Almost 90% of the world’s 6,000 or so languages use one of these two sentence structures.

This very basic architecture seems to suggest that each language has only one sentence structure and that all natural languages (that is to say, natural human languages; not codes or computer languages) only ever include subjects, verbs, and objects, just in different orders. So, you might be wondering, Why does the title say there are 10 ways to write a sentence?

Although it is true that English only uses the SVO sentence structure, there are 10 sentence patterns that employ the structure in different ways—mainly dealing with the “V” and “O” parts: the verbs and the objects.¹ Among those different ways are four categories of things a sentence can do. These categories are organized below according to the traditional Reed-Kellogg model, which—in theory—places the sentence patterns in ascending of order of verb complexity.²

Prepositional phrases like up to the chamber and other kinds of phrases that serve to “fancy up” a sentence are also not considered essential to a sentence’s function. While those kinds of phrases may carry essential meaning, they do not perform an essential function of an SVO sentence. For that reason, they do not constitute any patterns additional to the 10 listed above in Roman numerals.

1. These are the 10 sentence patterns according to the Reed-Kellogg model, discussed in Martha Kolln’s and Robert Funk’s “Understanding English Grammar” (Longman, 2012).

2. The Reed Kellogg model, a 19th century creation, has largely fallen out of favor with  contemporary linguists, but the model is still taught by English instructors who believe pictorial sentence diagrams are valuable to help students visualize sentence structure.

by Jery Payne

In August of 1620, a group of Puritans set sail from Southampton, England, on two ships named the Mayflower and the Speedwell. The destination was Virginia. The Speedwell, which had already seen leaks repaired several times, sprung a leak and took on water, so both ships went back to the closest port of Plymouth. Many of the Speedwell’s passengers squeezed themselves and their belongings into the Mayflower, and they set sail once again.

Because of the delay, the Mayflower crossed the Atlantic during storm season, which made the journey unpleasant. Many of the passengers were so seasick they could scarcely get up, and the waves were so rough that one person was swept overboard. After two months of misery, the Mayflower landed in Cape Cod, which wasn’t their destination. But they didn’t continue on to Virginia because, among other things, they were out of beer.

Then the colonists drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact. This compact promised to create a “civil Body Politick” governed by elected officials and “just and equal laws.” And they meant it.

The Puritans appear to have made what many modern Americans would consider a dystopian bargain. They gave up most freedom, individuality, and art for a society with low crime and low inequality. Our modern view of the Puritans is probably a little too influenced by the Salem witch trials and The Scarlet Letter. Although these portraits of the Puritans are not entirely wrong, they overlook a great deal. Put in context, a different picture is painted:

• The Puritans believed in public shaming. Along with the famous scarlet A for adultery, there was a B for blasphemy, a C for counterfeiting, a D for drunkenness, etc.
• They were strict. Wasting time was a criminal offense, and another law held, “If any man shall exceed the bounds of moderation, we shall punish him severely.” (The drafter must not have had a keen sense of irony.)
• The law required everyone to live in a family. If a Town official discovered a person living alone, the official would find a family and order the loner to join it.
• Teenage pregnancy rates were the lowest in the Western world and in some areas were zero.
• Murder rates were half of those in other American colonies.
• The Puritans valued education. Massachusetts was the first place to mandate universal public education. The law was nicknamed The Old Deluder Satan Act in honor of its preamble, which began “It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures….” The Puritans founded Harvard and Yale. And the Massachusetts constitution guaranteed a public education to all citizens.
• There was remarkable wealth equality. The wealthiest 10 percent owned only 20 to 30 percent of the property, compared to about 75 percent today.
• The poor were treated with charity and respect. For example, a man’s heels were locked in the stocks for being uncharitable to a poor man.
• Women had more equality than in probably any other part of the world. Wife abuse was punished by a public whipping. A wife could divorce her husband for failing to meet his marital obligations, due to adultery, impotence, desertion, or other failures. For example, a husband was excommunicated in 1640 for having “denied conjugal fellowship unto his wife.” In another case, a woman admitted to committing adultery, but that was overlooked—belying the plot of The Scarlet Letter—because her husband admitted that he had “deserted her for several years.“

So although many of the Puritan’s attitudes and practices shock modern sensibilities, they were for their time remarkably egalitarian. Wealth distribution was actually more egalitarian than in modern America and almost every other civilization in history.

The settling of American’s 13 colonies is a social scientist’s dream come true. The lords and their servants settled Virginia and much of the coastal South, and the Puritans settled New England. The Puritans came to New England in large numbers because the English lords persecuted them. When Parliament went to war with King Charles I, the Puritans supported Parliament. And it was Puritan armies that by and large won the war, so the Puritans ended up ruling England for a time. When Parliament beheaded Charles I, many lords took the hint and came to Virginia. Although they both came from England, the two groups had very different cultures.

It’s not an accident that the descendants of the people who fought to reduce the king’s power over Parliament fought another civil war to end slavery. It’s not an accident that the descendants of the lords who fought for the rights of the king over Parliament fought against ending slavery. Although the first state legislature was established in Virginia, the American ideas about equality that inform the modern state legislature owe much to the Puritans.

Although Puritan rule ended up placing Oliver Cromwell on something that looked remarkably like a throne, the British civil war was a step toward parliamentary sovereignty. And this informed the attitudes of Americans.

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the oldest-written still-functioning constitution in the world. And it served as the model for the United States Constitution.

by Robert Garcia

Soon we will begin to see a few campaign ads and posters, and soon after that they will be everywhere.

The modern campaign ad or poster is a slick thing, with Facebook- or Twitter-tested taglines or slogans and occasionally colorful trendsetting design. It’s nothing like its early forebears. As an element of political pop culture, the campaign poster has taken a long road to its present form.

In earlier times of campaign advertising the ads and posters were positive, informative, even charming.

1924: Calvin Coolidge (Republican) v. John Davis (Democrat) v. Robert La Follette (Progressive)

John Quincy Adams was the first presidential candidate to widely use posters in 1824, according to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, but the oldest American campaign poster in the Library of Congress’s digital file was issued by presidential candidate William Henry Harrison in 1840.

William Henry Harrison in 1840.

In the 1800s, posters were far more detailed than they are today. Early campaign posters featured etched portraits of the candidates looking statesmanly, even regal, and were printed using the print technology of the day, sometimes inked in color. Extensive text was sometimes included with the portraits, and in some instances the text was the poster’s main feature.

1860: Abraham Lincoln (Republican) v. George B. McClellan (Democrat)

1872: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) v. Horace Greeley (Liberal Republican)

Steven Heller, a design expert and former New York Times art director, commented that it was harder to reproduce images than to reproduce text. They wanted to inform the public, and the public even then was fairly literate, so there was more of an emphasis on the written or printed word. Later into the 19th century as technology advanced, it became easier to reproduce things with wood or steel engravings. But by the end of the century, the camera had become more popular. Photos of candidates Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln routinely appeared on posters during their campaigns.

Cleveland/Hendricks 1884

By the middle of the 20th century, a new design scheme became very popular—black-and-white photography with color backgrounds and large, easier to see and read text. Big, block-letter slogans and candidate names replaced the lengthy cursive script seen in the etched prints of the late 1800s, and bright primary colors replaced their dusty olives, sepias, and sun-yellows.

1968: Richard M. Nixon (Republican) v. Hubert Humphrey (Democrat) v. George Wallace (Independent)

Offset printing became popular for commercial printing in the 1950s, and color photographs, along with full color layouts, supplanted black-and-white by the time Richard Nixon ran for president in 1972.

1972: President Richard M. Nixon (Republican) v. Senator George McGovern (Democrat)

While candidates are now able to mass-produce color-photography posters in every election year, printing advancements haven’t necessarily made campaign posters more complex. The most widespread style, to this day, is the block-lettered rectangle using only the candidate’s last name and maybe a brief slogan or tagline. These signs hang on countless walls and populate countless front yards every couple of years.

This tells us printing capabilities don’t necessarily change the design imperative. Simplicity is what seems to be practiced most often.

Other technologies may have helped to popularize the simplistic design formula. With mass electronic media, candidates choose not to deliver platform information through posters, and the long scripts and etched portraits of the late 1800s would now look ridiculous. TV commercials and social media have taken over the function of higher-level messaging and image creation.

Today, the posters just remind us simply of what the candidates’ names are. Aesthetics and mnemonics are left mostly to computer generated art, font, and color scheme.

1984: Ronald Reagan (Republican) v. Walter Mondale (Democrat)

2008: Barack Obama (Democrat) v. John McCain (Republican)

by Gwynne Middleton

By the time legislators reach the hallowed halls of the State Capitol, they have mastered many important leadership skills that will serve them well in working with constituents, staff, and other elected officials to improve the lives of Coloradans through their policy decisions. Still, in the midst of a fast-paced legislative session, it’s easier than you’d think for what seems like a minor misstep to undermine a legislator’s ability to achieve his or her legislative goals. Below are 15 important tips shared from the National Conference of State Legislatures to help our senators and representatives legislate like champs.

1. Honor the Institution

To succeed in its goal to serve its citizens, government requires trust between citizens and their representatives. Appeal to the best interests of the electorate, represent your constituents’ needs, focus on your values and what you want to do while in office, and direct your energy toward fulfilling those promises. You ran for office to make a positive difference in Colorado. Don’t lose sight of the vision you have for making that difference.

2. Take the High Road

In matters of public trust, appearances matter. Government thrives on ethical transparency. Perfectly legal actions can still look fishy to the public. Since public officials are held to higher standards than average citizens, avoiding situations that carry the appearance of impropriety will encourage public confidence in your legislative work. For the sake of the General Assembly and your career in public service, understand Colorado’s ethics codes and adhere to them.

3. Master the Rules

It’s no easy feat to become an expert on intricate legislative process rules, but the more adept you are at knowing the rules, the better you’ll be able to participate in the process, helping yourself and your constituents be heard. The most effective way to learn your legislative chamber’s rules is through application. Don’t be afraid to keep your rules book nearby so that you can call upon them when you’re unclear about a particular legislative process.

4. Know Where to Find Help

From fellow legislators and legislative staff to the folks in the governor’s office and the executive branch agencies, your political community is your best resource for gathering nuanced information about an issue. Setting aside just 20 to 30 minutes before a committee meeting to review bills on the agenda with legislative staff will help you bring your A-game to committee discussions.

5. Manage Your Time

Stay organized, prioritize what’s most important to accomplish, meet deadlines, and only commit to what you consider important. It’s easy to overcommit in an environment where numerous stakeholders are jockeying for your attention. If you tend to be a “yes” person, be careful and protective of your time. It’s limited, and if you’re overcommitted, you won’t be able to do your best work as you juggle the overwhelming schedule. Instead of giving attention to that which you care most deeply about, you’ll spread yourself thin and wind up disappointed.

Managing your time is also about punctuality. If you’re flying by the seat of your pants because of multiple commitments, your punctuality may suffer, creating an unprofessional appearance. People won’t take you seriously if they feel that you aren’t on top of your game, and in some cases, being late to meetings will cause your colleagues and constituents to believe you don’t respect their time.

6. Develop a Specialty

Your time as a legislator is limited. Develop a legislative agenda that’s not only rooted in your personal background, previous experiences, and policy expertise but tightly focused on your district’s needs. By cultivating a policy focus during your tenure, you can become the member others seek out for expertise. The kicker? You’ll practice valuable negotiation skills and gain the reputation of being a serious, committed lawmaker whom people will clamor to support.

7. Vote your Conscience

It’s not always an easy choice to vote your conscience, especially on controversial issues when your belief conflicts with constituents who voted for you to represent them or if a campaign contributor tries to sway your vote. After gathering information from all sides, vote as you see fit, but be prepared to explain your votes to constituents. By communicating with your constituents about the reason behind your position, you create an environment of transparency, and transparency has been proven to increase trust. Even if they don’t agree with your decision, they’ll be in a better position to respect you for the decision you made.

8. Don’t Burn Bridges

Be open to compromise, even with those who may not be natural allies. Create a broad set of associates, even beyond your chamber. Maintain a professional demeanor and keep emotions in check. Even if a colleague doesn’t like you, you’ll earn respect for being level-headed.

9. Keep Your Word

You’re only as effective as your reputation. Your colleagues rely on your credibility. Make only promises you can keep. While the best way to keep your word is to not commit until you have all the facts, if you learn information that would change your vote, be transparent about why you need to change your vote to prevent hard feelings.

10. Be Careful What You Agree to

To keep your word, it’s important to avoid casually agreeing to cosponsor bills that you aren’t invested in. Sometimes you may have to vote against a bill that you’ve agreed to sign on to sponsor. Before agreeing to be sponsor, give yourself 24 hours to make sure you understand the bill. Just because you like a person and usually trust that person’s views doesn’t mean you’ll always agree. If the sponsor of the bill cares deeply about your support of their bill, they will wait a day for your decision.

11. Don’t Hog the Mike

Even if you’re an expert on every bill that’s up for debate, be selective about which bills you discuss before the chamber. If you’re always in the well speaking on every bill, you risk diminishing your power as a speaker. Quality should always win out over quantity in public speaking. By being judicious about your mic time, when you do speak, your colleagues will be more likely to listen when you step into the limelight.

12. Stay in Touch with Your Constituents

Always remember the people who elected you. Hire the aides who are best able to help you maintain strong contact with your constituents.

13. Be a Problem Solver

Rather than getting caught up in the drama that often accompanies controversial issues, use your skills and your office to help your community focus on solutions. Work with state agencies and local governments to find a solution that will benefit the most people in your community.

14. Work with the Media

Reporters care deeply about their responsibility to keep their viewers informed with factually accurate news. Reach out regularly to reporters to share your position on issues, but be sure to focus on the policy process and the issues rather than only on partisan differences and conflict. Make your information easy to understand and use, and, when the media does a good job of reporting fairly, remember to acknowledge that good work.

15. Self-care and Presence

The weighty responsibilities and accolades that accompany holding public office can be unhealthy substitutes for intimacy, fellowship, and taking care of yourself and the people you care about. The attention of others is no substitute for an interior life. Maintaining an interior life will help you feel more at ease during the times in life when professional commitments can pull you in many directions.

by Esther van Mourik

NCSL hosted its 2016 Capitol Forum in Washington, D.C., the week of December 5, 2016. The Capitol Forum is one of the two annual meetings that NCSL hosts for the legislators and legislative staff of the states, the District of Columbia, and the territories and commonwealths of the United States. The other meeting is the Legislative Summit, which will take place this year in Boston, MA, August 6-9. The Capitol Forum focuses on the work of the nine NCSL standing committees:

• Budgets and Revenues;
• Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce;
• Education;
• Health and Human Services;
• Labor and Economic Development;
• Law, Criminal Justice and Public Safety;
• Legislative Effectiveness;
• Natural Resources and Infrastructure; and
• Redistricting and Elections.

The NCSL standing committees are important to the organization’s assistance to legislatures on state issues and its representation of state interests in Washington, D.C.

Much of the work during the Capitol Forum consists of training incoming legislative and staff officers for their duties to their respective NCSL standing committees. NCSL standing committee officers have a variety of responsibilities, including planning the committees’ agenda for the year, suggesting program topics and speakers, reviewing proposed policy directives (long-standing statements on issues that must be reviewed every four years) and resolutions (statements targeted to specific pieces of legislation or other federal mandates that expire every legislative summit, but must have a basis in a policy directive), presiding over programs, and participating in meetings. Any state legislator can submit policy directives or resolutions for a committee’s consideration. Legislative staff does not vote on any of the policy directives or resolutions in order to maintain our nonpartisan responsibilities. As a newly appointed staff co-chair for the Budgets and Revenues Committee, I attended the meeting to learn what it means to be a staff co-chair and I also sat in on many discussions regarding budgeting, taxation, and revenue issues, particularly related to the plans of incoming congressional legislative leaders and the executive branch administration.

State Implications of Federal Tax Reform

From the Budgets and Revenues perspective, the most relevant topic to Colorado was a presentation on state implications of federal tax reform. While trying to understand what’s happening in Washington, D.C., is a bit like reading the tea leaves, the presenters, Helen Hecht, chief counsel of the Multistate Tax Commission (of which Colorado is a member state), and Joe Crosby, of Multistate Associates (a D.C. lobbying firm), both have considerable insight and expertise in this area. The central message of the discussion was that states need to pay attention to whatever tax reform is passed by Congress. This is because most states, including Colorado, piggy-back their income tax laws to the federal tax code, so federal tax reform could have a wide-ranging effect on Colorado’s revenue projections.

There are many options being discussed as part of a federal tax reform package including lowering the tax rates; broadening the base by eliminating many tax deductions and credits and capping interest deductions; dealing with the repatriation of foreign earnings; and moving from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a “territorial” system. In the current political climate this list of examples ranges from easiest to hardest. Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R – Wis.) tax reform plan is detailed here. However, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has told business leaders that the Senate will work on its own tax reform plan rather than waiting for the House plan to pass and that it will “almost surely end up looking different than what passes in the House.” President Trump set forth his own tax reform plan during the campaign that is detailed here.

Broadening the federal tax base by eliminating federal tax deductions and credits would probably mean an increase in Colorado’s income tax revenues. That in turn could necessitate a review of Colorado’s tax laws to see whether Colorado should adopt all the federal base-broadening changes (e.g., state tax credits based on federal tax credits) or lower state rates. These policy decisions are made more difficult when considered in conjunction with TABOR’s effects.

Tax experts also mention that it is not clear how capping the interest expense deductions will work or what the general effect will be on how a business is financed.

States may not be directly affected if there is an effort to repatriate foreign earnings, but studies of the 2004 repatriation “holiday” show that more may need to be done to ensure that repatriated money is actually used to grow the domestic economy.

Finally, the effort to move from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a “territorial” system is very complicated and best left to the experts. Suffice it to say, there would probably need to be some state income tax law revisions to consider if such a substantial tax reform were to pass.

Because of the wide-ranging effect of the federal tax reform proposals on Colorado, and on other states, NCSL is keeping a keen eye on what happens on the hill and will continue to share that knowledge with state legislators and state legislative staff in a timely manner in order to assist our efforts in balancing and passing the state budget.

by Jennifer Gilroy and Bart Miller

It’s hard to believe that it has been more than a quarter of a century (26 years to be exact) since Congress enacted the federal “Americans with Disabilities Act” (ADA). Since shortly after that time, the Colorado General Assembly has had a policy in place regarding services available for persons with disabilities to facilitate participation in the legislative process. The General Assembly created the policy to comply with the ADA and the terms of the final settlement of a lawsuit brought in 1993 by persons with disabilities to enforce the ADA within the Colorado Capitol.

The original “Legislative Branch Policy on Services to the Disabled to Provide Access to Programs, Services, and Activities of the Colorado General Assembly” included access to qualified interpreters, legislative staff note takers, legislative staff readers, cassette tape recordings of proceedings, and floppy computer diskettes of legislative materials, among other things. In addition to the specifics in the policy, the General Assembly implemented 17 items agreed to in the settlement of the ADA lawsuit. These items included: The installation of ramps compliant with federal law and video screens in the House and Senate antechambers (and the installation of a permanent lift to the Senate lobby following the 1994 legislative session); the availability of written legislative materials in braille upon notice; a TDD phone (telecommunication device for persons who are deaf that provides text communication over a telephone line) on the second floor of the Capitol; a van parking space in the parking circle around the Capitol; lower hooks on the public coat racks; companion gallery seating for persons in wheelchairs; “knobbles” (rubbery covers for doorknobs) for public doorways that would not otherwise remain open; and lower counters in the bill room and staff agency offices. The policy was later modified in 1998 and again in 2003, but it has not been modified or updated in the past 13 years…until now!

When legislative staff reviewed the policy during the 2016 interim, they immediately noticed outdated terminology and technology. The title of the policy itself, for example, seemed inappropriate by today’s standards.  And several of the services outlined in the body of the policy were equally outdated. Consider how much technology has changed — even your own personal use technology — in the last 13 years, let alone the last 23 years!  When was the last time you made an audio recording on a cassette tape? Would you even have a way to play a cassette tape these days?  The most recent automobile cassette deck option dates back to 2010. Automobile manufacturers have not installed them in models since that year.  Or what about floppy diskettes? Right? Clearly the policy needed dusting off and updating. But not only was the policy dated in terms of the terminology and technology, it also failed to include new technology that makes access to the legislative process easier for persons with disabilities.

So over the course of the 2016 interim, staff from the Office of Legislative Legal Services and Legislative Council Staff undertook a modernization of the policy. Legislative staff will still arrange for qualified interpreters, including those who do tactile signing. Assisted listening devices using radio frequency are now readily available, and Legislative Council Staff can arrange for communication access real-time translation (CART) services for an individual’s use.  Of course today audio recordings of all of the legislative proceedings (real-time and archived) are available on the General Assembly’s website and video recordings of House and Senate proceedings are also available. No need for a staff person to take notes or make a cassette recording anymore! While braille translation is still available upon request, this is a very rare occurrence since most individuals who are blind or visually impaired now have other technology that assists them in reading digital formats of legislative materials.

The new “Legislative Branch Policy on Services for Persons with Disabilities to Provide Access to Official Proceedings of the Colorado General Assembly” is now featured on the General Assembly’s newly launched website.