Talk:periodic structure

Deletion debate

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periodic structure

Saved from speedy (not speedily deletable IMO), but IMO deletable: SoP: google books:"periodic sentence".​—msh210℠ 18:26, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

We have periodic sentence. Should a definition of periodic structure reference that? I find this sense of "periodic" obscure, as apparently do the OneLook dictionaries that have a separate sense of "periodic" that references "periodic sentence". These same dictionaries do not have "periodic structure". DCDuring TALK 19:28, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It needs a serious cleanup because the definition seems vague and difficult to me. I can't really comment before that happens. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:05, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Here are some building blocks for the definition [1]:

4. PERIODIC structure: When ideas are unequal because one is logically or emotionally more important than others, and when the writer wants to create a climactic feeling of tension followed by resolution, the periodic sentence can be a good choice. Its structure is the opposite of cumulative structure -- phr or SC + MC. Subordinate clauses and/or phrases precede the main clause, which is located at the end, near the period. (In modern American English, periodic sentences are used more sparingly than the three structures above.)

a. "If it had not been a fairly ordinary thing, in one part of the world, to teach young children to pay the pianoforte, it is doubtful that Mozart's music would exist." (Hearne)

b. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." (Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address")

c. "In the case of the omniscient point of view, the narrator sees all and knows all." (Boynton, 250)

It seems, as DCD suggests, that periodic structure is more or less synonymous to periodic sentence. If one wants to see a difference one might conclude that a periodic sentence has a periodic structure. Note that we also have a grammar sense to periodic, which says "having a structure characterized by periodic sentences". To sum up, I would say delete to periodic sructure. --Hekaheka 15:44, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Kept for no consensus. Mglovesfun (talk) 08:21, 7 July 2010 (UTC)