Something worth fighting for.

[Ferdie11]

Hi,

Can you tell me the kind of grammar pattern used in the sentence below? And the function (parts of speech) of each words in the sentence?

Something worth fighting for.

Thanks in advance!

[sarat_106]

Hi,

Can you tell me the kind of grammar pattern used in the sentence below? And the function (parts of speech) of each words in the sentence?

Something worth fighting for. This is not a complete sentence as it does not express a complete thought. It is a phrase.
Here 'worth' is a preosition meaning: good or important enough to justify (specified by the pronoun 'something'); as: ; a place worth visiting, a cause worth fighting for. fighting is a gerund and object of the preposition 'worth'

Thanks in advance!

Here is an extract from a review of Harry Potter film " Something worth fighting hor"; At the end of the film, Harry tells his closest friends, "We have something Voldemort does not have [in their fight]: something worth fighting for." The implication is that this "something" is each other.


Skp

[philo2009]

Hi,

Can you tell me the kind of grammar pattern used in the sentence below? And the function (parts of speech) of each words in the sentence?

Something worth fighting for.

Thanks in advance!

First off, it is simply a pronoun phrase, not a sentence!

A simple form-class parsing would break it down as follows:

something: indefinite PRONOUN

worth: ADJECTIVE (with prepositional force), modifying 'something'

fighting: GERUND, object of 'worth'

for: PREPOSITION, notionally introducing elliptical adverbial modifying 'fighting' (see below)

The object of the preposition in this kind of construction is suppressed, i.e. obligatorily omitted; thus the prepositional phrase that it notionally introduces is itself elliptical. However, although it cannot grammatically be inserted, you could imagine the suppressed prepositional object in this case as being 'it', and referring back to the referent of the adjective (i.e. to 'something').

Expressed in overall structural terms, the phrase realizes the formula

[[NP] (something) + [ADJ.P] (worth fighting for)].

[Ferdie11]

So how would we say it in other words?

Thanks.

[Barb_D]

There is something we care about a lot, and we care so much that we would fight for it.

[BobK]

(Notice, Ferdie11, that Barb couldn't resist the temptation to turn the prepositional phrase into a sentence - by supplying a verb: is.)

b