How could it be a preposition? It has no object. Actually, there's a linguistic analysis that allows prepositions to have no complements. The argument runs that "prepositions" exhibit transitivity, like verbs do, so that

Both are correct, but some people object to "which" in defining relative clauses (not just any camels, but just those that/which are about to give birth), so if you want to be on the safe side, choose "that".

If Hamlet was written by Marlowe, I'll eat my hat! That's an interesting one. But does the doubt lie in the second clause, rather than the first? Cf. 1. If Hamlet was written by Marlowe, I'll have to include it in my forthcoming

Hi, I don't have much time now, but what you're talking about looks like a topic for cognitive linguistics. As an example, I present Lakoff on metaphor. (I haven't read that link myself - no time, remember? - but from what I remember

Actually, " to find / that the house had been burgled ," is a non-finite clause. The non-finite verb "to find" (infinitive) takes as its object a finite clause ("that the house has been burgled"). The object slot

I think Nona's example about talking about your mother when she was a child and still referring to her as your mother is a good analogy. First,. let me say that I agree usage-wise Nona and you. I also think that the mother-example is a good

Hi, I'm really enjoying this. You're making me think. I'm going to take your points out of sequence. I think I'm still replying to your post; if I misrepresent what you're saying, please correct me. First, the summary of what

Thanks for the reply. I've skimmed over it, will read and get back to it later. Needs quite a bit of thought.

Thanks, folks, for the positive response to my post. I did catch some incosistencies, though, I wish hadn't made: The sign is read: Subject = patient; The sign reads, "Beware of the Dog!": Subject = ? It's not, strictly

1. Yes, I saw. 2. You push and I'll lift. 3. What should we do when we punish? 4. Please give generously. The problem I see here is a muddle of syntax, pragmatics and semantics. In most of these sentences you could make a case for elided