[quote="infinikyte"]
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Originally Posted by MikeNewYork That is most likely a leftover from diagraming sentences. In that scheme, modifiers were depicted below the main sentence line. |
Hmm.. By diagraming sentences you mean those drawn like a tree structure from left to right?
I'm just thinking that if, based on the fact that those mentioned adverbials behave more like complements than modifiers and thus are necessary to the pattern, I expand the basic five to basic seven (S+V+A and S+V+O+A) and would help the students distinguish this subtle difference. Otherwise I'd have to create subcategories for these adverbials under S+V and S+V+O+A as you said... which I'd think students would accept better than just listing them as mere exceptions. :o
Again, I do not see the problem with adverbs and adjectives. I do not consider them complements of the verb or subject; they are modifiers. Take the sentence: She lives in London. The verb is the intransitive form of "live". She lives. She exists. The adverb in unnecessary in the sentence. The prepositional phrase "in London" is an adverbial phrase, modifying the verb "lives".
Take the sentence "She is upstairs." Here, I will disagree with my colleague, Cas. Many will say that a linking verb cannot take an adverb. This is generally true, but forms of the verb "to be" are not always linking verbs. This verb can also be an intransitive stative verb, when it takes on the meaning "to exist". In my opinion, "upstairs" is an adverb, modifying the verb "is". It simply answers the question "where?" as do many adverbs. She exists upstairs.
I see no reason to change the 5 basic patterns.