Session 11: Spellers and Grammars

Complete documentation on spellers, grammars, and sentence diagramming can be found in Rule 15 of the Braille Formats code.

A number of items regarding spellers and grammars:

the two-cell new word indicator (dots 123456, 123456) must be used before new words in spellers for kids in grades 1 and 2. Include this notation on your special symbols list!
be careful not to use a colon to represent the ratio sign. For example, the ratio "braille : blind" (which is read "braille is to blind") should be brailled using the ratio symbol (5,2). The proportion symbol is dots 56 and 23. Each is preceded and followed by a blank cell. As an example:
blind : braille :: deaf : sign
would be brailled:
Sentence diagramming can be of two types -- linear and spatial. Linear diagrams are just like the name sounds -- sentences that show structure (noun, verb, subject, etc.) on one line, using using some special typeface (bold, colors, etc.) to indicate parts of speech. Spatial diagrams are more like the sentence diagrams we knew and loved in grade school, as shown below:

You should refer to Rule 15, 3 to look at the specific symbols required to transcribe spatial diagrams.
It is common in grammars and other sentence diagrams to have letters, such as "S" for "subject", "V" for "verb", and "DO" for "direct object", printed above the respective parts of speech. These should be transcribed in parentheses with a letter indicator after the part of speech they are printed above. You should include a transcribers note describing the print format.
You can use a "keying" technique to help you to get all of a diagram onto a single braille page. Keying is another term for a "legend", where you put brailled numbers in the place of words. The key should be put into the transcribers note, placed before the diagram.