 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010Questions about cleft sentences
Hello, everyone, Do you think the following (b) sentences are grammatical? Thanks. -- Ray (1) a. She thinks Peter will see John. b. It is [will see John] that she thinks Peter. (2) a. The card is directly under the book. b. It is [under the book] that the card is directly. (3) a. He took the car right to this town. b. It was [to this town] that he took the car right. >Hello, everyone, > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >(3) a. He took the car right to this town. > b. It was [to this town] that he took the car right. No.  SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years >>Hello, everyone, >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > No. Seconded. >>>Hello, everyone, >>> [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > >Seconded. I don't really know any Irish (or Scots) Gaelic (well, maybe half-a-dozen words), but - I think - it's 'sort of' how some things are said in Irish. But it's certainly not English. SignatureIan >>>>Hello, everyone, >>>> [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > words), but - I think - it's 'sort of' how some things are said in Irish. > But it's certainly not English. I know what you mean. I believe that Welsh also has the same sort of clause and sentence construction - as in: 'happy I was'. >>>>>Hello, everyone, >>>>> [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] >I know what you mean. I believe that Welsh also has the same sort of clause >and sentence construction - as in: 'happy I was'. May I ask where the OP got this construction from? SignatureIan On 1月24日, 下午11時45分, Ian Jackson <ianREMOVETHISjack...@g3ohx.demon.co.uk> wrote: > In message <3v2dnSJnRfggw8HWnZ2dnUVZ8lSdn...@brightview.com>, Farmer > Giles <Gi...@nospam.com> writes [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > > - 顯示被引用文字 - Dear Ian, I made these sentences by myself. I'd just like to do some tests on constituency. Thank you for the help. Ray :-) In message <a75e4610-1871-470e-b97b-1a8aa74a230c@k19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>, cuteray <qrayhuang@gmail.com> writes >On 1¤ë24¤é, ¤U¤È11®É45¤À, Ian Jackson ><ianREMOVETHISjack...@g3ohx.demon.co.uk> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 42 lines] > >Ray :-) Well, I'll give you 7/10 for creativity but, I'm afraid, only 1/10 for intelligibility. But keep up the good work! SignatureIan > Do you think the following (b) sentences are grammatical? > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > (3) a. He took the car right to this town. > b. It was [to this town] that he took the car right. Not really; they do not mean the same thing as the originals, either. They should be: (1) b. It is [(that) Peter will see John] that she thinks. (2) b. It is [directly under the book] that the card is. (3) b. It was [right to this town] that he took the car. In the first sentence, the direct object of "thinks" is "(that) Peter will see John", not "Peter". In the second and third sentences, the adverbs "directly" and "right" modify the adverbial prepositional phrases, not the main verbs of the sentences. When you are rearranging the words of a sentence, it is important to keep together those things that are connected by sense. I should add that the sentences I proposed are not idiomatic -- they are probably not how anyone would make those statements -- but they are grammatically correct, and they convey much the same meaning as the originals. > Hello, everyone, > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > (1) a. She thinks Peter will see John. > b. It is [will see John] that she thinks Peter. That one is impossible and would not be understood. > (2) a. The card is directly under the book. > b. It is [under the book] that the card is directly. That one is wrong. It would make sense (but would still appear very unnatural to a native speaker) as "It is under the book that the card directly is" > (3) a. He took the car right to this town. > b. It was [to this town] that he took the car right. That one is again hopeless, but it would be understood. Signatureathel > Hello, everyone, > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > (3) a. He took the car right to this town. > b. It was [to this town] that he took the car right. No, they're not, of course. Cleft (like most syntactic rules) can apply only to whole constituents and must leave whole constituents, and these Clefts don't. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituent_(linguistics) for more about constituents in syntax. It's a *big* subject. -John Lawler http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler "The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.