sentence analysis 6

[hela]

Dear teachers,


Sorry to bother you but I would be very grateful if you could help me analyze the following sentences. Sometimes some sentence elements appear ambiguous to me and I don’t know how to analyze them. Have you got a clue which would help me not to hesitate anymore ?


1) He is without a job = subject complement or adverbial ?


2) She is respected by her students. = ??
"is respected" = intransitive verb?
"by her students" = ??

3) Are the following: S V Direct Object + Indirect Object?


a) The senator asked a question of the Supreme Court Justice.
- is "of" the normal preposition which should follow the expression "to ask a question"?


b) I ordered myself something to eat.

c)The antique dealer purchased the World War I plane for The Smithsonian. (Who are the Smithsonian(s?)?)

4) She is ahead of her fellow students.
= SV + subject Complement or Adverbial ?

- "ahead of her fellow students" is an adverb phrase or an adjective phrase ? How should I know?


5) The Indus was only a glinting trickle far below.
= S V Subject complement + Adverbial of place?

6) I talked to myself.
a) talked = intransitive verb ?
b) to myself = indirect object?? / subject complement ?

7) Talk to me. = ??


8)I am behind in my rent.
a) “behind in my rent” = subj compl; or
b) “behind” = ? + “in my rent” = ?


9) a) We had quite a good time. = S V Od?
b) They are such good friends. = S V Cs?

10) All the people in the house left for good. = SV + ?


Thank you in advance for your help.
Kind regards,
Hela

[Casiopea]

Hi, Hela. Here are my guesstimates. If you see the emoticon , it means I am 90-ish% sure.

1) He is without a job = subject complement or adverbial ?

Replacement results in, He was jobless (adjective; subject complement).

2) She is respected by her students.

Active results in, Her students respect her. (respect, vb. transitive). Structurally, the phrase 'her students' functions as the object of 'by'. In terms of semantics, it functions as the semantic subject.

3a) The senator asked a question of the Supreme Court Justice.

'of . . .' is ambiguous. Archiac, polite;e.g., a question to be answered by the Supreme Court Justice / asked the Supreme Court Justice (indirect object) a question (direct object); Modern: one of the Supreme Court Justice's questions / a question of the Supreme Court Justice (object of 'a question').

3b) I ordered myself something to eat.

Variation: I ordered something to eat for myself (indirect object).

3c)The antique dealer purchased the World War I plane for The Smithsonian [Museum]

purchased the Smithsonian [Musuem] the World War I plane. (semantically awkward). Not all verb can undergo the IO-DO switch; e.g., I gave money (DO) to the church (IO) / I gave the church (IO) money (DO), but, I donated money (DO) to the church (IO) / *I donated the church (IO) money (DO).

4) She is ahead of her fellow students.

Replacement yields, "She is above the rest in her class. In other words, what is her academic status? (adjective); Cf. Where is she located in time and space? (adverb); e.g., She's in the gym, standing in line with her fellow students. She's first in line. Her position in time and space is ahead of her fellow students (adverb).

5) The Indus was only a glinting trickle far below.

far below (adverb of location, position, place).

6) I talk to myself.

The IO intervenes. Ex: She talked to me (IO) about her problem (DO) / She talked about her problem (DO) *to me (IO). talk is one of the verbs that houses its DO within, so it isn't always overt; e.g, Talk to me. Talk to me about your family. Cf. Talk about your family.

8)I am behind in my rent.

Replacement yields, I am late with the rent. Adjective phrase.

9) a) We had quite a good time. = S V Od?
b) They are such good friends. = S V Cs?

The adverbs 'quite' and 'such' modify the adjective 'good'. 'time' and 'friends' are nouns: adv + adj + noun.

10) All the people in the house left for good. = SV + ?

'for good' (never to come back again) modifies the verb 'left', which makes it an adverb.

[hela]

Dear Casiopea,

I’d like to clarify a few things if you don’t mind.

1)

“tdol makes a valid point. The examples you've provided us with deal with semantics, not syntax per se. It would be beneficial - for you and for us - if you could let us know what your focus is.”

Do you mean that if I ask about the necessity of having an adverbial in a sentence I’m dealing with semantics and not syntax ?

2) a) I am behind in my rent.= SV + subj. complement (or what you call “predicate adjective” I suppose) + adverbial of place ? OR

b)I am behind in my rent. = SV + subject complement ?

3) a) Hungrily, the dog smelled at the package. =
b) The dog smelled the package. (do they mean the same?)

4) The sun shone (= copular verb ?) bright.

5) a) she remained (copular or intransitive ?) behind (adverbial of location ?) after class (adverbial of time ?)

b) She remained (copular ?) calm (predicate adjective ?).
c) She is staying (intransitive or copular ?) at school for the summer.

Thanks a million,
Hela

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by hela

if I ask about the necessity of having an adverbial in a sentence I’m dealing with semantics?

Yes. For example, 'behind' and 'behind in my rent' mean different things. Semantic scope is narrowed when 'in my rent' is added to (modifies) 'behind'. As tdol mentioned, you can omit 'in my rent' and get the same meaning - but it's context dependent:

Max: I paid my rent today.
Pat: Well, I'm behind (in my rent).

3) a) Hungrily, the dog smelled at the package. =
b) The dog smelled the package. (do they mean the same?)

That's the right question to ask. Consider,

The dog smelled.
(intrans. It was a smelly dog)

The dog smelled the bone.
(trans. The bone is being acted upon)

Hungrily, the dog smelled the bone.
(trans. The bone is being acted upon in a hungry manner.

Hungrily, the dog smelled at the bone.
(trans. The dog's nose is moving hungrily at the bone.)

4) The sun shone (= copular verb ?) bright.

'shone' describes its state; e.g., the sun is bright. Cf. The sun shone on us brightly.

5) a) she remained (copular or intransitive ?) behind (adverbial of location ?) after class (adverbial of time ?)

'remained' (past tense). It's one of those verbs that semantically houses its object within, like "eat"; I ate (something). Cf, She remained calm. 'calm' is obligatory. ( She is calm.) Use BE (is, was, etc.) replacement strategy with "she remained at school" and we get, "she is at school (adverb)". In other words, she remained at a location.
With copular constructions of the type Subject + Verb + Prepositional Phrase (PP), if the PP describes the subject, it tells us something about her/his/its character, so it functions as an adjective; e.g., she remained calm; they are in the mood; she remained behind in her class (academic status): she is a poor student (compared to her fellow classmates). 'behind in her class' describes the subject's character, so it functions as an adjective.

If, on the other hand, the PP describes where the subject is located in time and space, then it functions as an adverb;e.g., she remained at school for several days (adverb). Test: "Where?" And it's obligatory, unless, that is, it's stated elsewhere in the context. See 'behind (in my rent)').

Consider, also, he is in the car (adverb). It's obligatory, of course. Delete 'in the car' and the meaning changes to 'he exists'). In other words, and this goes back to the semantic-syntax interface you asked me about at the begining of the thread, a PP can function as an adverb (location in time or space) or as a adjective (characteristic), and just because 'adverbs' are optional at the structural level (syntax) doesn't mean they are optional at the semantic level.

[hela]

Dear Casiopea,

As stated above, how would you analyse "The sun shone on us brightly."

the sun = subject
shone = intransitive verb ?
on us = adverbial of place ???
brightly = adverbial of manner

If you wouldn't mind I have plenty of sentences I'd like you to correct. Would it be possible for me to send them to you bit by bit for a correction?

I'll start here with the first five. Please tell me if I can carry on.


1) She pitched a perfect game and got a gold medal.

She = subject
Pitched = transitive verb
A perfect game = direct object

And = linker ?
(part of speech = coordinating conjunction)
(function = linker ?)

Got = transitive verb
A gold medal = direct object.

2) The Jones and the Martins want to swap houses.

The Jones and the Martins = subject
a) want = transitive verb + to swap houses = direct object (?) OR
b) want to swap = transitive verb + houses = direct object (?)

3) My best friend’s son has become first violin in the orchestra of the Royal Opera House. (Does this sentence make sense?)

My best friend’s son = subject
Jas become = copular / linking verb
A first violin = subject related complement
In the orchestra of the ROH = adverbial of place

4) The customer sent the store a letter a) complaining about the service / b) of complaint about the service.

The customer = subject
Sent = ditransitive verb
the store = IO

a) A letter = direct object
Complaining about the service ???
b) a letter of [U]complaint = DO
about the service = adverbial ? of what?
c) letter = DO
of complaint about the service = object related complement ??


5) The company considers Mr Jones the best man for the job.

The company = subject
Considers = transitive verb
Mr Jones = direct object
The best man for the job = object related complement (?)

Thank you very much in advance for your help.
Hela

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Whenever possible may I have an answer to this post and the one entitled "sentence analysis 21/01/06", please?
Thank you in advance for your help.