sentence construction

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srini - 25 Oct 2004 15:02 GMT

Could someone help me in identifying the different elements in this
sentence, like direct object, object clause, complex object,
prepositional phrase etc. Here's my attempt. Please let me know if
its correct.

The sentence:
"With national polls continuing to show a dead heat, the two
candidates are moving beyond their standard stump/policy speeches and
drawing upon the support of big names and famous faces."

Breakdown:
"the 2 candi"----subj
"are moving beyond their standard ..........speeches"-------predicate
"are moving"----trans verb
' the support of big names and famous faces '--- the complex object

I'd appreciate yor help.

Thanks,
Srinivas

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einde. ocallaghan - 25 Oct 2004 15:51 GMT

> Could someone help me in identifying the different elements in this
> sentence, like direct object, object clause, complex object,
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> "are moving"----trans verb
> ' the support of big names and famous faces '--- the complex object

For a start there are two finite verbs in this sentence, "are moving"
and "[are] drawing".

"Are moving" is intransitive and has an adverbial complement (I think
that's what it's called) "beyond their standard/stump speeches". "[Are]
drawing" is also intransitive and has as its complement "upon the
support of etc."

There are other ways of analysing these sentences, e.g. "their
standard/stump speewches" as the object of the phasal (prepositional)
verb "are moving beyond" and "the support of etc.2 as the object of teh
phrasal (prepositional) verb "[are] drawing upon".

These two ways are not exhaustive.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

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srini - 25 Oct 2004 20:07 GMT

> > Could someone help me in identifying the different elements in this
> > sentence, like direct object, object clause, complex object,
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
> Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

Thanks for your response Einde. However, I have a question around your
second explanation. For a phrase or an element to qualify as an
object, doesn't it have to answer the "what" or "whom/who" question of
the verb? I'm not sure if either one of them does, which is why I'm
thinking both these verbs are intransitive. I'd like to hear your
thoughts.

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einde. ocallaghan - 25 Oct 2004 22:15 GMT

>>>Could someone help me in identifying the different elements in this
>>>sentence, like direct object, object clause, complex object,
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
> thinking both these verbs are intransitive. I'd like to hear your
> thoughts.

I did say that the second interpretation was another way of cansidering
the sentences where we considered the phrasal verb as one unit "move
beyond" and "draw upon" - you can also ask "who/what" questions here:
"What are the candidates moving beyond?" and "Who are the candidates
drawing upon?"

As I mentioned there are different ways of analysing a sentence - and
often a prepositional verb can be replaced by a transitive verb without
changing the meaning - this is what my second approach is hinting at.

Whether your English teacher will accept such an analysis is another
matter - he or she may not, particularly if he or she has a traditional
approach to grammar.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

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srini - 26 Oct 2004 17:09 GMT

> >>>Could someone help me in identifying the different elements in this
> >>>sentence, like direct object, object clause, complex object,
[quoted text clipped - 51 lines]
>
> Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

I never thought that I could consider phrases as one verb unit. I'll
keep that in mind. Thanks for your analysis..

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / October 2004

sentence construction