There are twelve including the children.

[anhnha]

Hi all,
I want to parse the sentence bellow:
There are twelve including the children.
Here is what I think but I am not sure. Hope anyone can help me.
twelve: subject (twelve)
are : linking verb
including: adjective
the: determiner(or adjective)
children: objective
But how about "there"? Is it adverb?
Can I write the sentence as follows:
Twelve are there including the children.
OR
Twelve there are including the children.
Thank you.

[Katherine99]

Hi Anhnha,

I think the sentence is parsed as follows:

There are twelve including the children.

There-expletive (pronoun)
are-intransitive verb
twelve-subject (noun)
including the children-adverb modifier (prepositional phrase)
including-preposition
children-object of preposition
the-adjective modifier

I don't think the other two examples are valid sentences. Can anyone else confirm this.

[anhnha]

Thank you Katherine99,
I think you are right but there are some part I am not sure. I am confused about "there". How can I know if it is adverb or pronoun?

including the children-adverb modifier (prepositional phrase)

Could you tell me what part of sentence the adverb modifier refer to? I think it modify the whole sentence, right?
Is it possible that "including the children" an adjective phrase that modify the noun "twelve"?

[philo2009]

I think you’ll find that a more standard parsing (i.e. sorting words into their most basic grammatical categories) is as follows:

There: existential ADVERB
are: finite VERB
twelve: determinative ADJECTIVE (relating to implied noun “people”)
including: VERB (participle)
the: definite ARTICLE (determiner)
children: plural NOUN

In terms of phrasal/clausal analysis, the subject is the NP ‘twelve (people)’ and ‘including the children’ is a participle phrase consisting of a head (‘including’, present, a.k.a. active, participle of the verb ‘include’) governing NP ‘the children’ as object, the whole adjectivally post-modifying the subject NP.

[anhnha]

Thank you, Philo, for your thoughtful answer.
I like your parsing. It is very clear.
But I still have a problem, could you help me another again?

In terms of phrasal/clausal analysis, the subject is the NP ‘twelve (people)’ and ‘including the children’ is a participle phrase consisting of a head (‘including’, present, a.k.a. active, participle of the verb ‘include’) governing NP ‘the children’ as object, the whole adjectivally post-modifying the subject NP.

If I change the original sentence into the sentence bellow:
There were twelve including the children.
In this case, can I use "including"? And is "including" present participle here?

[Katherine99]

Hi Anhnha,

I am sorry for the incorrect analysis of your sentence, but I am still learning. Here is a diagram of it.

[Katherine99]

Hi Philo,

Are you saying to first identify each word with the part of speech it belongs to, and then write a commentary on how they function in the clause?

[hela]

Hello Philo2009,

Is this a complete sentence ? Shouldn't a subject be added to become a sentence?

[philo2009]

Thank you, Philo, for your thoughtful answer.
I like your parsing. It is very clear.
But I still have a problem, could you help me another again?

If I change the original sentence into the sentence bellow:
There were twelve including the children.
In this case, can I use "including"? And is "including" present participle here?

Changing the tense affects the parsing not one whit!

(By the way, you need a comma before 'including'.)