the premise that an accused person is innocent until they are proved guilty

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fenglish

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Hi,

I found the following "premise" example sentences from Longman dictionary.

1). The idea that there is life on other planets is the central premise of the novel.
2). the premise that an accused person is innocent until they are proved guilty.

In the first examlple, the premise is an idea.
But in the second examlple, I don't think it is a complete sentence because the structure is:
the premise that an accused person is innocent until they are proved guilty.

There is no object in the second example, is it correct?

Thanks.
 

Raymott

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The second example is not a full sentence. Was that the question?
It is a correct illustration of the word "premise", however.
 

Matthew Wai

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I consider the second example to be a noun phrase.
 

BobK

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:up: As Raymott said, it's a good example but it's not a sentence - which explains the lower-case 't'. If the 'T' had been capitalized, there would have been other typos too: 'They presume that...'

b
 

Matthew Wai

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There is no object in the second example, is it correct?
I think there is no object in the first example either because the noun phrase used after the linking verb there is a subject complement.
 

BobK

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One for your vocabulary notebook, Matthew: when you admit that someone else as made a valid point (as fenglish might) you can say Touché - fencing jargon, admitting a (slight) hit. Stress as French (but with English phonemes): /tu:'ʃeɪ/ :)

b
 

fenglish

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I think there is no object in the first example either because the noun phrase used after the linking verb there is a subject complement.

The first sentence has the object, see below partition:
The idea that there is life on other planets is the central premise of the novel.
 

Matthew Wai

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'Is' is a linking verb, which takes a subject complement instead of an object.
 
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