Grammar: Long Sentences (The Elephant Man sat very quietly on the chair in the cold, dark, dirty room)

"The Elephant Man sat very quietly on the chair in the cold, dark, dirty room"

This sentence seems a little long and hard to understand.  If we break into parts, it becomes easier to understand and say it.

Looking from top to bottom, this sentence has two parts:


a Noun Phrase (NP1 = The Elephant Man) 
and 
a Verb Phrase (VP = sat very quietly on the chair in the cold, dark, dirty room)

NP1 is made of  "the" (a determiner) and a compound noun (two nouns, Elephant + Man).

The VP (Verb Phrase) is made of a verb (V' = sat very quietly) and two Prepositional Phrases (PP1 = on the chair, PP2 = in the cold, dark, dirty room).

The PPs (Prepositional Phrases) are made of Prepositions (Prep = on, in) and Noun Phrases (NP1, NP2).