Search results for 'tag:Determiners tag:Clauses' matching tags 'Determiners' and 'Clauses'

Re: few, tag questions

Teo — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:29:11 GMT

There are several adverbs and determiners which are negative in meaning but not in form. They include: seldom, rarely; scarcely, hardly, barely; little, few (in contrast to the positive a little and a few) They can effect clause negation: for example sentences in which they appear generally require a positive tag question.

1. There are few students in the classroom, __ there? (A) are (B) aren't

I think the answer is A because few is negative in meaning. Am I right?

3. There are only a few students in the classroom, __ there? (A) are (B) aren't

Is only a few positive or negative in meaning?

Re: what could come after a preposition?

CalifJim — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:27:38 GMT

The only thing that can come after a preposition to form a prepositional phrase is a noun phrase, usually a noun accompanied by its preceding determiner and perhaps an adjective. A relative clause may be added. The noun itself may be a gerund.

If the element after the candidate for a preposition looks like it's not a noun, then either of these holds:

a. The preposition candidate is not a preposition, but perhaps an adverb or conjunction.
b. The structure after the preposition candidate actually is a noun phrase.

Both of your examples are in the category labeled b.

In your first example bad should be viewed as an adjective used as a noun, 'promoted' to a noun because of the elision of situation or its equivalent, one.

The situation can be seen as a bad situation.
The situation can be seen as a bad one.

In your second example, bad and good are simply abstract uncountable nouns meaning that which is bad and that which is good, respectively.

CJ

Re: word order

Yankee — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:10:01 GMT

T509 wrote:
I'll make the question clearer.

A) determiner + adverb + past participle (functioning as adjective) + noun

B) determiner + noun + adverb + past participle (functioning as adjective) {+ prepositional phrase (related to the p.p.)}

No question about A.

In B, would the order be unnatural or incorrect without {}?

e.g. I ate the fish well cooked by his wife.

Hi T509
In my opinion, your last example illustrates part of the problem quite clearly.
"I ate the fish well cooked by his wife."

In this sentence, the word 'cooked' no longer seems to be used as an adjective, but rather as a verb.

In addition, the use of the word 'well' suggests a non-defining clause whereas without the word 'well', a defining clause would be suggested.

Non-defining clause:
"I ate the fish, (which was/had been) well cooked by his wife." (You need a comma)

If you omit 'well', a defining clause is suggested:
"I ate the fish (that was) cooked by his wife."

Re: Analysis of a sentence

Doll — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 11:09:36 GMT

Walking as if each step were painful¹, she slowly pushed open the glass door and hobbled down the nearest aisle².

1: Dependant clause (what kind of dependant clause??) I'm kind of confused as to the nature of this subordinate clause... It is reduced clause(While/As she was walking...)

2: Main clause Yes.

Walking: past progressive? (which tense is?) With a big probability it is past progressive.

As if: describes how a situation seems to be Yes.

Each: determiner Yes.

Step: noun Yes.

Were: linking verb (copula) Yes.

Painful: predicator adjective (predicate adjective) I am not sure.

She: personal pronoun, 3^rd person

Slowly: adverb

Pushed: V. Simple past, transitive

(pushed open): Verbal phraseâ

The: (adjective, determinant, definite article) Yes.

Glass door: compound noun or:

Glass: adjective noun (is there a term for nouns used as adjectives?)

Door: noun Glass door --compound noun.Most compound nouns are formed by nouns modified by other nouns or adjectives.Here is some information for you:We can use a noun as an adjective when it precedes a noun that it modifies; a mountain bike is a bike designed for riding up mountains. 'Mountain' functions as an adjective modifying the noun bike.

And: conjunction, links main clause with verbal phrase (compound verb: pushed + hobbled). Not too sure as to how to define the use of the conjunction here. I would assume "and" here links the main clause with the verbal phrase hobbled down the nearest aisle. It is coordinating conjunction.I think here and links independent clauses.

Hobbled down: verbal phrase

The: definite article

Nearest: adj.

Aisle: noun Yes.

Trouble understanding this...

SeekerOfPeace — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:20:03 GMT

Right or wrong?

âFor a moment¹, I even thought² that this was some sort of test³ and that this woman was someone from the head office⁴, testing my loyalty⁵.â

1: Prepositional phrase used adverbially.

2: Main clause

3: Dependant clause

4: Dependant clause

5: Participial phrase

For: preposition,

A: indefinite determinant

Moment: noun

I: personal pronoun, 1^st person,

Even: adverb, expressing surprise

That: relative pronoun?

This: pronoun

Was: L.V. simple past

Some: determiner, determines âsortâ, indefinite article

Sort: noun

Of: preposition

Test: noun

And: subordinating conjunction, (I thought and could only be used as a coordinating conjunction??)

This: definite article

Woman: noun

Was: L.V. simple past

Someone: indefinite pronoun

From: preposition, links someone and head office

Head office: compound noun+ head used as an adjective rather than a noun here.

Testing: present participle (verb?)

My: determiner

Loyalty: noun

Re: Analysis of a sentence

SeekerOfPeace — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:41:02 GMT

Thanks Philip.

How about the next one:

Walking as if each step were painful¹, she slowly pushed open the glass door and hobbled down the nearest aisle².

1: Dependant clause (what kind of dependant clause??) I'm kind of confused as to the nature of this subordinate clause...

2: Main clause

Walking: past progressive? (which tense is?)

As if: describes how a situation seems to be

Each: determiner

Step: noun

Were: linking verb (copula)

Painful: predicator adjective (predicate adjective)

She: personal pronoun, 3^rd person

Slowly: adverb

Pushed: V. Simple past, transitive

(pushed open): Verbal phraseâ

The: (adjective, determinant, definite article)

Glass door: compound noun or:

Glass: adjective noun (is there a term for nouns used as adjectives?)

Door: noun

Hobbled down: verbal phrase

The: definite article

Nearest: adj.

Aisle: noun

Re: How does "the" modify plurals followed by relative clauses?

CalifJim — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:08:30 GMT

A. She talked to the students who failed the test.
(Am I referring to some of the students who failed, or all (the?) students who failed?)
All who failed.

B. She talked to students who failed the test.
(Am I referring to all (the?) students who failed, or have I incorrectly omitted "the"?)
to students who failed the test = to some students who failed the test, where some may be all.
some can include all. She may have talked to three students, and only three failed the test (those three) or maybe five or six failed the test. In either case she talked to students who failed the test.

C. "Students who don't study usually fail."
(Am I referring to all (the?) students who don't study, or have I incorrectly omitted "the"?)
all (the) students who don't study.

D. "The students who don't study usually fail."
(Am I referring to all (the?) students who don't study, or some of the students who failed?)
all (the) students who don't study.

C. and D. are equivalent logically. C is a general (universal) statement about all students; D is a specific statement about all the students the speaker has singled out through previous contextual cues.

PS: Although A has "the" and C doesn't, they both sound natural to me. So does "the" modify the whole "students who blah blah" or just "studnets"?
Strictly speaking, the does not modify anything; it never does. But it acts as the determiner for the whole noun phrase with its relative clause, not just the head noun.

CJ

Re: Pre/Post-modification

Mister Micawber — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:46:04 GMT

a dark ceiling. -- article, adjective, noun

two large windows on one side. -- determiner/quantifier, adjective, noun; preposition, determiner/quantifier, noun

a very nice paper -- determiner, adverb, adjective, noun

a native shop. -- as with a dark ceiling

a very nice pink stripe. -- as with a very nice paper, but one more adjective

I am wondering if "a" , "two" and "one" are adjectives or determiners so that I can call them pre-modifiers or not. -- both adjectives and determiners are pre-modifiers if they precede the noun.

which didn't look Chinese at all.-- all the words following "which" are together a post-modifying adjective clause.

Re: many

Inchoateknowledge — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:46:49 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
I agree with Fantasy. Below are my references.

Oxford Advanced:

"That

(...)

adverb

1 used when saying how much or showing how long, big, etc. sth is with your hands: I canât walk that far (= as far as that). - Itâs about that long.

2 not (all) ~ not very, or not as much as has been said: It isnât all that cold. - There arenât that many people here.

3 (BrE, informal) used to emphasize how much: I was that scared I didnât know what to do. "

Cambridge:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=82269&dict=CALD

Hello Fantasy

that -- conjunction, introduces the noun clause which is the object of the verb: have seen
that in the sentence is not this that:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=82269&dict=CALD
but this:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=82267&dict=CALD

I have not seen (that many crowded at the entrance)

Let me parse this sentence for you in two possible ways:

I -- subject

have seen -- verb

not -- adverb

that many crowded at the entrance -- noun clause, object of the verb: have seen.

at the entrance -- prep phrase and a locative adverbial phrase.

Another interpretation:

I have not seen (that many) crowded at the entrance

I -- subject

have seen -- verb

not -- adverb

that many -- object, that is a determiner which modifies many ((noun) a large or considerable number of persons or things.)

An adverb does never modify a noun.

crowded -- postmodify the object and is a participle (past participle in form, but simply a participle in function)

at the entrance -- adverbial phrase

What I was trying to say in my previous posts and you did not understand was that I meant the sentence with the former interpretation, not the latter.

If you still do not understand me, never mind.

Re: The Virgin Mary or Virgin Mary

Grodada — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:05:37 GMT

One possible explanation to the presence of the determiner THE may be that "the Virgin Mary" is in fact an elliptic form of "the virgin called Mary" (or even "the virgin who is called Mary").
If we accept the idea of an ellipsis, the term "virgin" is thus a substantive in the context and that substantive is modified by the following relative clause, which explains the presence of the determiner THE.
I am not a native speaker so could someone tell me if the hypothetical original form ("the virgin who is called Mary") seems plausible ?

Thanks