Michigan League of Academic Games

Calling out of the Pattern(All levels Ling)

Many players erroneously believe that certain sentence patterns preclude certain third player demands. For instance, during a game in which “s-v” and “noun” have been called, a third player who calls “direct object” will often find his opponents battling for the challenge block. The challengers are merely under the misconception that the addition of a direct object to an s-v sentence necessarily changes the pattern to s-v-do. This is simply false. A direct object (or any other third player demand for that matter) may be placed in any sentence pattern; the key is to house your word within a clause or phrase that does not affect your pattern. Most clauses and phrases can fulfill this role, but for simplicity’s sake, we will use the adjective clause. Note the following example:

s [adjective clause] v
The boy [who kicked the ball] laughed.

I’ve bracketed the adjective clause in order to show that the sentence pattern is constituted by the words outside of that clause. However, the words within the adjective clause are still candidates for the “word-to-be-formed.” Since “ball” clearly functions as a direct object, the sentence above meets the demands: s-v, noun, direct object.

If opponents call “s-v-io-do” and “adjective,” a strategic move for Player 3 is to call “predicate adjective.” Many opponents would deem this combination impossible, but when one employs the strategy noted above, it becomes easy:

s - [adjective clause] v - io - do
A girl [who is beautiful] gave the teacher an apple.

Note also that one can use this strategy whether or not “adjective clause” has been called.

Special Thanks to Monique Wonderly of Grand Rapids for this lesson.

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