Grammatically speaking what is "the door" in the following sentence?
To answer the door, she pulled it open.
Is it a modifier?
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4You're confusing category (part of speech) and function. "The door" is a noun phrase, whose function here is direct object of "answer".– BillJCommented Dec 6, 2018 at 19:25
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@BillJ Isn't "the door" a part of speech if it's an object? It functions as the object but it also is the object, no? I'm not understanding.– ZebrafishCommented Dec 6, 2018 at 19:37
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1You're right, but you've got the rule by the wrong end. Direct objects have to be noun phrases, and nouns are almost always noun phrases. But complex constituents like quite a few more than I expected of the bright red antique British cars on parade are also noun phrases -- you wouldn't want to say that was all one noun, right? As @BillJ said, the door is a noun phrase. That means it's a phrase that is used like a noun. There are also verb phrases, adjective phrases, and adverb phrases, same kind of interpretation.– John LawlerCommented Dec 6, 2018 at 22:29
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2 Answers
The door is the object of the verb answer. The phrase to answer the door is an adverbial phrase of purpose modifying the main verb or the praedicate.
answered Dec 6, 2018 at 19:02
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So if participle phrases contain participles, and prepositional phrases contain prepositions, then adverbial phrases contain adverbs. Can you identify for us the adverb in the adverbial phrase you mention? Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 21:41
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@JosephO.: No, that is unfortunately not the case: adverbial phrases usually don't contain adverbs. Participle and praepositional phrases are constructions named after the most typical kind of word that they must contain, but they aren't (necessarily) parts of speech. Adverbial phrases, on the other hand, are named after their function in the sentence and as such are a part of speech—not after a special kind of word they must contain. A rule of thumb is that an adverbial phrase could be replaced by some adverb without changing the construction and meaning of the rest of the sentence. Commented Dec 8, 2018 at 16:00
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So I agree with you that the terminology is not consistent in this regard, alas. Commented Dec 8, 2018 at 16:03
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So let me get this straight: Do you not think that "to answer" is functioning as an adverb in this sentence? Before you answer, keep in mind that 10,000 grammar webpages and the grammars on my desk all agree that infinitives in sentences function as either nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Commented Dec 17, 2018 at 20:00
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@JosephO.: Perhaps I was unclear; I meant the opposite of how you seem to interpret my answer. What part did you interpret as saying that the phrase to answer the door was not "functioning like an adverb" (your words)? My answer above says, "the phrase to answer the door is an adverbial phrase". An adverbial phrase is by definition functioning like an adverb, even though it normally does not contain an adverb. Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 4:18
"To answer the door" is an infinitive phrase that is functioning as a single part of speech, an adverb modifying the main verb in the sentence "pulled". That is why Cerberus correctly calls it an adverbial phrase. That should take precedence over the idea that "the door" is a direct object of "to answer." The reason being is that "to answer" is a verbal, and does not function as a verb in this sentence or any other; it is a "former" verb doing a different job, in this case, the job of an adverb. There is enough "verbiness" left for it to still take "door" as an object, but the whole phrase is functioning as an adverb. I've seen sentence analysis (in print...check out Michael Clay Thompson's work) that wouldn't label "to answer" as a verb and would skip labelling "the door" as a D.O. for the reason given.
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1"To answer" is definitely still a verb. Participles begin to blur the lines between nouns and verbs, but infinitives are still ordinary verbs in English. Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 1:37
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@curiousdannii -- "Answer" is definitely being used as a verb. I'm pretty sure that "to" is a preposition, however. Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 2:24
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@HotLicks No it's the infinitive to, usually considered a particle rather than a preposition. Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 2:27
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1@curiousdannii -- Infinitives can function as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs but they never function as verbs in a sentence (though their form allows them to take an object). This is why an infinitive can never be the predicate of a sentence. To call an infinitive an "ordinary verb[s] in English" is patently false, my friend. Infinitives can never have subjects (like ordinary verbs can) because they can't inflect to reflect tense or bind to subjects (like ordinary verbs can). After you research, make it right... Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 12:39
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1@JosephO. - Where did I say "to answer" is being used as a verb??? Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 13:29