an analysis (un-nal-uh-sis)

Disclaimer: This is a kind reminder that the author of this post rarely enjoyed grammar classes and was quite proud of her ambitious attempt of the following analysis. AKA: She realizes that she made mistakes but could care less to be corrected.


Statement for analysis: “I am excited because I attended my first adult faith formation class at my parish.”
This statement has many important features. First of all, the subject of the sentence, referring to the author, is followed by the verb, “am”. This is clearly based on the assumption that the author is alive, which in and of itself, is a good thing.

Continuing on, the adjective “excited” is very, very significant. This is describing the “I” of the sentence who has not used this adjective to describe herself in a long time.

The subordinating conjunction, “because”, simply introduces the dependent clause. This means that the subject is excited as the result of something else.

The subject remains the same in this part and is followed by the action coming from the infinitive, “to attend”. According to the ever distinguished Dictionary.com, the word “attend” (uh-tend) means “to be present at” and originated between the years 1250-1300. At this point in the sentence, it may be implicitly understood that it is a possibility that the subject left her house or place of residence. Because the subject was described as “excited” it may also be suspected that she attended something not connected to her work.

The word “my” is an adjective, but not any ordinary adjective, it is a possessive adjective.

“First” describes the direct object, “adult faith formation class”. This is a heavy grouping of words.
• Adult: the subject is over the age of 18 and officially a grown-up; this is an adjective describing what kind of “class”
• Faith: it is apparent that the subject believes in God; this is also an adjective describing what kind of “class”
• Formation: a word containing “form” which is defined as “something that gives or determines shape” (note: The author first looked up “formation” but realized that the word “form” was in the definition, making the definition unhelpful in this particular circumstance. She decided to look up “form” for further clarification)
• Class: this noun refers to a place of instruction

The end of this sentence is a prepositional phrase “at my parish”. “At”, being the preposition, links this part of the sentence together. As always, this next possessive adjective, “my” cannot be ignored or overlooked. The subject, possessing a parish, must have hit a milestone in her life where she has joined a parish. The word “parish” is defined by the even more distinguished Catholic Encyclopedia as, “a portion of a diocese under the authority of a priest legitimately appointed to secure in virtue of his office for the faithful dwelling therein, the helps of religion. The faithful are called parishioners, the priest parochus, curate, parish priest, pastor.” This means that the subject is not alone. This also confirms that the author left her place of residence and went to a non-work related place.

I hope that this analysis assists others in understanding the significance of this event in the author’s life.

(PS-We are studying the Gospel of St. John =) )