[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
Learn English and meet people on the world’s largest EFL social network

We have partnered with TradePub to bring you free industry magazines and resources - no coupons or credit cards required!

Visit: englishforums.tradepub.com


Share this topic:
This question is Not Answered
Latest post Wed, Mar 26 2008 8:12 PM by Anonymous. 2 replies.
Suggest an answer | | |
Anonymous  +  479360 Wed, 20 Feb 08 03:39 PM


I got used to your being here.

1.  How would this sentence be parsed?

2.  Is 'used to' a prepositional verb?

3.  How does 'here', which is an adverb, modify 'being', which is a gerund (noun)?

4.  What if 'your' was replaced with 'you', would the obect of 'to' be a fused participle of you and being?

Thank you in advance,

Donna

Mister Micawber  +  479601 Thu, 21 Feb 08 03:59 AM
 .

1.-- I would guess that there are several ways to approach this; here's mine: 

I - Subject

got - verb

used - predicate adjective

to - preposition

your - possessive adjective

being - gerund (object of preposition)

here - noun complement

 

2.  Is 'used to' a prepositional verb?-- No, it is an adjectival structure; get is an informal copular verb.

3.  How does 'here', which is an adverb, modify 'being', which is a gerund (noun)?-- Gerunds keep some of their verbal characteristics, including supporting objects or complements:  Being a man is always difficult; Eating too many hamburgers may kill you.

4.  What if 'your' was replaced with 'you', would the object of 'to' be a fused participle of you and being?-- You replaces your in casual English.  I suppose that then you would be the object of the preposition and being here would be an object complement. This structure (without the possessive) is indeed sometimes called a fused participle.

 

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004
Yokohama
Veteran Member 30,807
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'
Anonymous, 1 yr 243 days ago

I  got used to your being here = to your being here , I got used.

                                                        S

                                          NP                     VP

                                           N                   Aux    V        pp                     Adv

                                           Pro                 got      used   to your being   here

                                              I

                            

© MediaCet Ltd. 2009, v5.0.3615.39139. All content posted by our users is a contribution to the public domain, this does not include imported usenet posts.*
For web related enquires please contact us on webmaster@mediacet.com, status updates are available at status.mediacet.com.
*Usenet post removal: Use 'X-No-Archive'. You may not have understood that your posts would end up in the public domain. Please send proof of the poster's email, we will remove immediately.