentences that are incomplete are not sentences, grammatically. They may be interesting, they may be many things, but sentences? No.

Same why, McTag.
The definition for the word sentence in liguistics:
A string of words satisfying the grammatical rules of a language.

So it boils down to the question: what are the grammatical rules.
Would you like to offer us the grammatical rule you've invoked in the thread, McTag? Of course, it is better from an authoritative source.
Same request to JTT as well.
(It is probably that JTT's motto is: that there is no rule is the rule) Very Happy

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@oristarA,

My usual grammatical rule is: disagree with the wilder excesses of the likes of JTT.
Wink

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@InfraBlue,

Quote:

A sentence is ungrammatical, however, when it is incomplete or a fragment and is presented as a complete one as exemplified by Bertogne's example.

Really?

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@McTag,

Would you like to offer us the grammatical rule you've invoked in the thread, McTag? Of course, it is better from an authoritative source.

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@oristarA,

Quote:

(It is probably that JTT's motto is: that there is no rule is the rule)

After all this time, Ori, and you, like so many, still don't understand.

What you wrote above is pure, unadulterated drivel.

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@JTT,

Quote:

Would you like to offer us the grammatical rule you've invoked in the thread, McTag?

There hardly seem to be any point. And it's not a "rule" so far as I know.

A sentence is complete in itself. A subject and a predicate, or a subject, verb, and object. The example given above is merely a phrase, which could be linked to the preceding sentence, or alternatively which needs modification to stand alone as a sentence.

Or is that too old-fashioned a view?

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@McTag,

Your usual grammatical rules aren't rules at all.

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@JTT,

I never claimed to be working to a rule.

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@McTag,

Quote:

I never claimed to be working to a rule.

Par for the course.

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@JTT,

Quote:

And it's not a "rule" so far as I know.

Do you want to add something worthwhile to your sour mutterings?
You've already taken this thread off course in your desperation to attack others.

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Quote:
And it's not a "rule" so far as I know.

Do you want to add something worthwhile to your sour mutterings?
You've already taken this thread off course in your desperation to attack others.

He does not have a gun. Who cares? Very Happy

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@McTag,

Quote:

I never claimed to be working to a rule.

What might you have been working to then?

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Complete sentence

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