"In how much time have you to do the homework?"

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:35 pm

Could someone please parse this sentence for me?

"In how much time have you to do the homework?"

Thanks.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:48 pm

Why, was it too much for you or your fizzing steaming parsers to handle?

If so, maybe feed in something a bit more appetizing and digestible next time!

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:48 pm

fluffyhamster wrote:Why, was it too much for you or your fizzing steaming parsers to handle?

If so, maybe feed in something a bit more appetizing and digestible next time!

Totally confused by your attutude, Rodent.

Are you saying that you can't help?

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:24 pm

Yeah, I suppose I am (I never am of much help). The fact that you're asking someone to parse it for you implies that the parsing is difficult, does it not? Would it be easier if you knocked that 'In' from off of the beginning of the sentence?

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:28 pm

Hmm functionally it might be someone incredulously asking 'In how much time have you to do the homework?!'. ('Have to'='must' in this context).

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:29 pm

Ooh parsing...um er back in a few hours/days/weeks....

Lorikeet · Post by **Lorikeet** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:00 pm

Hard to parse if the sentence sounds weird.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:09 pm

I would take 'have to' as being used in the sense of 'must here'. So 'in how much time' would be an adverbial.

Take away the 'in' and I would then say 'how much time' would be the direct object of 'have'.

Put 'in' at the end of the sentence and you could parse it either way.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:40 am

That's pretty much what I was thinking too, SJ.

A question - when you guys say 'parse', do you mean just work out the relationships between the words in your head (like SJ has done so nicely and explicitly), or do you mean draw a nice tree diagram or use lots of brackets? As you know, I like brackets, but I haven't parsed much with them (or tree diagrams either), and obviously only brackets are possible on Dave's...

Myself, I was just going to use slashes to break it up, and I was tempted (like SJ) to put the 'in' at the end of the sentence (but then I'd be a little more inclined to view the 'how much time' as the direct object of 'have', because the 'in' has kind of been 'taken away' then - albeit only to the end of the sentence, but that seems "removed" enough to affect the processing in the decontextualized, unmodulated tones we usually are forced to talk in on Dave's by students with these kind of questions

).

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:40 am

I would take 'must here' as being used in the sense of 'muster' here.

Pink Piggy · Post by **Pink Piggy** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:07 pm

Isn't this sentence just a convoluted form of "How much time do you have to do the homework in?".
Here is my semi-educated guess:
you = subject
do have = main verb in simple present, with auxilliary 'do' to form a question ['Have to' is sometimes classified as a semi-modal, as it substitutes for 'must', but is it functioning that way here? That's the debate, right? I guess we'd need to hear the thought groups of the sentence spoken out loud. Is this the point of this exercise? If so, please be clearer in your requests, and save us some time.]
to do = infinitive
time = direct object, or object of the prepositional phrase? (What do you say, Fluffy?)
much = adjective modifying 'time'
How = adverb to mark a question
in = preposition (collocation 'do it in a certain time')

Okay, go ahead and trash my parsing, folks! I know it's flawed, but my brain power is giving out...

-Piggy

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:45 am

But "How much time do you have to do your homework in?" is ambiguous in that it's either "are you obliged to" or "do you dispose of to " while the original:

"In how much time have you to do the homework?"

is only the former. Which affects the parsing.. The problem with "have to" for obligation is that common sense says that the block of meaning is "have to" so it's not really "have" plus the infinitive "to do".

The other issue is about making questions with main verb "have" . Didn't we go round the houses with this one before?

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:45 pm

JuanTwoThree wrote:But "How much time do you have to do your homework in?" is ambiguous in that it's either "are you obliged to" or "do you dispose of to " while the original:

"In how much time have you to do the homework?"

is only the former. Which affects the parsing..

Well, I'm glad you, at least, see that.

The problem with "have to" for obligation is that common sense says that the block of meaning is "have to" so it's not really "have" plus the infinitive "to do".

"?I can't come out, I have to do my homework."

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:37 pm

So is the obligation " I have + to do my homework" or "I have to + do my homework". I cannot be convinced that the infinitive exists in English. Or that it doesn't, either. Either way it's hard to parse that "to".

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:47 pm

"Well, I'm glad you, at least, see that."

Thanks for the commas round "at least"