Voxxi  +  128484 Fri, 19 Aug 05 08:34 AM In the sentence " He was as big as a house" what is the grammatical function of "as big as"?  I assume it is adverbial (modifying "was"), and that "a house" is the subject complement (predicate nominative.)  Well?  Paco? Best wishes, *** Voxxi Joined on Sat, Jul 9 2005 Interstellar New Member 36 Twinkle, twinkle little st r ... Predicates, Nominative

	rvw  +  128734 Sat, 20 Aug 05 01:00 AM I would analyze your sentence as follows: He is the subject. was is a linking verb. as big as a house is a subjective complement:  "A noun, noun-equivalent, or adjective placed after a linking verb to complete the meaning of the subject." ---Understanding Grammar, by Paul Roberts The first as is an adverb modifying the adjective big. The second as is a subordinating conjunction that introduces an elliptic adverb clause: as a house [is big]. This clause also modifies big. The "as...as..."  construction  works as an adverbial unit. More explicitly, the meaning is:  He was big to the degree that a house is big. rvw Joined on Sun, Nov 28 2004 Woodstock, Georgia, USA Full Member 350 Nouns, Constructions, Verbs, Grammar, Clauses, Adverbs

	Schlock_Homes  +  128806 Sat, 20 Aug 05 04:16 AM I agree with rvw. Interesting. The two sentences are similar superficailly, but have different structures. # He was as big as a house. # He was certainly a house. Hmm... Schlock_Homes Joined on Sat, Aug 20 2005 New Member 03

	Voxxi  +  128842 Sat, 20 Aug 05 10:04 AM   I think you have nailed it, Rvw, but I will suspend final judgement for the moment.^^  Thanks for your contributions, Goldmund and Schlock.   --V Voxxi

	MrPedantic  +  128871 Sat, 20 Aug 05 01:06 PM Very satisfactorily nailed. MrP MrPedantic Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004 Veteran Member 12,592 ...opella forensis / adducit febris...