158k views
0 votes
Which sentence has the most traditional syntax?

Chewing a ragged nail and checking her watch, she jiggled her leg up and down.
Jiggling, her leg moving, checking her watch, she chewed her nail.
Checking her watch, her leg jiggling up and down, she chewed a ragged nail.
As her leg jiggled up and down, she chewed a ragged nail and checked her watch.

User Apirogov
by
5.7k points

1 Answer

4 votes

The answer is D. As her leg jiggled up and down, she chewed a ragged nail and checked her watch.

Step-by-step explanation:

Syntax is a component of language that focuses on the arrangement of elements or structures used to convey ideas. Traditional syntax follows the subject-predicate structure; this means the agent of the action is followed by the action. This arrangement can be seen in the section "she (subject) chewed (verb) a ragged nail and checked (verb) her watch".

Besides this, to preserve the traditional structure other details such as complementary clauses are usually placed at the beginning and separated by a comma or similar punctuation. This occurs in "As her leg jiggled up and down" because this detail complements the sentence and is placed before the main clause separated by a comma.

User Matthieu Durut
by
5.9k points