"...way back home" diagram

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TheParser

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"The dog found its way back home."


Would you kindly Reed-Kellogg?


Thank you very much.


James
 

Frank Antonson

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I MUST get this computer set up to diagram.

Parser, you come up with such interesting examples!

Frank
 

TheParser

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I MUST get this computer set up to diagram.

Parser, you come up with such interesting examples!

Frank


Mr. Antonson,


(1) After checking Professor Quirk and "Professor Google," I have

decided to parse/diagram that sentence thusly:

The dog = subject.

found = verb.

its way = object.

back = being used as an adjective to modify "way."

home = being used as an adjective to modify "way."

(Either "back" or "home" could be deleted without injury to the

grammar of the sentence.)

***

If I understand Professor Quirk, "way back" = "way which leads back";

"way home" = "way toward home."

***

I also found three Google book sources (two of whom were not native-

speaking scholars) who discussed "adjectival attributes expressed by

an adverb."

Oh, Mr. Antonson, if learners realized how helpful Reed-Kellogg is,

they would be flooding this forum with requests for diagrams!!!


James
 
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Frank Antonson

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James,

I know what you mean about Reed-Kellogg diagrams.

I am working on getting back at that on the computer. I miss it.

Frank
 

philo2009

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back = being used as an adjective to modify "way."

I must take issue with this part of your analysis: to my mind, the structure is [the way [back home]], i.e. with 'back' as a modifying adjunct to 'home', making it an adverb rather than an adjective.
 

TheParser

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I must take issue with this part of your analysis: to my mind, the structure is [the way [back home]], i.e. with 'back' as a modifying adjunct to 'home', making it an adverb rather than an adjective.


Most interesting!!!

But what about: Mona found her way back. Would "back" then

modify "way"?
 

Frank Antonson

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dogfoundway.gif
 

Rolex_Cellini

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"The dog found its way back home."

My tentative attempt at analysis:

The dog found its way back home. Which way did it find? The dog found that way. Its way back home. The underlined words around "way" identify "way" (i.e. determine its identity) in a similar way that determiners, e.g. "that", do.

Look at this:

The dog found its way back. :tick:
The dog found its way home. :tick:
The dog found its way back home. :tick:

The question arises in me: Can I - or should I - draw any conclusions vis-a-vis the grammatical relationship between "back" and "home", based on my evaluation on the above sentences' grammatical acceptability?
They seem to be on a par; they are equal in syntactic standing. "(To) Home" probably further explains "back". When it comes to further explaining something, apposition comes to mind. "back" means home, and vice versa.

Hence my diagram:

 

Rolex_Cellini

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way (which is) back (to) home

Reduced relative? How about this?



I put the apposed prepositional phrase in adverbial (adjunct) function on a pedestal and in round brackets. :up: :down:

back (to) home = predicate adverb
 

philo2009

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Most interesting!!!

But what about: Mona found her way back. Would "back" then

modify "way"?

Yes, it would. However, the issue for me here is that, in terms of sense, rather than two pieces of unrelated information pertaining to 'way':

(a) its way back (to somewhere or other)

and (incidentally!)

(b) its way (to) home

, we have actually one major item

(I) its way home

in relation to the modifier of which the minor additional detail is provided that it was

(Ia) (to) home for at least the second time

, in fairly clear contrast to e.g. a big, black dog, wherein the two adjectives are genuinely coordinate equals, each relating quite independently to the head noun, specifying

(a) a dog that is big

and

(b) a dog that is (also) black.
 
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philo2009

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way (which is) back (to) home

back (to) home = predicate adverb

I must confess to sharing your discomfort at reckoning 'home' (with the meaning 'to one's place of residence') as an adjective of any kind, rather than as an adverb, and traditional grammarians are likely to need little persuading to accept any analysis, however tortuous, which permits it to retain its normal status.

Others, however, might object that we would never actually say anything like

*My way is (back) home.

and that, since directional adverb 'home' (unlike its locative form in AmE) cannot properly function as a complement, a spurious ellipsis is being cited as the basis of a false analysis!

On balance, therefore - however reluctantly - I would say that, in this particular case (and a tiny handful of structural equivalents such as 'the road home' etc.), we must simply be prepared to carve out an exception to syntactic norms and allow 'home' the status of an adjective.

However, for reasons explained in my previous post, I would still insist that 'back', at least, be reckoned an adverb!
 

Rolex_Cellini

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we must simply be prepared to carve out an exception to syntactic norms and allow 'home' the status of an adjective.

Elegantly put. :up:

My way is up the stairs. :tick:
:?:My way is upstairs. -- direction adjunct

Two adjuncts can be coordinated if they are of the same grammatical
function and semantic class; eg direction adjuncts

1. My way is up the stairs and to home.
2. My way is upstairs and home.

How does the sentence 2 lose its grammaticality?
 

philo2009

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Elegantly put. :up:

My way is up the stairs. :tick:
:?:My way is upstairs. -- direction adjunct



1. My way is up the stairs and to home.
2. My way is upstairs and home.

How does the sentence 2 lose its grammaticality?

Before commenting, I'd very much like to know the source of the quotation and of the two final examples...
 

Rolex_Cellini

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Quirk et al.
 

5jj

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It's a big book! Page numbers would be appreciated...
I agree.

At p520 of the 1985 Quirk et al Comprehensive Grammar (there are, as you know, others), I found: "Two adjuncts can be coordinated if they are of the same grammatical
function and semantic class; eg [STRIKE]direction[/STRIKE] position adjuncts ..."

I could find no sign of: "1. My way is up the stairs and to home.
2. My way is upstairs and home."
 

philo2009

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I agree.

At p520 of the 1985 Quirk et al Comprehensive Grammar (there are, as you know, others), I found: "Two adjuncts can be coordinated if they are of the same grammatical
function and semantic class; eg [STRIKE]direction[/STRIKE] position adjuncts ..."

I could find no sign of: "1. My way is up the stairs and to home.
2. My way is upstairs and home."

As, frankly, I suspected...!
 

TheParser

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to my mind, the structure is [the way [back home]], i.e. with 'back' as a modifying adjunct to 'home', making it an adverb rather than an adjective.


YES! You are 100% correct.

Angela Downing in English Grammar / A University Course writes:

"Adverbs of space or time are frequently modified by other adverbs of space or time."

She then gives these examples:

out there
back home


*****

Robert Beard in Lexeme-Morpheme writes:

"The residue class of adverbs contains items of three types: (i) some of Jackenoff's 'intransitive prepositions.' "

He gives these examples: back, home, here, there.
 

philo2009

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:-D

YES! You are 100% correct.

Angela Downing in English Grammar / A University Course writes:

"Adverbs of space or time are frequently modified by other adverbs of space or time."

She then gives these examples:

out there
back home


*****

Robert Beard in Lexeme-Morpheme writes:

"The residue class of adverbs contains items of three types: (i) some of Jackenoff's 'intransitive prepositions.' "

He gives these examples: back, home, here, there.
 
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