Syntax Without Borders

As I live through my last fleeting moments in Mozambique, I am torn between cherrishing the present and anticipating the future. My students have helped me to do the former, even if only a little more often. After a year of trying to get my syntax students to take a little more pride in their diagrams, I decided to mandate a little style into their routine. One of their final projects was to create art out of syntax. They were to draw two diagrams, one in English and one in another language of their choice. The pieces had to be on a unique surface with creative mediums. I gave them four examples and set them loose. Two weeks later, the results were in and they ranged from "meh" to quite impressive. I received mostly marker on cardstock but two students submitted oil on canvas and a few others turned in monstrous posters with pictures of girrafes or a compound sentence that required a half-hour just to grade. I rewarded extra credit to those who used wit to link the visual result to the language represented. Here are some of the examples that Patrick and I managed to scan. Some of the most impressive diagrams were too large to scan, but these will give you an idea of the project. Take note of the examples in the Bantu language Xitswa.

Disclaimer: Not all of them are correct.

This pattern, design style is typical here in Mozambique. Their only art class is a course on techinical drawing and design. It is rather fitting to represent the beauty of syntax with this particular style.

Here is a more simple piece. I like how ironic it is that the child-like drawing is representing a complex idea about language.

This reminds me of some early Arcade or Atari video game. I could imagine playing syntax asteroids. That market would be rather limited.

My students loathed drawing their diagrams from the bottom up. I was pleased to see that a student took an interest in that particular style. The result is always a surprise.

Here is a fun sample from Xitswa. The language is spoken in Inhambane province in southern Mozambique. The majority of my students are native Xitswa speakers and it was fun for them to apply what they had learned in English to their own language. It was also valuable for them to see that all languages contain an internal structure. By demonstrating that, we emphacized that, while we use English in the class, their languages are not less impressive.

This examples represents the vast majority of what I received.

This one and the following are of the same idea represented in both Portuguese and English. The student missed a crucial element in the latter half of both trees, but was still able to conceptualize the similarities among our languages.

I like the ruler-edged lines mixed with a casual handwriting on the text.

Another Xitswa example represented in a tall and slender tree.

Contrasted from the diagram above, this is a wider tree.

This student, Roque, enjoys that his name in English is Rock, or Rok as it is spelled here.

Again, a very rigid and well organized tree.