Editing Parsing (section)

=== Traditional methods ===
The traditional grammatical exercise of parsing, sometimes known as ''clause analysis'', involves breaking down a text into its component [[Part of speech|parts of speech]] with an explanation of the form, function, and syntactic relationship of each part.<ref>{{cite web | title=Grammar and Composition | url=http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/parsingterm.htm | access-date=2012-11-24 | archive-date=2016-12-01 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201190245/http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/parsingterm.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> This is determined in large part from study of the language's [[conjugation (grammar)|conjugation]]s and [[declensions]], which can be quite intricate for heavily [[Inflection|inflected]] languages. To parse a phrase such as "man bites dog" involves noting that the [[Grammatical number|singular]] noun "man" is the [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] of the sentence, the verb "bites" is the [[Grammatical person|third person singular]] of the [[present tense]] of the verb "to bite", and the singular noun "dog" is the [[Object (grammar)|object]] of the sentence. Techniques such as [[sentence diagram]]s are sometimes used to indicate relation between elements in the sentence.

Parsing was formerly central to the teaching of grammar throughout the English-speaking world, and widely regarded as basic to the use and understanding of written language.{{cn|date=February 2025}}