Diagramming "it"

[TheParser]

There is a fascinating thread in the "Ask a Teacher" forum regarding this

kind of construction:

No. 1. A journalist is a person whose job is to report the news.

No. 2. A journatist is a person whose job it is to report the news.

Is there any chance of your R-K-ing those two sentences. Then I

could understand the role of "it."

Thanks a MILLION

[birdeen's call]

Could you please give a link to the thread? I would love to read it.

[TheParser]

Could you please give a link to the thread? I would love to read it.

I do not know how to link. As I type, it's on page 2 of "Ask

a Teacher." The title is "It in [noun] whose [noun] ...."

The thread starter is AlJapone.

[lauralie2]

The only way I can get a grammatical reading from 1. is to add in punctuation that would make 'whose job' the subject of 'is':

1. A journalist is a person, whose job (by the way) is to report the news.

2. A journalist is a person whose job it is to report the news.

In 2., 'it' is the subject of 'is'.

[Lorenzo66]

1. A journalist is a person, whose job (by the way) is to report the news.

Look at this sentence as one having a dependent adjective clause whose job is to report the news.
What the clause is stating is that the job of reporting the news belongs to the journalist. Another way of staing this is: The journalist is a person the job of whom is to report the news.
. . . of whom means the same as whose

To add the word it is somewhat superfluous. It would be the subject of the dependent adjective clause; job would be the subject complement after the copulative verb is; and to report the news, an infinitive phrase, would function as the modifier of the subject complement, job.
Need more clarity/ Ask me more.
L J

[Frank Antonson]

[TheParser]

Thank you SO much for the all effort that you put into those

beautiful diagrams. They prove that the Reed-Kellogg system

is still relevant and most helpful. When students see a

"map" of a sentence, they better understand how all the

parts of speech play their roles.

Thanks again.

[Frank Antonson]

You are very welcome.

I agree about seeing the sentence visually. (Can one see anything other than visually? I guess that's redundant.)

It will be very interesting in the next few weeks for me to see how the students relate to favorite sentences, now that they have been taught Reed-Kellogg.