Preposition, adverb, and adjective

[mawes12]

I was taught to parse the sentence that was there, not the one I wish was there.

I don't understand. Can you explain?

[Matthew Wai]

I think MikeNewYork was referring to bebe heart's sentences, which were originally not there but s/he wished to be there.

Not a teacher.

[mawes12]

I think MikeNewYork was referring to bebe heart's sentences, which were originally not there but s/he wished to be there.

Not a teacher.

Which sentences?

[Matthew Wai]

Those in post#43 and #47.

"the hills up ahead the road/"any place"

I would add 'of' after 'ahead', but I am not a teacher.

If we are going to add things to the sentence...

I think both grammarians and TheParser like to do so when analyzing sentences.

[mawes12]

Those in post#43 and #47.

Not a teacher.

maybe he was talking about me but let's wait until he's online again.

[mawes12]

I would add 'of' after 'ahead', but I am not a teacher.

Sounds about right and I think you can also add "on" after "ahead". I might be wrong.

[MikeNewYork]

I was talking about rewriting a sentence and then parsing it as if it were the original sentence.

[Matthew Wai]

I think it was not so much rewriting as adding something in order to explain it, but I am not a teacher.

[mawes12]

I was talking about rewriting a sentence and then parsing it as if it were the original sentence.

So were you talking about what I added after the preposition?

[TheParser]

I think it was not so much rewriting as adding something in order to explain it..

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

Exactly!

When a conscientious student asks, "Teacher, why does one say 'You are taller than I?," many teachers might explain: "The complete sentence is 'You are taller than I am.' "

Such an explanation would help the student to understand the use of "I."

(Of course, in 2015, most native speakers -- including very well educated ones -- feel that it is more natural to say "...than me." But that's another matter.)

Many teachers feel that teaching ellipsis (some words are missing) is really appreciated by conscientious students who want teachers to explain the "why" of many sentences.

Quirk and his three fellow scholars explain, for example, in "The road back is dense with traffic," that is probably an ellipsis for something such as "The road that leads back to London is dense with traffic."