Question

[wobblies]

I was recently asked to comment on this sentence by a student: I was elected by the class. What part of speech is 'by the class'?

[freezeframe]

I was recently asked to comment on this sentence by a student: I was elected by the class. What part of speech is 'by the class'?

It's an adverb phrase.

[TheParser]

I was recently asked to comment on this sentence by a student: I was elected by the class. What part of speech is 'by the class'?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I think that many teachers would like you to identify "by the

class" as a prepositional phrase ( a preposition + a noun).

(2) As Senior Member Freezeframe told you, it is being used as

an adverbial. That is, it modifies (belongs to) the verb "was

elected."

(3) As you know, that is a passive sentence. It probably comes

from the active sentence: The class elected me.

(4) The people elected her president. She was elected president

by the people.

[wobblies]

Again, thank you.

[BookAddict]

We use parts of speech in morphology (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc), in syntax, we use sentence elements (subject, object, complements, etc.).
"by the class" is a noun phrase and it is also an agent

[freezeframe]

We use parts of speech in morphology (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc), in syntax, we use sentence elements (subject, object, complements, etc.).
"by the class" is a noun phrase and it is also an agent

Noun phrases act as nouns -- they act as a subject or as an object. How would this work here?

And it's not the agent of the action, the subject is.

[SanMar]

Noun phrases act as nouns -- they act as a subject or as an object. How would this work here?

And it's not the agent of the action, the subject is.

Do you mind explaining this? I am not sure why is it because of the verb elected..

I was voted most popular by my class. -- ? in this case by my class is the agent of the action? If need be I can put this up in a new thread.

thanks

[freezeframe]

[/B]


Do you mind explaining this? I am not sure why is it because of the verb elected..

I was voted most popular by my class. -- ? in this case by my class is the agent of the action? If need be I can put this up in a new thread.

thanks

You are right. It's passive voice, the subject is not "agent".