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Help! I can't clearly explain this sentence...
Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 2:46 am
by englishtree
I need help! A student asked me to explain how the sentence included below functions grammatically. I told him that rather than confuse him it would be best if I asked around, wrote it out, and gave him an answer next week. Can anyone break this sentence down for us in clear and simple grammatical terms?
"The number of people there who say they are overworked has risen from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2004."
Thanks!
Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:44 pm
by Andrew Patterson
"The number of people there who say they are overworked has risen from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2004."
I'm not sure exactly what you are after, but
"who say they are overworked" is a defining relative clause. In this case it defines exactly who it is that we are talking about. We are only talking about about the number of people there who say they are overworked, and not anyone else who happens to work there.
The whole whole phrase, "The number of people there who say they are overworked" acts as the subject; "has risen" is the verb the rest consists of prepositional phrases.
Re: Help! I can't clearly explain this sentence...
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:33 am
by dullard
I'll try!
englishtree wrote:The number of people there who say they are overworked has risen from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2004.
The number
of people (modifies "the number")
[who are] there (modifies "the number of people")
, [missing
]
<begin relative clause>
who (relative pronoun, nominative case)
say (present tense, "to say"")
<begin subordinate clause>
that (conjunction, omitted)
they (subject)
are (present tense "to be" -- copulative)
overworked (adjective)
<end subordinate clause>
<end relative clause>
has risen (present perfect "to rise")
from 28 percent (modifies "to rise")
in 2001 (modifies "from 28%")
to 44% (modifies "to rise")
in 2004 (modifis "to 44%")
The ball is in your court now, tear me to shreds!
Sentence structure
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:51 am
by Tian Yuan
"The number of people there who say they are overworked has risen from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2004."
This sentence structure can be simplified as "The number has risen from 28% to 44%."
"of people" and "there" are both the post-modifiers of "The number" ;
"who say they are overworked" is the relative clause that modifies "people";
"in 2001" and "in 2004" are the post-modifiers of 28% and 44% respectively.
Hope this is helpful for you. Good luck!
Re: Help! I can't clearly explain this sentence...
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:22 am
by metal56
englishtree wrote: Can anyone break this sentence down for us in clear and simple grammatical terms?
"The number of people there who say they are overworked has risen from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2004."
Thanks!
In complex terms:
Constituent tree:
(S (NP (NP The number)
(PP of
(NP (NP (NP people)
(PP there))
(SBAR (WHNP who)
(S (VP say
(SBAR (S (NP they)
(VP are
(ADJP overworked))))))))))
(VP has
(VP risen
(PP from
(NP 28 %))
(PP in
(NP 2001))
(PP to
(NP (NP 44 %)
(PP in
(NP 2004))))))