Sentence Diagramming

Hey guys,
I've been enjoying my grammar class in which we actually get to diagram sentences. (I didn't know this existed before; I have been missing out!) Anyway, I've been doing pretty well, but I'm now getting stuck. I can think of several different ways to diagram one sentence, and all seem right except for one thing.

One sentence is:
"One of my favorite parts of the series is Aslan's bringing Narnia to life through song."

I've got it figured out up until the verbal phrases: 'One' is the subject with the prepositional phrase "of my favorite parts" modifying it; 'is' is a linking verb. Then I'm stuck.

'Bringing' is a gerund, 'to life' is an infinitive, and 'through song' is a preposition, right? So where do they all go?? Is 'Narnia' the subject or the object of 'bringing'? Is 'to life' a modifier, a direct object, or the object of 'bringing'?

Another sentence I'm having trouble with is this:
The fans were rooting for their team to earn a trophy.

Is 'were' a linking verb and 'rooting' a gerund, or is 'rooting' an action verb and 'were' a helping verb? In either case, I don't know what to do with the rest of the sentence.

Here's hoping that some grammar genius comes along who actually knows diagramming. I know it's not taught in schools where I'm from, so...

What sentence digram method are you using?

I wasn't aware that there were different methods. O_O (I also wasn't aware that you had changed your name, but I digress.)

I just looked at the website for the grammar program I'm using, and it says that it covers "classic sentence diagramming". I'm not sure if that's an actual method, or if that's just how they are referring to it... That's all I have to offer on that, though.

If you demonstrate other sentences you've already diagramed, it would help.

I'm just somebody with a certain level of linguistics training who's trying to understand how to attack the problem.

Here's an infinitive phrase in the way I would normally do it:
http://www.drgrammarius.com/wp-content/ ... d-like.jpg

And here's a gerund phrase:
http://www.drgrammarius.com/wp-content/ ... imming.jpg

B.A. Linguistics here!

"One of my favorite parts of the series is Aslan's bringing Narnia to life through song."

I've got it figured out up until the verbal phrases: 'One' is the subject with the prepositional phrase "of my favorite parts" modifying it; 'is' is a linking verb. Then I'm stuck.

Actually, "one of my favorites parts" is the whole subject. You can tell because you can replace the whole thing with "it." "One" is a count..

'Bringing' is a gerund, 'to life' is an infinitive, and 'through song' is a preposition, right? So where do they all go?? Is 'Narnia' the subject or the object of 'bringing'? Is 'to life' a modifier, a direct object, or the object of 'bringing'?

"bringing" isn't a gerund. It's the beginning of a participle. "To life" isn't an infinitive. "Life" is a state of being. "to" is part of the verb, in a way. "to life" is a modifier. "Through song" is a prepositional phrase modifying "bringing to life." "Narnia" is what's being brought to life. Aslan is the implied subject.

What you're looking at is two sentences put together:

"One of my favorite parts is _____." & "Aslan was bringing Narnia to life through song."




Another sentence I'm having trouble with is this:
The fans were rooting for their team to earn a trophy.

is 'were' a linking verb and 'rooting' a gerund, or is 'rooting' an action verb and 'were' a helping verb? In either case, I don't know what to do with the rest of the sentence.

Here's hoping that some grammar genius comes along who actually knows diagramming. I know it's not taught in schools where I'm from, so...

"were rooting" is the verb. 'were' is the helping verb, rooting is the progressive participle. To be more specific, the whole verb here is progressive aspect, past tense.

"for their team to earn a trophy" is then an adverbial phrase glummed onto "rooting." Then "their team" is a subject, "to earn" an infinitive, "a trophy" object.

Hope this helps you figure out how to diagram. I'm not familiar with that method of diagramming, but the grammar's all the same even still.

Thanks for your reply! ...It's painful how wrong I was. XD We haven't studied adverbial clauses, so I'm not sure why my teacher would have given one to me to diagram?

I see now why it doesn't make sense for 'to life' to be an infinitive. I probably didn't think that through all the way.

I guess, for the most part, I don't know how to diagram it as you have said. It's not actually graded and we're going over it in class, but I would like to understand it. I guess I'll find out then.

It's okay, Goes! I took a looooot of advanced syntax classes.

I'm not familiar with the way you're doing diagramming, and it's entirely possible that I'm getting in way too deep for the level you're at. But the scariest final exam of my life was in this class. I still have nightmates.

(Not really. But, the point remains that I'm hyper vigilant!)