in this sentence:
I voted the man with the red snickers.
what is the sentence structure?
SVDO or SVDO O.C?
can "with the red snickers" be an object complement?
in this sentence:
In the middle of the field was the agreed spot.
what is the subject?
can a prepositional phrase be a subject?
note: only nouns and pronouns can fill in the SUBJECT
prepositional phrases function either as ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
in this sentence:
Who bring the cake?
is it correct if you know more than two persons bring cake everyday?
HELP!!! thank you...
HELP!!! prepositional phrases
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fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
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Hi Kari, you'd probably get more of a response if you posted on the AL forum (that's where grammar seems to be discussed the most). It would also be good if you posted the one set of question only the once - that way, people viewing differing forums will not be saying possibly (i.e. probably) the same things over and over in response to the same questions.
Anyway, 'the man with the red sneakers' is a NP, and 'with the red sneakers' a PP modifying/describing which man ('the man'), so I guess the PP is a kind of complement. I'm not sure that you need to use 'DO' here, just O (or, indeed, NP) would seem fine...
A PP can be the grammatical subject, although such a word order is marked (compare: 'The agreed spot was in the middle of the field') and alters the focus, the information structuring of the sentence.
'Who bring the cake?' is incorrect, even if you know more than two people bring a cake each day; that is, 'Who bringS...' is the required form of the verb after 'Who', and it ('brings') can prospect the answer 'Bill and Ted' just as much as 'Just Bill' ('Just Bill' is obviously in a context where only one person is assumed to bring the cake). So, 'Who' is a "3rd person" kind of subject grammatically, but does not always imply only a single person in the answer. A clearer way to phrase things (for you!) might be: 'Which (two) people bring the cake/Who are the (two) people who bring a cake' (but note that especially the second alternative there is not very convincing/somewhat unnatural).
Take a look at the parser mentioned in the following thread (follow the links):
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... php?t=4248
Anyway, 'the man with the red sneakers' is a NP, and 'with the red sneakers' a PP modifying/describing which man ('the man'), so I guess the PP is a kind of complement. I'm not sure that you need to use 'DO' here, just O (or, indeed, NP) would seem fine...
A PP can be the grammatical subject, although such a word order is marked (compare: 'The agreed spot was in the middle of the field') and alters the focus, the information structuring of the sentence.
'Who bring the cake?' is incorrect, even if you know more than two people bring a cake each day; that is, 'Who bringS...' is the required form of the verb after 'Who', and it ('brings') can prospect the answer 'Bill and Ted' just as much as 'Just Bill' ('Just Bill' is obviously in a context where only one person is assumed to bring the cake). So, 'Who' is a "3rd person" kind of subject grammatically, but does not always imply only a single person in the answer. A clearer way to phrase things (for you!) might be: 'Which (two) people bring the cake/Who are the (two) people who bring a cake' (but note that especially the second alternative there is not very convincing/somewhat unnatural).
Take a look at the parser mentioned in the following thread (follow the links):
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... php?t=4248