Teacher Discussion Forums

I am puzzled as to how commands such as "off with his head" and "away with you" are analyzed grammatically.

For me the emphasis is on the 'anal-'. Are these sentences? If so, what is their subject and what is their verb? If not, how does one explain that they nevertheless convey a complete message, as sentences do?

Harzer

I think I'd put an exclamation mark after them so I wonder if some imperative like "be", "get" or "have" has gone missing.

Whilst anybody's at it, could they explain "How come?"?

Sentences are a Latin import into English. There is no need for a compete utterance to have a subject and verb.

You could consider them both commands with an implied verb, but the construction prepostion + noun + exckamation mark is so common in English, that it can stand on its own as a form of command

Hey all.

Can't do it with the offered examples, so have chosen a more "close-to-home" example.

Woman points to the door and says in a stern, angry tone to Man:

"Out!"

which in my book means "Get out!" so the "get" has been implied or already stated. "Out" stands alone representing an action. Does that temporarily convert "out" into a verb in the imperative form? Oh my, could that mean that some prepositions, for their participation in one of our delightful "phrasal verbs" or "idioms" can take on the responsibility of converting themselves into verbs.

Those naughty prepositions, never satisfied with simply telling us "where".

peace,
revel

I suspect Roman soldiers had some colourful sub-sentences going on as well.

Our forebears* had no scruples about "verbing" prepositions. They went on outings long before people's sexual orientations were publicised. There was lots of toing and fro ing when something was in the offing. The cricketers played innings and when they bet they upped the stakes. There is even an annual swan upping on The Thames. They downed drinks as well. Any more?

* Same as the three bears but one more

Up with prepositions.
Down with verbs.
Away with prescriptive grammar.

Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!



peace,
revel.