Search results for 'tag:Noun phrases tag:Whom' matching tags 'Noun phrases' and 'Whom'

Re: Help please! Subordinate or main clause

CalifJim — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:27:31 GMT

Eddie88
The subject in this case has a subject and a verb, why is it not a clause?

Nobody said it was not a clause!

There are several bits of terminology that are confusing.

One set of terms applies to the individual words. 'house' is a noun. 'happy' is an adjective. 'quietly' is an adverb. And so on.

Another set of terms applies to groups of words that do not form complete thoughts or complete sentences, but which "go together". These are phrases: noun phrases, adjective phrases, verb phrases, and so on. 'in the corner' is a prepositional phrase. 'very unhappily' is an adverb phrase. 'the bird singing in that tree' is a noun phrase. 'what I did last summer' is a noun phrase. 'slept for ten hours' is a verb phrase. Phrases can have other phrases or clauses within them. The noun phrase 'the bird singing in that tree' contains the prepositional phrase 'in that tree', for example, and the verb phrase 'slept for ten hours' contains the prepositional phrase 'for ten hours'.

Another set of terms applies to the functions of phrases within clauses. The main terms that show function are words that show the function of noun phrases in a sentence. A noun phrase is almost always going to be one of these: a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, an object of a preposition, or a subject complement.

(Another term for a verb phrase is predicate. And, just to make it confusing, sometimes the term 'verb phrase' is applied only to groups consisting of consecutive verbs, not the objects that follow them.)

This means that the same group of words in a sentence can be labeled in more than one way. For example, anything that is a subject is also a noun phrase. Anything that is an object of a preposition is also a noun phrase. And so on.

Clauses almost always contain a verb. But on rare occasions the verb that is intended is so obvious that it is not stated; the word group is then often called a clause anyway. The verb may show tense ("be tensed", "be finite"), or the verb may not show tense ("be non-tensed", "be non-finite"). Depending on this feature, the clause is called a finite clause or a non-finite clause. Non-finite forms of the verb are gerunds, participles, and infinitives.

Independent clauses are those that can stand alone as complete sentences. These are either complete sentences or the clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions like and or but. All other clauses are dependent clauses. A non-finite clause can only be a dependent clause. But finite clauses can be dependent clauses as well.

Clauses can occur within phrases. These are all dependent clauses. Independent clauses are not embedded within phrases.

the man whom I saw walking down the street yesterday is a noun phrase, but it contains a dependent clause used as an adjective to modify the noun man.

into the house located across the street is a prepositional phrase, but it contains the noun phrase the house located across the street. The noun phrase contains the clause (which is) located across the street (also called a participial phrase). And across the street is also a prepositional phrase inside the larger prepositional phrase.

You have to think in terms of hierarchies and structures that are embedded inside of other structures.

Re: Is this "that" a determiner or a relative pronoun?

CalifJim — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:04:22 GMT

The noun phrase in question is:

that reactions can happen slower at lower temperatures

Informally stated, anything that occurs in its context the way a noun might occur is a noun phrase. All subjects and objects are noun phrases, even if they are lengthy groups of words.

The person whom I saw yesterday at the supermarket was carrying an umbrella.

Noun phrases: the person, whom, I, the supermarket, the person whom I saw yesterday at the supermarket, an umbrella.

The problem is that she tripped on a display case and fell on the floor.

Noun phrases: the problem, she, a display case, the floor, that she tripped on a display case and fell on the floor.

To be or not to be; that is the question.

Noun phrases: to be, not to be, to be or not to be, that, the question.

The fact that I saw him there proves that he was not in the hospital.

Noun phrases: the fact, I, him, he, hospital, that I saw him there, that he was not in the hospital

____

Some more traditional approaches exclude the pronouns (I, him, whom, ...), but they are also replacements for nouns, so they count as noun phrases in the more recent approaches.

As you see from the examples above, noun phrases can occur "nested". A noun phrase can occur within another noun phrase.

Re: Questions on sentences

Clive — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:03:20 GMT

Hi,
1. Is the underlined part a noun? It's a noun phrase, ie a phrase that gives more information about the noun 'people'.
Is there possibly an ellipted 'to' at work? Yes, you could say 'to make people proud . . . '
What she has done is make people proud of who (whom??) they are. Say 'who'.

2. Can we have an adjective act as a noun? Please see the underlined part
If there should be someone reading this who realize ... that this wonderful of contracts has not been made ... This sentence as written is not grammatical. Did you type it correctly?

3. Is this construction valid and correct? Yes. It's quite literary in style.
Is the word 'power' the subject here? Yes.
To every poor slave of self who really desires it, is given the power to respond in obedience to our Lord ...

Best wishes, Clive

Re: What he said were distortions

CalifJim — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:10:56 GMT

OK. I think I understand.

criticize NP for NP is the pattern. (NP = noun phrase)

The example you asked about at the beginning of this thread is correct.

Mr. Obama criticized Clinton* frequently during the debate for what he said were distortions of his views and record by the former president.

* in the form of whom in the original statement.

Here's the skeletal form with NP's in brackets:

criticized [Clinton] for [what were distortions]

CJ

Re: Types of appositives

Grammarian-bot — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:55:45 GMT

Inchoateknowledge wrote:
Appositions identify or explain the noun phrase, pronoun, they are in apposition to, and modify.

REstrictive app is needed to make the sentence meaningful: The British Linford Christie won the 100 m race.
LC is needed, otherwise you do not know who won. Comma is not needed.

Non restictive: you can omit the apposition. Comma is needed.
Linford Christie, the British athlete, won.

So, it means that restrictive/non-restrictive appositions and restrictive/non-restrictive clauses have the same set of rules. But if you visit the link below, you'll see some other set of rules. I'll summariza them for you.

www.readbygrade3.com/noun.html.html function ss(w,id){window.status=w;return true;} function cs(){window.status='';} function clk(url,oi,cad,ct,cd,sg){if(document.images){var e = window.encodeURIComponent ? encodeURIComponent : escape;var u="";var oi_param="";var cad_param="";if (url) u="&url="+e(url.replace(/#.*/,"")).replace(/\+/g,"%2B");if (oi) oi_param="&oi="+e(oi);if (cad) cad_param="&cad="+e(cad);new Image().src="/url?sa=T"+oi_param+cad_param+"&ct="+e(ct)+"&cd="+e(cd)+u+"&ei=qtviRKj3GrfkRaXPxOIN"+sg;}return true;} var bdg = 0;function sb() {bdg = 1;}function ga(o,e) {if (document.getElementById) {var a = o.id.substring(1); var p = "", r = "", t, f, h;var g = e.target;if (g) { t = g.id;f = g.parentNode;if (f) {p = f.id;h = f.parentNode;if (h)r = h.id;}} else {h = e.srcElement;f = h.parentNode;if (f)p = f.id;t = h.id;}if (t==a || p==a || r==a)return true;document.getElementById(a).href += "&ct=b" + (bdg ? "d" : "g");bdg = 0;top.location.href=document.getElementById(a).href}} function anbc(id) {if (document && document.getElementById) {var o = document.getElementById(id);if (o && o.href) {document.location = o.href;}}}//-->

If the appositive is a single word, then no commas are needed. the comma in such a sentence would mean that the name inside the commas is the person to whom you are addressing.
My brother John is a sportman. (John is my brother)
My brother, John, is a sportsmsn. (John is not my brother but is being addressed.)
(Here a question arises that what if the person being addressed is reffered by his full name such has John Holmes. Then we have to put commas but then it would create ambiguity that whether John Holmes is being addressed to or is an appositive.)

Please can you put some light on it.

GB

Re: one of, neither, either, any of, none

MrPedantic — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:18:03 GMT

1. Neither of my friends are rich.
2. Neither of my friends is rich.

My inclination would be to use #1; though #2 is fine. The OED seems happy with "neither of" + noun phrase + plural verb, and gives an example:

3. Neither of us are the proper judges.

It also seems to be acceptable in literary contexts:

4. At length, when these two potentates had wearied themselves with waging war upon one another, they agreed upon an interview, at which neither of their counsellors were to be present. (Addison)

5. Now the reader will be pleased to consider, that, as neither of these men were fools... (Fielding)

6. For it may be remarked in the course of this little conversation...that though Miss Rebecca Sharp has twice had occasion to thank Heaven, it has been, in the first place, for ridding her of some person whom she hated, and secondly, for enabling her to bring her enemies to some sort of perplexity or confusion; neither of which are very amiable motives for religious gratitude... (Thackeray)

And here are some implicit plurals:

7. According to Madame F., neither of the Rougiers had taken off their clothes for four years. (Orwell)

8. Stanley has obtained permission to apply personally to his friends; and, as they have neither of them ever seen him, let Sir Oliver assume his character (Sheridan)

9. Isabel was silent; neither of them had seated themselves; they stood there with a certain air of defiance. (H. James)

MrP

Re: heartily

Grammar Geek — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:32:26 GMT

I think you need to replace "it" with the specific antecedent - presumably his victory? or perhaps just his strong finish? As it reads now, the reader is mostly likely going to try to attach "it" to the most recent noun phrase - in this case, the congratulations. And once the reader realizes that that doesn't make sense, he'll have to try to figure out what you mean. They'll be able to infer, like I did, that it has to do with his performace or his win, or whatever the larger paragraph is about, but if you can avoid making your readers work harder to get your meaning, it's a good idea.

(By the way, from whom did he receive the congratulations? From everyone in town? From his competitors? From his loyal fans? From the Queen of England?)

Re: Adj clause or noun clause

miriam — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:44:30 GMT

Hello, Komountain.

You have just posted an example yourself!

"And I would be glad to see some example sentences (in which clauses introduced by prepositions are not noun clauses)."

The subordinate clause in your sentence is a relative clause whose antecedent is the noun phrase "example sentences".

Here are a few more examples:

"The chest (in which we keep old photos) is in my bedroom.

"I cannot find the woman (to whom I lent some money last week).

"AIDS is a disease (for which no cure has been found yet)."

Regards,

Miriam

Re: analysis of English

paco2004 — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 22:40:54 GMT

Petra Hendriks

Coordination
A coordination joins two sentence elements, called conjuncts. In a coordinate structure like "cats and dogs" the conjunction coordinates the conjunct "cats" with the conjunct "dogs". In many languages, conjunctions like "and" or "or" can conjoin words or phrases of virtually every category, under the condition that the categories being conjoined are of the same sort. It might appear as if coordination was a relatively simple phenomenon. However, coordination is notoriously difficult for linguistic theory to define. Although a wide variety of structures can be conjoined, not all coordinations are acceptable. One of the first generalizations regarding coordination is Ross's Coordinate Structure Constraint (1967). This constraint states that coordination does not allow for asymmetrical constructions. For example, the sentence "This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates Pat", is unacceptable, because only the first conjunct is relativized. The sentence "This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates" is acceptable, because both conjuncts are relativized. The Coordinate Structure Constraint might be explained by the requirement that the conjuncts in a coordinate construction must be of the same "sort." This requirement is sometimes referred to as the Law of Coordination of Likes. Linguists are uncertain as to the relationship between "sort" and syntactic category. "The sentence Pat is stupid and a liar" shows that being of the same syntactic category is too strong a requirement for conjuncts in a coordinate construction, since an adjective phrase ("stupid") can be conjoined with a noun phrase ("a liar"). It is therefore unclear what it means for two conjuncts to be of the same sort.

......

Help with English Grammar Exam (

Green_Eyed_Girl — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 21:23:27 GMT

I know this is a long post, but I have a final exam about this on Tuesday and I need answers. Any help will be very appreciated, if you don't have time to answer all and just have time to answer one question it will be equally appreciated! Thanks in Advance.

1. What are the 5 noun phrases in the sentence below? Which grammatical function does each one of them have?
"A reporter said the Queen's guests would leave the country the next day."

I suppose they are:
1. A reporter
2. The Queen's guests
3. The country
4. The next day
But there's one missing, would it be "Queen" and "the guests"? In that case, what is the grammatical function of "the guests"?

2. Explain why the following sentence is ungrammatical.
"Never watch I television." - I know it is ungrammatical, and I know how to correct it, but I have no clue about how to explain why it is ungrammatical.

3. How do you know which word is the "head" of the bracketed construction in the example below?
"There are [several answers to this question]. I think it is "answers", but how can I explain how I know that?

4. How might the following contrast be accounted for?
a) They have referred to the book.
b) The book has been referred to.
c) He went to the station.
d) * The station was gone to.
I have no clue about how to answer to this question.

5. How can the contrast between c) and f) be explained?
a) She spoke to the manager
b) Who did she speak to?
c) To whom did she speak?

d) She put on a coat.
e) What did she put on?
f) *On what did she put?
Again, I don't really know how to answer this.

6. Comment on the way in which the noun phrase "an elephant" is understood in each of the sentences a) and b) below.
a) An elephant has four legs.
b) We saw an elephant at the zoo.
Well, here I would say that in the first sentence the elephant is the subject and in the second sentence it is the direct object. Is that the correct answer?

Thank you very much!