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EASIT: Easy Access 
 for Social Inclusion Training

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This is Unit 2:
Easy-to-understand language.

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In short: E2U.

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Element 4: 
The language of E2U. 

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Video lecture: 
Syntactic aspects of E2U. 

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My name is Sergio Hernandez
from the University of Hildesheim. 

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In this short lecture, 
I will talk about 

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the syntactic aspects 
of Easy-to-understand language. 

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In this unit, we already had
 a presentation about basic rules 

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of Easy-to-understand in Element 1. 

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There we covered some rules 
on the syntactic level. 

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In this presentation, 
we will go into detail. 

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Before beginning
with the syntactic aspects 

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of Easy and Plain Language 
let me state that these aspects 

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may be language specific.

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In this presentation,

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we focus on aspects 
that are not language specific 

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and that are general principles 
on the syntactic level  

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for more comprehensibility. 

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Too long and complex sentences

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are beyond the reading capacity 
of the primary target groups. 

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Therefore, the basic rule 
on the syntactic level

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is that we avoid 
long and complex sentences. 

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Avoid long sentences:

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For Easy Language, 
only independent clauses are used 

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and compound clauses are avoided.

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This means that adverbial 
or relative compound clauses 

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have to be transformed 
into independent clauses. 

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For example: 

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As example for an adverbial clause,
we take a conditional clause.

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Instead of formulating: 
"If you are hungry, eat something.",

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we can use two independent clauses: 

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"You are hungry? 
Then eat something."

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For relative clauses: 
Instead of formulating

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"A laptop that costs 
more than 2000 Euros

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is too expensive for many people",

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we can also use 
two independent clauses: 

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"There are laptops 
for more than 2000 Euros.

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These laptops are too expensive
for many people."

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For noun clauses:

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"There is some doubt as to whether
the document is genuine."

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This can be reformulated 
in two independent clauses: 

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"Is this document genuine? 
There is some doubt about this."

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These examples were taken
from the book of Christiane Maaß, 

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published in 2020.

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The rule to avoid compound clauses 
applies to Easy Language. 

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Plain Language may allow some
simple forms of compound clauses

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depending on the target groups.

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Avoid complex sentences:

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Even sentences 
that are not long may be complex.

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This is the case if they shift
the information to the noun phrases

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that are then enriched 
with adjectives or more noun phrases. 

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In Easy-to-understand language,

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we prefer the verbal style 
over the nominal style.

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Verbal style is more comprehensible 
than nominal style. 

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Therefore, we shift information 
from the nouns to the verbs.

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For instance, instead of writing: 

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"The behaviour of the children 
in school was not appropriate",

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it can be said:

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"The children have not behaved well
in school."

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Coping with negation: 

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Negation markers have to be kept
to a minimum  

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in Easy-to-understand language, 
especially in Easy Language. 

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Negation is a rather complex instrument,

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as it talks about non-existent issues.

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When something is negated,

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it is nonetheless activated
in the brains of the audience. 

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If we read the sentence "Do not smoke", 

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we directly think about 
the act of smoking. 

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Negation is therefore 
cognitively complex. 

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On the other hand, 

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each language and text needs 
the possibility to negate. 

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It is not logical and not possible
to totally avoid negation in a text.

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Therefore, if negation markers are used,

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it can be helpful to use 
negation markers 

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that are independent words, 
such as "no" or "not". 

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Markers that are bound morphemes, 
such as "un-" in "unthinkable"

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or "less" as in "toothless" 
are harder to perceive.

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In German, to increase
perceptibility of negation markers,

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they are set in bold type.

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Active over passive: 

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On the syntactic level, active voice
is preferred over passive voice.

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Active voice usually indicates 
who is carrying out an action

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which usually is important 
for the audience to know. 

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For example:
"All schools were closed" 

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instead of 
"The government closed all schools".

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In conclusion:
On the syntactic level,

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following features 
of E2U can be named:

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Independent clauses 
are preferred over compound clauses.

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Verbal style is used 
instead of nominal style. 

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Negation markers are kept to a minimum.

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Independent markers are more perceptible

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than morpheme-bound markers. 

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Bold type can help to increase 
perceptibility of negation markers.

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Active voice is used 
instead of passive voice. 

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This video lecture has been
prepared by Sergio Hernandez 

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and Christiane Maaß
from the University of Hildesheim.

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You can reach us at 
easit@uni-hildesheim.de

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The project EASIT
has received funding

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from the European Commission

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under the Erasmus+
Strategic Partnerships

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for Higher Education programme,

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grant agreement
2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275.

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The European Commission support
for the production 

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of this publication

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does not constitute 
an endorsement of the contents, 

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which reflect 
the views only of the authors,

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and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for 

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any use which may be made 
of information contained therein.

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This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons

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Attribution-ShareAlike
4.0 International License.

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Partners of the EASIT project: 

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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

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Università degli Studi di Trieste

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Universidade de Vigo

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Stiftung Universität Hildesheim

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SDI München

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Dyslexiförbundet

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Radiotelevizija Slovenija, 

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Zavod Risa

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EASIT: Easy Access
for Social Inclusion Training 

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Subtitles by: Angelika Handrick.