How would the purpose of this selection be different, if the author had relied more heavily on description than on dialogue?

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).

question

will give

you will find groups such as germans, acadians, irish/scots, french, spanish, anglo/americans, african americans, and native americans. you are looking for the contributions that each of these groups provided to the settlement of louisiana.