1.

Introduction

According to Lado (1964), as mentioned in Pardede and Herman (2020),

writing is seen as a complex skill ; it requires not only a lot of vocabular, but also

correct grammar. It is a mean of visually conveying language. Writing can be seen

as a depiction of units of language expression. It needs correct and complete

sentences. Syntax is the study that focuses on the relationship between language

and sentence structure. The goal behind a syntactic examination of a particular

language is to build a grammar that can be seen as a device for constructing the

sentences of the language under inquiry (Van Thao et al., 2021). According to

Chaer (2009) in Mahayani et al. (2018), syntax is a language sub-system which

aims at studying word arrangement and combining the words into larger units.

Syntactic units are words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and passages. Anker (2010)

states that a good sentence should have three elements, they are : a subject, a verb,

and a complete thought. A sentence can be meaningful and be understood by

readers when it contains at least a subject and a verb. From what came above, we

can say that syntax studies the formation of a phrase into a sentence. A sentence

fragment is an incomplete sentence. It may be an independent clause which can

run as a sentence. A fragment may represent an incomplete thought ; a fragment

cannot function as a simple sentence. It is usually called as an unfinished sentence

that cannot create a complete meaning. Fragments are parts of sentences that are

detached from the main clause. One of the simplest ways to fix them is by

removing the period between the fragment and the main sentence. Further

punctuation may be required for the newly added sentence (Van Thao et al., 2021).
 2. Types of Fragments

According to Choy and Clark (2010), Yang (2019) and Al Kayed, and Akram

(2020) there are many types of sentence fragments including :

a) Dependent Clauses

According to Choy and Clark (2010) in Nurhusna (2012) a dependent-clause

fragment is a group of words that have both a subject and predicate and are of a

primary independent sentence, yet isolated from it with a period, so that it stands

alone.

A dependent clause fragment always starts with a subordinating conjunction.

Kolln and Funk (2003) in Nurhusna (2012) state that a dependent-clause fragment

is classified into the following sub-types : adjectivcal clause fragments, adverbial

clause fragments, and nominal clause fragments.

-Adjectival Clause Fragments

Also called a relative clause, is a clause that is introduced by a relative pronoun

(who, which, that) or a relative adverb (when, where, why) which most of the time

modifies a noun (Kolln & Funk, 2011). As reported by Choy and Clark (2010), an

adjectival-clause fragment serves the function of an adjective which describes a

noun or pronoun in the detached main clause or sentence that precedes the

fragment.

An example of it : I got dragged around the whole day meeting cousins. Who

I’m pretty sure cannot remember my name anyway.

The correction : I got dragged around the whole day meeting cousins who I’m

pretty sure cannot remember my name anyway.

- Adverbial Clause Fragments

 An adverbial clause fragment starts with the subordinating conjunctions that

are used to begin adverb clauses, which describe verbs by expressing when (after,

as, as soon, before, until, when, whenever, while), how (as if), where (where,

wherever), why (because, in order that, since, so that), and under what conditions (

although, as long as, even though, if, though, unless) the action happens (Choy &

Clark, 2010)

An example of it : I’ve been to French-speaking countries. Such as, Belgium,

Canada, and France.

The correction : I’ve been to French-speaking countries such as Belgium,

Canada, and France.

- Nominal Clause Fragment

Nominal clauses are subordinate clauses with a range of functions closely

similar to noun phrases. (Greenbaum & Nelson, 2002 in Nurhusna (2012)).

Separated from its main or independent clause, a nominal clause fragment starts

with a that-clause or WH-clause and can function as direct object.

In the following example, the fragment starts with a that-clause and functions

as direct object to the verb ‘’ know ‘’ in its preceding sentence ; He knows that the

man can be a big-time threat to him. That he can take him down easily.

The correction : He knows that the man can be a big-time threat because he can

take him down easily.

b) Phrase Fragments

Stilman (1997) in Nurhusna (2012) states that a phrase is a group of connected

words that does not qualify as a clause since it lacks both a subject and a predicate

( it may contain a noun, a verb or both, yet these do not constitue a clause unless

they are in a specific relation to one another). A phrase fragment like a dependent
clause fragment, is detached from its main or independent clause, so it stands on its

own.

There are many subtypes of phrase fragments, the following are some :

- Added Detail Fragments

The added detail fragment has an example of other detail that gives more

information to the preceding sentence. Detached from the main or independent

sentence, this fragment does lack both a subject and predicate.

An example of it : After having a heated argument with his parents, he left the

house. And took the bus to a friend’s house.

The correction : After having a heated argument with his parents, he left the

house and took the bus to a friend’s house.

- Appositive Fragments

An appositive is a statement that is placed next to a noun that serves in helping

to clarify its meaning. An appositive fragment is separated from the preceding

noun, so it stands on its own, looking as it were a sentence.

An example of it : The girl talking to John is a student. An English student with

superior academic record and oustanding leadership skills.

The correction : The girl talking to John is an English student wih superior

academic record and outstanding leadership skills.

- Infinitive Fragments

An infinitive is constructed when the word is combined with a verb, such as to

walk or to study. Eventhough other words are added to complete the phrase, the

notion is not completed by a main clause since the main clause is detached from it.

The following is a made-up example : She wants to go to the garden. To catch

flowers for her father.

 The correction : She wants to go to the garden to catch flowers for her father.

- Missing Subject Fragments

The missing subject fragment contains a missing subject and is detached from

the main or independent sentence. It always starts with a coordinating conjunction.

An example of it :Although it has been many years, Sofia still remembers that

restaurant. Near the Museum of Constantine.

The correction : Although it has been many years, Sofia still remembers that

restaurant near to the Museum of Constantine.

- Participle Phrase Fragments

A participle is the first word in a participle phrase. A participle is a form of a

verb that also serves as an adjective. There are two main types of participles :

present participles are generated by adding –ing to the primary verb (e.g.,

laughing, waiting, linking). Past participles end in a –ed (e.g., laughed, waited,

linked) or other past-tense forms of irregular verbs (e.g., seen, slept, sung).

An example of it : A plane carrying two hundred passengers crashed into a

mountain. Injuring the pilote and seventy passengers.

The correction : Injuring the pilote and seventy passengers, a plane carrying

two hundred passengers crashed into a mountain.

- Prepositional Phrase Fragments

Prepositions are brief words that express the relationship or position between

two words, such as on, behind, under, above, about, and so on. Their place must

always come before a noun or a pronoun. The object of the preposition is the word

or pronoun that comes after the preposition. A prepositional phrase is a

combination of words that have the preposition and its object . A prepositional

phrase is detached from its main sentence and stands alone as a fragment
 An example of it : He went to Florida. For a month.

The correction : He went to Florida for a month.

The Factors of Sentence Fragments

According to Bashir et al. (2016), there are seven types of the causes of

sentence fragments :

a) Omission of Verb

Omission verb can be defined as a sentence that does not have a verb.

A made-up example : I travelling abroad.

The correction : i like travelling abroad.

b) Omission of Subject

Omission subject is a sentence that has no subject.

An example is : Loved you.

The correction : I loved you.

c) Omission of Both Subject and Verb

Omission subject and verb is a sentence that does not have a subject and verb.

A made-up example : Reading books because they help her develop her

vocabulary.

The correction : She likes reading books because they help her develop her

vocabulary.

d) Omission of Object

Omission object is a sentence that does not have an object.

A made-up example : I adore.

The correction : I adore my Grammar teacher.

e) Dependent Clause Fragment

Dependent clause fragment doesnt not express a complete notion because it

cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.

A made-up example : After months of research.

The correction : After months of research, he finally finished his dissertation.

f) Appositive or List Fragment

It is known as an appositive because it is a noun phrase that clarifies another

noun. An appositive is a fragment on its own.

A made-up example : The unserious student who was always begging for extra

pencil and a couple sheets of blank paper.

The correction : The unserious student, who was always begging for extra

pencil and a couple sheets of blank paper, was absent today.

Properties of Sentence Fragments

Two Crucial Properties of Sentence Fragments

Tenselesness

A distinctive and common property of sentence fragments is that they lack

tense (Progovac et al., 2006). One of the most essential nonsentential property of

sentence fragments is the property of ‘’ Tenselesness’’. Since tense is a

grammatical category obligatory for matrix clauses, tenselesness marks that

sentence fragments are gramatically different from full sentences.

Made-up examples : What did you to Susan ?

---Kiss her.

(Culicover & Jackendoff 2005 :243)

What did John do ?

--Play baseball.

(Casielles 2006)

What is President Dicky most likely to do next ?

 --Make Tricia his adviser on consumer affairs.

(Morgan 1973 :722)

The fragments in the examples above are non-finite in form, nevertheless one

of the tense specification in the antecedent sentences. When there are no verbs in

the fragments, it becomes difficult to observe if they are tensed or not. The

assumption of the existence of null tense, absence of formal marking tense does

not mean absence of tense.Yet, since there is no instance of sentence fragments,

the current generalisation can be maintained.

Sentence Fragments as Focus

Another essential common property of sentence fragments : the focus property,

that has been reported in past work (Merchant 2004 ; Culicover and Jackendoff

2005 ; and Nishigauchi 2006, 2010). The fact that sentence fragments serve as a

focus is normal, since only sentence fragments come up to the surface in an

utterance. Regardless that what is not explicitly expresse is presupposed to be

redundant in the context, sentence fragments function as new pieces of

information ; as a result it is essentially interpreted as a focus. When there is more

than one sentence fragment as in the upcoming made-up example, each sentence

fragment is focused.

Q: Which psycholinguist comes from which university this year ?

A1 : Susie, from UCLA.

A2 : Susie comes from UCLA this year.

Even though the focus property of sentence fragments led some past

researchers to assume that syntactic parallelism between sentence fragments and

some focus construction, i.e cleft or dislocation. In grammar, sentence fragments

do not perfectly parallel with the focus constructions. The made-up example below
shows that the possibility of dislocation is not prerequisite for generation of

sentence fragments.

a. What did he (begin/fail) to notice ?

b. His salary was too small.

c. His salary was too small, he (began/ failed) to notice.

Sentence Types and Functions

A) Sentence Types :

According to Andersen (2014), it is challenging to choose what types of

sentences to use in a piece of writing for many reasons.Writers must take

consideration of the following questions : Are my thoughts simple or complex ?

Do my thoughts need shorter statments or longer ones ? How do i express my

thoughts in a clear way ?

A set of words that convey meaning is called a sentence. It can serve to

communicate :

a) A Statement

A made-up example : I’m studying.

b) A Command

A made-up example : Drive away.

c) An Exclamation

A made-up example : I’m happy !

d) A Question

A made-up example : Did you eat ?

One or more clauses are the components of a sentence. A clause has a subject

and verb.

There are two types of clauses : independent clauses and dependent clauses. A
sentence includes at least one independent clause and one or more dependent

clauses.

An independent clause or a main clause is a complete thought, and it can stand

alone.

A dependent clause or a subordinate clause is an incomplete thought, and it

cannot stand alone.

Dependent clauses are spotted by identifying the subordinating conjuction. A

subordinating conjuction forms a dependent clause which counts on the rest of the

sentence for meaning. The following are some examples of subordinating

conjuctions after although

as because

before even though

if since

though when

while until

unless whereas

A made-up example for an independent clause : I do not like the ocean.

A made-up example for a dependent clause : Because sharks scare me.

Sentences are categorised into four categories : simple sentences, compound

sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences.

Simple Sentences

A simple sentence has one independent clause.

Examples : Akram drove his car to school

Who is your sister ?

Compound Sentences
 A compound sentence has two independent clauses. A coordinating

conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) always joins the two independent

clauses, and it is preceded by a comma.

Some examples : He wanted to go on vacation, so he saved up his

money. I like reading, but my brother likes watching.

Complex Sentences

A complex sentence has one independent clause and one or more dependent

clauses. A complex sentence does contain at least one subordinating conjuction.

Some examples : He attended classes even though he was suck.

As Samy arrives to work, he realised he forgot his

keys.

Compound-Complex Sentences

A compound-complex sentence combines complex sentence and compound

sentence forms. It has one or more independent clauses and one or more dependent

clauses.

Some examples : Although he felt guilty for getting bad grades, he went

out to have dinner the next day, and he had a great time.

If he got the job, he would have to commute seventy

miles to work, so he decided the job was not worth it.

B) Functional Purposes of Each Type of Sentence

Since every type of sentence may serve different functions, students should use

the type that communicated best their ideas.

Functions of Simple Sentences

Simple sentences are used when presenting a limited amount of information.

Even though simple sentences are shorter, but they are also academic same as
other sentence types.

Simple sentences are used :

a) To declare a direct statement ;for example, First, i will give a brief

introduction about my project.

b) To display a simple list ;for example, My evidence comes from books,

periodicals, and journal articles.

c) To give concise directions ;for example, Please consider my application for

internship.

d) To ask a question ;for example, What is the real meaning of the story ?

Functions of Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex

Sentences

Compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences serve the same

purposes. Students can tailor the amount of information they provide by joining

independent and dependent clauses to simple sentences.

a) To combine similar ideas

An example for a compound sentence : Recycling is a useful way of helping

the environment, and everyone has to recycle at home.

An example for a complex sentence : Since recycling is a useful way of helping

the environment, everyone has to recyle at home.

An example for a compound-complex sentence : Since recycling is a useful

was of helping the environment, everyone has to recycle at home ; we can all work

together to protect our planet.

b) To compare or contrast ideas

An example for a compound sentence : Van Gogh was a talented and sucessful

artist, but he had intense personal issues.

 An example for a complex sentence : Even though he was a talented and

sucessful artist, Van Gogh had intense personal issues.

An example for a compound-complex sentence : Although he was talented and

sucessful artist, Van Gogh had intense personal issues ; indeed, many say his inner

turmoil contributed to his beautiful art.

c) To convey cause and effect or chain of events

An example of a compound sentence : The researchers did not come to the

correct conclusion, sot hey restructured their hypothesis.

An example of complex sentence : Since the researchers did not come to the

correct conlucion, they restructured their hypothesis.

An example of a compound-complex sentence : Since the researchers did not

come to the correct conclusion, they restructured their hypothesis, and they will

attempt the experiment again.

d) To elaborate on a claim or extend reasoning

An example of a compound sentence : Cell phones should ne be permitted in

class, for they distract teachers and students.

An example of a complex sentence : Since cell phones distract teachers and

students, they should not be used in class.

An example of a compound-complex sentence : Since cell phones distract

teachers and studnets, they should not be used in class, and I encourage faculties to

forbid their use.

The Importance of Writing Complete/ Full-meaning Sentences

According to what came above, it becomes clear that writing complete

sentences is paramount. Thus, students when they write should be careful of not

writing fragments. To do so, they must do the following :

 First, they should respect the five sentence structures (SV, SVC, SVO,

SVOO, SVOC)

The first pattern is S+V ; a sentence contains at least one subject and an

intransitive verb. For example, Farid smiles. The second pattern is S+V+C ; a

sentence contains at least one subject, verb and complement. The subject and

complement refer to the same thing ;for example, She is a teacher. Another pattern

is S+V+O ; a sentence contains at least one subject, transitive verb and object. For

instance, She teaches English. Also, the pattern S+V+O+O ; a sentence contains at

least one subject, verb and two objects, one direct and one indirect. A made-up

example : She gave him a gift. The last pattern is S+V+O+C ; a sentence contains

at least one subject, verb, object and complement. For instance, the milk made

Rawane sleepy.

Second, meaning should be given importance while writing. The

sentence should make sense. There are many sentences with similar meanings, and

it is important to distinguish between them in order for students to express

themselves effectively. For instance, the sentences : I like you and I love you.

They may seem similar ,but in fact these two sentences have different meanings. In

the first sentence, I like you, we may like a teacher or a classmate on the basis of

their qualities ; for instance, the method of a teacher or kindness of a classmate. On

the other hand, when we say I love you, we mean that there is a feeling that is

beyond description in simple words. If you love someone, your heart beats fast in

his/her presence, and you feel shy when he/she is around though you may have

been waiting for him/her for hours or days.

Conclusion

Throughout history, the field of syntax has not recorded a countless number of
studies about the phenomenon of sentence fragments. The above chapter has

deeply discussed the phenomenon of sentence fragments. An overview of sentence

fragments in writing in the field of syntax where we shed light on the importance

of the structure of building sentences. The chapter explained the different types of

fragments with different examples and their correction. Also, the chapter discussed

the reasons behind the occurrence of fragments as well as the properties of

senetnce fragments. Furthermore, it presented the different types of sentences and

their functions in order to make students aware while using them in writing, and

for expressing one’s self better when they write. Also showed the importance of

writing complete and full-meaning sentences, and how the same sentence can have

different meanings, so that it helps students in choosing the right word while

writing to be better understood.