Could need some help analysing this sentence

[onkelskrue]

Hey, starting this english course and found out that my analysis skills are not up to date :-o. Gave this one a try, but not sure if it's right.

Would be gratefull if someone could take a look .



China has helped transform the idea of Africa from a destination for charity to a place for business

S: China
P: helped transform
DO the idea of Africa
A: from a destination for charity to a place for business

 

[Frank Antonson]

China has helped transform the idea of Africa from a destination for charity to a place for business

That is such an awkwardly written sentence.

How about changing it to:

"China has helped to transform the idea of Africa's being a destination to its being a place for business."

That would be a start.

 

[onkelskrue]

I know, but this is the way it was presented to me :-o.

 

[konungursvia]

I'd say something like this:

China has contributed to the evolution of Africa's image from a foreign aid destination to a good place to do business.

 

[onkelskrue]

I see where you're going, but what I am interested in knowing is if I have understod right when it comes to, Subject, direct object and so forth?

 

[Barb_D]

Hey, starting this english course and found out that my analysis skills are not up to date :-o. Gave this one a try, but not sure if it's right.

Would be gratefull if someone could take a look .



China has helped transform the idea of Africa from a destination for charity to a place for business

S: China
P: helped transform
DO the idea of Africa
A: from a destination for charity to a place for business

Welcome to the forums.

Given that this is what you had to work with, there doesn't seem to be much point in telling you the 10 different ways we coudl rewrite it.

China is most certainly the subject. I would have said that "has helped" is the verb and "transform the idea of Africa...." is what it helped to do. Then "the idea..." is all a direct object of what was transformed. HOW it was transformed would be as you have indicated.

I may have the wrong idea about "helped" though. Labeling things is not my strong suit.

 

[5jj]

I am also not a labeller, as you see from my signature, below. So the help I can offer is limited, but I can confirm, as Barb said, that 'China' is the grammatical subject.

In some types of analysis, the whole of the rest of the sentence is the predicate; in that case the verb is 'has helped'. In other types of analysis, only 'has helped' would be the predicate. In both types, if further analysis i[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]s[/FONT] required, 'has' is an auxiliary verb and 'helped the (past participle of the) main/full/lexical verb. 'Transform' is not part of the verb as such, though it is a verb.

That's as far as I can go. Good luck.

 

[TheParser]

Onkelskrue,


May I give you my interpretation? I have based it on the Reed-Kellogg system of diagramming. Mr. Antonson is an expert, so he will correct any of my mistakes:

(1) I feel that the "skeleton" of your sentence is this:

China / has helped/ (to) transform the idea.

China = subject
has helped = verb
(to) transform the idea = infinitive phrase used as direct object of the verb.

*****

Then there are five prepositional phrases that help to "give some meat" to the basic "skeleton":

of Africa
from a destination
for charity
to a place
for business

(2) If you will look closely, you will see that "of Africa" modifies (belongs to) "idea."

"for charity" modifies "destination."

"for business" modifies "place."

(3) I now feel that the verb "(to) transform" is modified by:

"from a destination for charity" and "to a destination for business."

(a) I believe that the passive shows that this interpretation may be correct:

The idea of Africa has been transformed from a destination for charity to a place for business,

 

[Frank Antonson]

 

[TheParser]

Absolutely AWESOME!!! If teachers and students only knew what they are missing

in not knowing Reed-Kellogg!!!

 

[Frank Antonson]

Thanks, Parser.

Something that bugs me is that it is just not that hard to diagram like this. It's hard to do on a computer, but not on paper.

What "bugs me" is that others seem so reluctant to learn how.

The diagram may not solve the problem for someone who has to have just the right terms, but those terms can be deduced and discussed.