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Hi,

I am undertaking a university course in TESOL at the moment and have come across these questions in an assignment that I am having difficulty answering. I will post them below. First is the passage, and then the questions relating to that passage.

This is the story of a magpie.
Before I start this story, I should tell you that he didn't have a name. I could give him one, but that would be cheating.
He had been hatched in a wide scraggy nest which was made of sticks that were hard and knotty. His mother had laid two eggs in it. Beautiful eggs they were, with spots on them and touches of lovely colour. Magpie hatched out in three weeks. At first he was a disgusting sight, with a big bald head and little useless wings. When his feathers came he grew plemp and strong.

From 'Magpie Island' by Colin Thiele

Q8. Identify all the finite subordinate clauses in the above passage. For each example:
i. state whether it is a 'that' clause, a relative clause, or neither
ii. state it's syntactic function
iii. identify the subject of the subordinate clause

Q9. Identify the sentences in the passage that begin with a syntactic unit that is NOT the subject. For each example, identify the category of the initial syntactic unit and its function.

Q10. Identify the word class of each of the following words as used int he passage: cheating, disgusting

So thats where I am at the moment. I will post my workings to date in a reply.

Thanks in advance,

Ben

Hello again,

Here are my workings to date.

Q8. Finite Clauses
i. 'that he didn't have a name'
tensed verb: 'didn't'
'that' clause
syntactic function: object
subject: ?????

ii. 'which was made of sticks'
tensed verb: 'made'
relative clause
syntactic function: object complement
subject: ?????

iii. 'that were hard and notty'
tensed verb: 'were'
'that' clause
acting as a complement of an object complement (???)
subject: ?????

iv. 'When his feathers came'
tensed verb: 'came'
wh-clause
subject complement
subject ?????

Unfortunately, I have no real idea how to tackle Q9, and I think Q10 must be a trick question, I mean, the words are a verb and an adjective respectively right?

Thanks in advance,

Ben

Q8. Finite Clauses
i. 'that he didn't have a name'
tensed verb: 'didn't'
'that' clause
syntactic function: object
subject: he (the magpie)


ii. 'which was made of sticks'
tensed verb: 'made'
relative clause
syntactic function: object complement
subject: empty category (the nest)


and so on

for question 9, cheating is a noun as I see it.

Thanks alot for your help. That is great.

Have I got the right number of clauses? I am pretty sure I have.

Cheers,

Ben

Well I am wondering about this q9, I guess you should do sth like : Beautiful eggs= object, noun phrase (identifying form & function)
I think u've got the right number of clauses...
good luck