Sentence fragment 問題

His story ebbs and flows through the streets of New Orleans, defining crucial moments such as his discovery of the exquisite lost young child Claudia , wanting not to hurt but to comfort her with the last breaths of humanity he has inside .

這是一個冗長的完整句子，包含一個 main clause, 一個 phrase, 和一個 sub-ordinated clause，並無 sentence fragment。

淺黃色的Main clause 由 comma 包尾，接上了綠色的 adjective phrase (由 present participle 帶領着的 adjective phrase "defining crucial moments", + conjunction "such as" + noun phrase "his dicovery of the exquisite lost young child claudia"；隔了一個 comma 後，再接上了黃色的 adjective clause ( 由 present participle 帶領着的 adjective phrase "wanting not to hurt", + conjunction "but" + noun clause "to comfort her with the last breaths of humanity he has inside".

最後的 noun clause 的结構是: infinitive noun phrase "to comfort her with the last breaths of humanity" + 簡畧了的conjunction (which)，+ adverbial clause "he has inside"。

要注意的是 present participle (verb + ing) 的用法，多是帶領着一個 adjective phrase，去連接着以上的 main clause，而代替了一個由 conjunction 帶领着的 adjective clause。
e.g.
Her story talks about love, explaining the care of one person for another.
= Her stroy talks about love, and it explains the care of one person for another.






2011-01-01 15:36:51 補充：
A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence punctuated as a sentence. In a sentence containing phrases and clauses, usually only the main clause can be punctuated with a "period" at the end to form a complete sentence.

2011-01-01 15:37:25 補充：
If you extract the phrase or the subordinated clause to make it a sentence by placing a "period" at the end of it, the sentence so created is a "fragment", i.e. an incomplete sentence. However, phrases and clauses that are part of a complete sentences are not fragments.

2011-01-01 16:13:30 補充：
Part (1) of (3): A fragment is a part of a sentence being punctuated as a sentence (i.e. with a full stop). If a part of a sentence is used as such, as in the case of the sentence in this question, then it is not a fragment. In fact, this long sentence is well structured, and very well written. .

2011-01-01 16:15:51 補充：
Part (2) of (3): In business writing, we want to use simple sentences to maintain conciseness and clarity, to get the message across, because communication is the only objective.

2011-01-01 16:16:53 補充：
Part (3) of (4): However, that is not the case with literature (creative writing being another name for it), which uses the power of the language to arouse feelings and emotions, creating enjoyment for the reader in the process.

2011-01-01 16:17:38 補充：
Part (4) of (4): If our English is not good enough to write creatively, that is fine, we can learn by reading others' work, but there is no reason to undermine literary writing owing to our own incapability

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The author was merely trying to sell his book by creating suspends and temptation in parts, but don't think it's fragmented anyway. Believe you have just quoted an excerpt of a fuller and more exquisitely written story and it's really not too right to fault-find grammar correctness this way. Yes, I would have agree it wasn't too coherently written but then again, it all for the sake of viewership and selling. No credit for setting this as example, nonetheless, I'm glad that you've asked.

What is the meaning of "sentence fragment"?

This sentence contains two relative clauses.