Search results for 'tag:Difference between tag:Predicates' matching tags 'Difference between' and 'Predicates'

Re: one of those who and one of whom

Avangi — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:08:53 GMT

"Who threw the stone?" (reply) "It is one of those who are angry." I don't think "one" is the subject of anything here. It's a predicate nominative, or "complement" of the verb "is." "It" is the subject of the sentence, and "who" is the subject of the relative clause, "who are angry." The relative clause modifies "those," which is object of the preposition "of." Those who are angry are a group of angry people, one of whom threw the stone. But you would have to rephrase the sentence in order to make "one" the subject.

"Nobody in this group is angry. It is one of those who is angry." (Note that "who" may be singular or plural.) This time, "one" is still the verb complement. "Who is angry" is still a relative clause. The chief difference between these two interpretations lies in the answer to the question, "In the relative clause, what does "who" refer to?" In the first interpretation it refers to "those." In the second one it refers to "one." But that doesn't entitle "those" and "one" to be called subjects.

Your sentence "It is one of whom are angry" has a couple of things wrong with it.

"One" is now the bona fide subject of the clause, "one of whom is angry." "Whom" is object of the preposition "of," but unfortunately it has nothing to refer to.

A group of people are partying in the next room, one of whom is angry. In this sentence, "whom" refers to "group."

Re one of those who / one of whom, the difference is often only a technicality. She decided to give it to one of those who love her. She decided to give it to one of those whom she loves.

The key lies in the subject and object of the clauses. In "who love her," "who" is the subject, "love" is the verb, and "her" is the object. In "whom she loves," "she" is the subject, "loves" is the verb, and "whom" is the object.

"Who" and "she" are nominative case, "whom" and "her" are objective case.

Best regards, - A.

Re: The verb complement in "John tends to get hungry."

ouyang — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:58:39 GMT

Actually, I do classify some infinitive phrases that follow the verbs "seem" and "appear" as subject complements. I'm not totally comfortable with that view, so I like to consider other options.

Also, I'm not fluent in Chinese, but I think that there is an important difference between its verb-verb complements and the verb-verbal phrase complements that begin with "tend" and "dare". Verb-verb complements are like phrasal verbs in that they combine as immediate constituents before they take objects. In phrases like, "tends to be late", "tends to say stupid things", and "dare to be different", I would say that the infinitves combine with their own complements before the infinitive phrase combines with the main verb. If this is true, then I think I need to correct my previous post because these infinitive phrases must be noun phrases functioning as objects.

I would say that the dependent clauses which follow "seem" and "appear" in sentences like, "It seems that he is confused" and "It appears that he fixed the computer" are noun clauses functioning as predicate nouns. The fact that a common noun can't be substituted for predicate nouns which follow these verbs is significant, but it doesn't matter. When verbal phrases follow these verbs, then the type of verb which forms the verbal shouldn't affect the function of the phrase. The verb phrases in the following sentences should have the same pattern, "He seems to be honest.", "He seems to be the owner.", and "He seems to eat a lot." Since these phrases could function as predicate nouns in sentences like, "The important thing is to be honest.", "The best job is to be the owner." and "My advice is to eat a lot.", I would say they are also predicate nouns when they follow "seem" and "appear". Different substitutions might imply that they are predicate adjectives. I wish there was a strong argument for classifying the infinitves which follow "seem" and "appear" as their immediate constituents, but I don't think there is.

Re: The verb complement in "John tends to get hungry."

ouyang — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:29:33 GMT

Another verb which only takes infinitives as complements is "dare". "He wouldn't dare to disagree with her." I wouldn't call these infinitives "objects" because they can't be replaced with nouns. I think "verbal complement" is a good term. There are not very common in English. Another example might be "go to sleep". If you include other verbal forms, then "let go", "take care", and "go shopping, swimming, etc." could also be said to contain "verbal complements". In Chinese, verbs are regularly complemented by other verbs.

I think the comparison to linking verbs is also relevant. What is the difference between "seems to be confused" and "appears to be the owner"? We can say "seems confused" but not "appears the owner". The verb "appear" only links predicate adjectives to subjects when it isn't followed by an infinitive. Would you say the phrase "to be the owner" is a predicate adjective? You could make the case that "to be" functions as a verbal complement, which allows the resulting linking verb phrase to take a predicate noun.

Re: calories are/is

Grammar Geek — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:33:42 GMT

Maria is my friend.

Maria is the subject.

my friend is the predicate nominative.

My faith and my morning coffee are my salvation.

My faith and my morning coffee is the subject.

my salvation is the predicate nominative.

The verb agrees with the subject.

Five dollars is not a lot to pay for such a great show.

Five dollars - a quantity considered as a single entity - is the subject and takes the single verb.

(See the difference between that and "I had ten one-dollar bills on the table and now five dollars are missing!" That is referring to five one-dollar bills, as individual dollars, not the amount of $5.)

For more on the predicate nominative, see here: http://grammar.uoregon.edu/nouns/predicateN.html or here: http://www.dailygrammar.com/101to105.shtml

Re: difference between "consider" and "consider to"

CalifJim — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:52:01 GMT

There are six patterns involving a predicate complement of the object. The complement can be a noun phrase (NP) or an adjective phrase (AP).

NP V NP NP |   NP V NP AP
NP V NP to be NP |   NP V NP to be AP
NP V NP as NP |   NP V NP as AP

The same verb can often take more than one of these patterns with no change of meaning. But exactly which pattern(s) each verb can take is a matter of considerable confusion at times! (Reminder: * = ungrammatical; ?= borderline grammatical; possibly ungrammatical.)

consider him a fool | consider him crazy
consider him to be a fool | consider him to be crazy
?consider him as a fool | ?consider him as crazy

prove him an innocent man | prove him innocent
prove him to be an innocent man | prove him to be innocent
*prove him as an innocent man | *prove him as innocent

appointed/named him secretary | *appointed/named him secretarial
appointed/named him to be secretary | *appointed/named him to be secretarial
appointed/named him as secretary | *appointed/named him as secretarial

*knew him an honest man | *knew him honest
knew him to be an honest man | knew him to be honest
*knew him as an honest man | *knew him as honest

*describe/treat him a friend | *describe/treat him foolish
*describe/treat him to be a friend | *describe/treat him to be foolish
describe/treat him as a friend | describe/treat him as foolish

proclaim him a hero | ?proclaim him heroic
proclaim him to be a hero | ?proclaim him to be heroic
*proclaim him as a hero | *proclaim him as heroic

CJ

Re: In the following sentence ''He'' is subject, ''is'' is a...

Doll — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:26:06 GMT

And please let me know the definition of ''compound nominal predicate--- I told you my thought about it. You should learn it yourself.

1: What is the difference between categories and functions?- -- Think about functions as jobs and categories as names.

2: I never heard anyone calling is a verb phrase. Mostly they call it helping verb or linking verb. What do you say on this?--- I can't force them to call it verb phrase. If you haven't heard this before, you should be happy to have learnt a new word. Search it.

Re: In the following sentence ''He'' is subject, ''is'' is a...

Jackson6612 — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:35:24 GMT

Hi Doll,

Calm down Jackson. You will find the answer you want in the end. If you don't want any other person to answer your posts, please add " teachers reply only" .And what is wrong with learning other sides of point? I think it is a chance for you to learn compound nominal predicate. By the way, don't forget that we are all volunteers here.

I didn't ask Paulio to stop replying to my question. I just asked him to be little more comprehensive. Yes, I do learn from everyone and I do respect everyone for teaching me.

And please let me know the definition of ''compound nominal predicate

He --- subject is --- copula a nice person--- subject complement/attribute. Who is a nice person? He. You see subject answers this so it is subject attribute. The things I explained are functions.¹As for categories¹: He---noun , is ---verb phrase² a nice person ---- noun phrase . More detailed: a is an article, nice is an adjective modifying person.

This is what I think.

1: What is the difference between categories and functions?

2: I never heard anyone calling is a verb phrase. Mostly they call it helping verb or linking verb. What do you say on this?

Re: Difference between verb phrase and a predicate

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 02:26:37 GMT

These two terms fall into two different categories: predicate is a part of sentence and verb or verb phrase is a part of speech.

Ania Kieturakis

Re: Idioms, infinitives and meanings...

Mister Micawber — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:47:30 GMT

Most past participle (-ed) forms can serve as adjectives, and they won't be listed in the dictionaries as such unless there is a peculiarity about them, as with crooked or sunken. It is sometimes not easy to judge whether you are confronted with a passive form (She was astounded by the passing scenery) or a predicate adjective (She stood astounded as I juggled 7 balls). I recommend my earlier suggestion as a test: does the sentence present a condition or a receipt of action on the part of the subject? In many cases, the difference between the participle and the adjective is unclear (and can be argued about for hours); in the absence of any textual information (Willie was astounded), there is no way of determing whether the verb is passive or linking.

I would bracket just take and come. But I don't really know why we are bracketing them; could you set down an example?

Re: Is there any difference between "be able to" and "can"?

Schetin — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:52:18 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

Are you able to help me with my homework? (seems to me that this sentence should be used in a situation in which I am not sure that the person I'm addressing has the knowledge to help me )

This would rather be 'Are you capable of helping me with my homework?' I guess.

As for 'able to' this is the way I see it (this is only an opinion): it's good as an equivalent of 'can' in situations where you can't use the latter (in English you can't use two modals in the same predicate, so the second will be substituted by an equivalent, e.g.: He will/should/must be able to help you). Apart from that, when you want to avoid contextual ambiguity of the meaning of 'can' you can use 'able', say: 'They are able to help you, but what makes you think they can?'

2 coins,

Slava