Grammar
Purpose
The grammatical diagram is a way to visualise how different parts of a sentence work together. It represents the “surface-level” grammar, or morphosyntax, of each sentence. Morphosyntax includes both the form of words (morphology) and their placement in the sentence (syntax), so the diagram represents both, even when a word’s form appears to conflict with its syntactic function.
This method of visualising the text, based on the widely-used Reed-Kellogg diagramming method, places the grammatical subject in one slot, the verb in another, and modifiers in others. This kind of grammatical analysis is a foundational layer which is limited to the sentence level, so in most cases it will not consider the relationships that obtain across larger sections of text (cf. the “discourse” layer).
Hebrew Text
Use this open source Hebrew text for all Layer by Layer materials: OSHB
Tools and Instructional Videos
Logos's Sentence Diagrammer is the preferred tool for Psalms: Layer by Layer. It is available on "Translator's Workplace" or with Logos Bronze and above. Instructions for using this tool can be found here. Note: Sentence Diagrammer is available only on the desktop app.
To share your diagram with the team (for collaboration and publication), register on Faithlife (Logos's parent company) and join the CDBR private group (contact Ryan Sikes). Then follow these steps:
- Click the "Bible Study tab (on the left side of the page)
- Select "Logos Documents"
- Click "Manage your Logos documents" (on the right side of the page)
- Choose the document you'd like to share
- Click "Actions--> Collaborate
- Choose "CDBR" and hit "collaborate"
These videos introduce the method and its application to Psalm 1: Grammatical diagram overview video Psalm 1 (video)