Sentence analysis 2

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milky

#190945 Tue, 31 Jan 06 03:07 AM

Paco2004 wrote:
Milky wrote:
Maybe you meant "phrasal-prepositional verb".
I meant "prepositional-phrasal verb".

paco

25 English pages for "prepositional-phrasal verb".

155 English pages for "phrasal prepositional verb".

Stick out tongue [:P]

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

paco2004

#190953 Tue, 31 Jan 06 03:41 AM

Thanks for the info.

paco2004

Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004

Senior Member (4,095)

In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.

MrPedantic

#191006 Tue, 31 Jan 06 08:14 AM

4) My best friend’s son has become a first violin in the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

I'd like to change teams, if I may, and plump for Paco's "post-posed adjectival phrase".

The emboldened part seems to be an essential part of the subject complement: it defines "first violin", and probably expresses the most important information in the sentence.

That might also explain why it sounds odd, when fronted. (If "with", instead of "in", it becomes impossible to front.)

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (12,168)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Hela

#191022 Tue, 31 Jan 06 10:04 AM

Dear Paco and MrP,

I'm lost! I still don't get this "post-posed adjectival phrase" thing Crying [:'(]

The "SVCs" part is clear, but what shall I do with (or how should I understand) the prepositional phrase that is left? While waiting for your answers I'll have a look at the CGEL and see if can understand something... Sad [:(]

Hela

Joined on Mon, Nov 15 2004

Tunisia

Regular Member (831)

paco2004

#191043 Tue, 31 Jan 06 12:02 PM

Hello Hela

What Mr P and I agreed each other were:

1. "First violin in the orchestra of the ROH" is a noun phrase. That is, "in the orchestra of the ROH" is not an adverbial. It modifies "first violin" from backward.

2. "Shone on us" can be interpreted in both ways: [1] "shone" (intransitive) + "on us" (adverbial) and [2] "shone on" (transitive phrasal verb) + "us" (object).

paco

paco2004

Verbs, Nouns, Noun Phrases, Phrasal Verbs

MrPedantic

#191162 Tue, 31 Jan 06 07:44 PM

Hello Hela

It's a long phrase, but it simply means "a phrase that comes after the noun and acts as an adjective".

For instance, you might find a similar phrase as part of a subject:

1. Girls with short hair have cold ears.

Here, "with short hair" restricts the preceding noun: we can't omit it, since not all girls have cold ears.

Likewise, in

2. My best friend’s son has become a first violin in the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

the underlined phrase restricts the preceding noun phrase "first violin": the news isn't that he's a first violin, but that he's a first violin with the ROH orchestra. (If a comma preceded "in the orchestra", we might say that the underlined phrase was non-restrictive.)

Is that any less murky?

MrP

MrPedantic

Nouns, Noun Phrases, Commas

paco2004

#191183 Tue, 31 Jan 06 09:02 PM

MrP

Thank you for the nice follow-up. It's a bit tough for me to explain grammar terms in plain words as you do.

paco

paco2004

Grammar

Hela

#191226 Tue, 31 Jan 06 11:24 PM

Yes it is, MrP! Big Smile [:D]

Hela

Anonymous

#579111 Thu, 23 Oct 08 12:26 AM

1. They parted good friends.
I do not think good friends is optional. It is not the same as "They parted, being good friends". It is really equivalent to "They were good friends when they parted". It means that good friends is really a subject complement.

Anonymous

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