Introducing Language in Use: a Coursebook
Fun with Language
What is a sentence?
On BBC Radio 4, there is a very popular panel game programme called ‘I'm sorry, I haven't a clue’. One of the games in this programme involves asking the panellists to work as a group to generate sentences and the aim for each individual panellist is not to be the person who says the last word in the sentence. Imagine that A, B, C and D are the panellists. Their linguistic creativity might create something like the following:
- A1 — One
- B1 — One morning
- C1 — One morning in
- D1 — One morning in May
- A2 — One morning in May I
- B2 — One morning in May I went
- C2 — One morning in May I went to
- D2 — One morning in May I went to see
- A3 — One morning in May I went to see my
- B3 — One morning in May I went to see my aunt
…and so on.
You could argue that B's third turn completes a sentence and so B is out of the game. You could argue that C could provide the name of the aunt to continue the sentence or could open a relative clause to explain where the aunt lives or what the aunt has done or something similar or could simply say and to keep the sentence going.
Your aim should be to create the longest sentence possible.
You should also try to play strategically. What might you say in your turn that would force the next player to finish the sentence? Certain constraints can be seen in the example on this site: for example, the choice of the verb went (in B2) compels the next speaker to (start to) create an Adjunct rather than a direct object which would have been required if the verb choice in B2 had been acquired or saw or opened.
Linguistic points for consideration:
- What is a sentence?
- How long can a sentence be?
- What are the syntactic constraints that operate as a result of the choice of any individual word by one of the participants?