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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004syntax please help
sentence a fresh water acquarium is easy to look after, inexpensive to run and fun to watch is aquarium the object and look after the verb? then what is the subject? do all sentences need Subject, verb, object? is acquarium the object and fresh water acquarium the subject? what type of clause is this? also are easy to look after, inexpensive to run and fun to watch coordinated adverbial clauses selected by the DP a fresh water acquarium? stressed out linguistics student.. please help! > sentence > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > what type of clause is this? "Aquarium" is the subject; "is" is the linking verb; and "easy to look after," "inexpensive to run," and "fun to watch" are all predicate adjective phrases. They function as adjectives because they tell about a noun--in this case, the aquarium. There are a few other sentence structures besides subject-verb-object, including subject-linking verb-predicate adjective (that's what this one is). > also are > easy to look after, inexpensive to run and fun to watch coordinated > adverbial clauses selected by the DP a fresh water acquarium? Adjectival phrases. Each of these adjective phrases is composed of an adjective modified by an infinitive or an infinitive phrase. These infinitives, since they modify adjectives, are considered adverbial. "Fresh water" is an adjective-noun combination which together functions as an adjective, telling what kind of "aquarium." Terminology varies--you may have to translate this into the terminology you're studying.  SignatureCheers, Jody jodybilyeu@smsu.edu Jody wrote: >"Fresh water" is an adjective-noun combination >which together functions as an adjective, telling >what kind of "aquarium." In America, the adjective <freshwater> is one word. > Jody wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > In America, the adjective <freshwater> is one word. So's the noun, except, apparently, in the aquarium industry. The first ten Google hits were "fresh water" nine to one. Is this exception covered in the definition? MWCD11 on the noun: "water that is not salty *especially when considered as a natural resource.*" (Emphasis mine. The applicable adjective definition is just "of, relating to, being, or living in freshwater.") Maybe there's a continuum between the usage "I'd like a glass of fresh water" and "What a lovely freshwater estuary!" on which aquarium water falls closer to the first. SignatureCheers, Jody jodybilyeu@smsu.edu |
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