WOW.... looking at the length of Casiopea's reply alone overwhelms me. Were it an student answer sheet it'd come out 120% on the score! Five thumbs up for Cas
Really appreciate your spending time to help me on this!!
Now... I've come across another dichotomy of verbs: complete(needing no complements to complete(sorry for the pun
) the meaning of the verb/sentence) and incomplete (needing complements to complete the meaning of the verb/sentence)verbs, which would make out the five basic sentnece patterns as well:
Transitive complete: SVO
Ditransitive complete: SVOO
Transitive incomplete: SVOC
Intransitive complete: SV
Intransitive incomplete: SVC
Here, a verb is emphasized in the relationship with complements. I feel that for the SVC and SVOC cases, this relationship seems to weaken the link between S and C(in SVC) and O and C(in SVOC). So I've never used this concept to explain to my students. What do you think?
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Only linking verbs et al take subject complements. That is, C of SVC is known as a subject complement because it describes the subject, never the verb.
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That's why I thought the complete-incomplete-verbs idea could be confusing. Seems to me that there are grammar theories don't pan out because they generate too many exceptions, rather than just saying right or wrong.
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Yes. C has two factors: 1) Form and 2) Function. "She is at the store." (SVC). C = 'at the store', a prepositional phrase, functioning as an adjective, describing Where the subject (She) is situated.
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Yup, complements take virtually any forms. I thought a PP can't be a C.
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If a word is used to describe a verb, then its functions is that of an adverb.
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This is a quote from The Little, Brown Handbook, it says exactly what I need to remember in order not to raise these dumb questions.:
The function of a word in a sentence always determines its part of speech in that sentence.
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b]Answer[/b]: SVOC. She = S, put =V, her hands = O, in her pockets =C Note, Her hands are in her pockets. 'in her pockets' modifies 'hands'; it tells us where her hands are located.
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Darn me! I was too concentrating on "put something in somewhere" that I didn't notice it's a simple O=OC relationship! Only that, why can't I say "in her pockets" functions as an adverb to modify "put"?
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Question: What pattern is "She introduced me to her brother."
Answer: SVOO. She = S, introduced = V, me = O (direct object), to her brother = O (indirect object)
Note, introduced is a dirtransitive verb: It takes two objects, introduce X to Y.
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That means, we can also say "She introduced her brother me"
, since S+V+IO+DO and S+V+DO+PP+IO are interchangeable? Like "I bought her a present." = "I bought a present for her."
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Note, Exhausted, she left the room. We can move the adverb to the beginning or end of the sentence. Adverbs and other added modifications do not have set, fixed positions.
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I couldn't find an entry for exhausted as an adverb in the dictionary. Is it the case that an adjective functions as a adverb?? If that's the case, your explanation is all clear to me.
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Question: What sentence pattern is "The plan struck me as excellent."
Answer: SVOC. The plan=S, struck=V, me=O, as excellent =C, functioning as an adjective modifiying 'the plan'. (SVOC)
Note, It struck me as (being an) excellent (plan). Adjective
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So if it's just written SVOC, we wouldn't know whether the C complements S or O. Thus there are actually two forms: SVO(OC) and SVO(SC), right? However, by your explanation, isn't this sentence more like a reduction from "It struck me as it is an excellent plan"? So it's actually a subordinate clause type.
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Funny you mention the word "loose". I suggest you visit the site below. |
Yeah, the loose sentences defined are more like rhetorical than grammatical to me, don't you think? And the periodic sentences are just an example of nonfinite clauses.
The 5Ws is a really good help, thanks for that !
:D