Questions tagged [syntactic-analysis]
Parsing or syntactic analysis is the process of analysing a string of symbols, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar.
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Why were US businessmen in the late 19th cent. known >in print< by first & middle initial + last name, such as R.N. Smith?
I am researching an area of interest in the late 19th century in the United States. I have encountered many men's names in print by first initial, middle initial and surname when being referred to in ...
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How does the word "it" function in: "What is it that makes us uneasy ... ?"
What is it that makes us uneasy about accepting credit for something wonderful we have done?
In this sentence, how does the word "it" function?
Is it a pronoun or a dummy subject?
Or is it ...
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Sentence structure 'The furniture arrives fully assembled.' [duplicate]
I have a questions about sentence structure.
The furniture arrives fully assembled.
I understand what it means, but what's the function of 'fully assembled'?
It doesn't seem to modify the verb, but ...
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Causative verb/pseudo passive [closed]
•can I have a minute of your time talk to you about something?
•can I have a minute of your time to talk to you about something?
Is the first sentence correct because of its causative construction?
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Is "???" a valid version of ellipsis?
I'm marking essays for the IB (International Baccalaureate), and I've run into two student essays from students in the UK (don't know if that makes a difference) where they've identified the use of &...
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Is "say they" correct? [duplicate]
English is not my first language.
The text below is a translation of the Quran by Ahmed Ali :
And when it is said unto them, "Follow ye what God hath sent down", say they, "Nay! Follow ...
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What’s going on with John 7:16, “My teaching is not my own, but his who sent me”?
This seems unusual. Particularly, the odd part is “his who.” Is it correct to use a possessive and a relative pronoun in this way? If so, what similar phrases are also allowed?
It seems like this is ...
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Why are **differences** in temperatures degrees C or F?
Per what I'm seeing online °F and °C are degrees because they have an arbitrary reference point; however, if you take the difference of two temperatures it's no longer an arbitrary reference. So why ...
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Why the verb root is used in this sentence structure? <What/All + S + V+ be+ verb root> [duplicate]
Here's example.
"What mental imagery does is reinforce a new desired behavior."
In this sentence, 'reinforce' used as a complement of the sentence but its form is 'verb root' instead of 'to ...
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Is the word “it” needed after a comma in this situation?
Here is an example of my sentence:
The physical therapy visit was not dated, did not contain the name or date of service, and therefore could not be validated.
Someone is trying to correct me and ...
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'I know what is freedom / freedom is'. <-- Word order in WH-questions
My understanding is that in a wh- subordinate clause, we must use statement word order (subject then verb) rather than question word order (verb then subject):
Correct: I know what freedom is.
Wrong:...
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What's the rule about using I first in a sentence with multiple noun or pronouns? [duplicate]
A sentence can be written as
I and my friends
And
My friends and I
There are several references for both sentences but I want to know the rule for the first one.
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When does a relative pronoun become the subject of a relative clause and when does it not?
Previously, I thought that a relative pronoun becomes the subject of a relative clause when the relative clause modifies the subject of the main clause. In other words, it serves a double purpose. For ...
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Syntactic structure of “International Women’s Day” [migrated]
According to the general rule, in possessive phrases -‘s is placed right between the Possessor Phrase and the Thing-Possessed Phrase.
On the 8th of March one celebrates the International Day of Women. ...
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Other <object> <qualifer> ambiguity? [migrated]
I see two possible interpretations of a phrase like
English and other languages in which I'm not fluent
First, "other" could imply that the qualifier applies only to the unenumerated ...
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The problem with "there"
It is natural, now, to think of there being connected with a sign, also what I should like to call the sense of the sign.
It's the first sentence of the paragraph. There wasn't a context about some ...
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I would like to understand a sentence in 'The Catcher in the Rye' [closed]
I am having trouble following correctly this part of the book as to its logic it refers to.
M'boy, if I felt any better, I'd have to send for the doctor...
At first, it says under condition that if ...
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What happens when a sentence and an aside require different sentence structures?
How do you handle when an aside -- a parenthetical or a dashed aside -- doesn't fit with what follows, but since the aside is the "closest" thing, the original thing doesn't fit either.
...
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There is a soldier on the hill whom he sees with binoculars
Give your first, immediate interpretation of...
There is a soldier on the hill whom he sees with binoculars.
What springs to mind?
Are these to be rephrased in the same way? Is the punctuation ...
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Why is 'a' used between smooth and gloss? [duplicate]
I am reading a book (A Promised Land) and there is a sentence that I don't understand:
I still like writing things out in longhand, finding that a computer gives even my roughest drafts too smooth a ...
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Comma before a moved verb
I can't seem to find a definitive answer for this, and my colleague and I are disagreeing on it:
Your next obsession, found.
Your next obsession found.
It was an advertisement, as in something like ...
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'I think IT unlikely that our team can win'. <--Is IT the object?
We think it unlikely that our inexperienced team can win a single > game this season.
Is "it" the direct object? If it is, what is the function of the noun clause "that our ...
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Is "Put together" a phrasal verb?
She put all the flowers together in one big bunch.
Is "put together" a phrasal verb in this sentence? Or is "together" an adverb?
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What's the linguistic difference between "exit only" and "only exit"? [closed]
For example, if a lane were to be marked "exit only", this would indicate that the lane is only for exiting. On the other hand, if a lane were to be marked "only exit", this would ...
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How Relative Pronouns Work [closed]
A relative pronoun is called "both a conjunction and a pronoun". There are other definitions, but the horribly superficial ones like "connects two sentences" are enough.
Why doesn'...
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Is the highlighted phrase an absolute phrase modifying the main clause or simply an non restrictive appositive?
But no one in Brega had a clear idea of what was happening on the battlefield, not even the few fighters fidgeting by a new barricade outside the refinery’s front gate
Source-: https://www.newyorker....
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Why does this sentence "feel" wrong
I saw this sentence. It "feels" wrong, but I can't put my finger on why.
Thanks for being part of the family and to help build a network.
I feel that it should be:
Thanks for being part ...
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The impediment generates that in relation to which it is an impediment . <-- analysis?
Can someone help me analyze the grammar of the following sentence?
In a paradoxical logic, the impediment generates that in relation to which it is an impediment.
I'm very confused by "that in ...
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How to write the tree diagram for the following ambiguous sentence: "The design has large squares and circles."?
What is the tree diagram for the following ambiguous sentence?
The design has large squares and circles.
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Is "There danced a man in the hall" a grammatical alternative to "A man danced in the hall"? What verbs are possible here? [duplicate]
Does the following sentence sound grammatical to you?
There danced a man in the hall
With the meaning: A man danced in the hall.
And compare it with
There died a man in the hall
Which one sounds ...
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Square Feet versus Square Foot [duplicate]
The sentence is
The project would construct a 2000 square (foot/feet) kitchen.'
I put 'The project would construct a 2000 square feet kitchen.'
My senior reviewer changed feet to foot. Why?
If I ...
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'as he had lived'
In the clause 'He died as he had lived', what is the grammatical function of 'as he had lived'? I know it modifies 'died', and I know 'as' can be used.
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What is the technical grammatical difference between these two sentences?
. . . and is one preferred over the other?
I believe he sent these contacts an email earlier this week.
I believe he sent an email to these contacts earlier this week.
I feel the second is ...
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Parsing "…including a problem…, in a characteristically diffident aside, he noted his own 'fleeting vain attempts' to resolve it"
Prologue to a book which I was reading ends with this verbatim copy-pasted text:
A book should be dedicated to someone living, so that the dedication can give pleasure. I have dedicated this book to ...
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The bicycle is a vehicle but the bicycle in this room is just a decoration
Can the definite article have two different meanings in front of identical words in one sentence? As in
The bicycle is a vehicle but the bicycle in this room is just a decoration.
Or perhaps this ...
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John goes to the cinema with Kate and (with) Ann
What's the difference between general public's interpretations of these:
John goes to the cinema with Kate and Ann.
John goes to the cinema with Kate and with Ann.
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Is Wikipedia's example of parallelism incorrect?
As of this writing, Wikipedia's article about parallelism in grammar includes these examples:
Lacking parallelism:
The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and sprinted away.
Parallel:
...
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What is the term for this? [duplicate]
I keep coming across "quotes" on the internet that say things like "psychology says, if a person blah blah"
I'm wondering what the term would be when someone 'mislabels' a field of ...
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What is the grammatical name for “the countless flashes of red from swords and spears”? [closed]
What is the grammatical name and function for this string?
the countless flashes of red from swords and spears
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What is the grammatical role of the last line of Gray's 'Elegy'?
The last line of Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' is 'The bosom of his Father and his God."
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame ...
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Grammar of “In Meditations, Aurelius wrote about ways to live a Stoic life, asserting that humans should aim to live a virtuous life to be happy”
Below: a photo of a learner's textbook exercise page with a reading passage about a Stoic Roman emperor, with punctuation issues – and a question about punctuation, with rejoinders. "A" (the ...
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"when would be..." autocorrection
I have just been autocorrected as follows:
I wrote: "Please let me know when would be a good time to..."
Correction: "Please let me know when a good time would be to..."
I suppose ...
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benefitting patients with X/ benefits patients with X [duplicate]
I am struggling with analysing the sentence 'Y happens, benefitting patients with X'.
I can see that 'Y benefits patients with X' uses the present tense simple form of the verb.
But in the first ...
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Not sure if "combined 90 men’s years experience" is right usage as opposed to "combined 90 man years worth of experience"
I received a copy from a client with the following phrase: "Our current team boasts of a combined 90 man years worth of experience in the field of XYZ".
While on its own it sounds ...
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Can you tell me the difference between the bare infinitive and the base form of a verb?
I heard my teacher stating that the base form of a verb is not an infinitive itself, but it is used to construct one of the two forms of infinitives.
Edit note
This question has been linked to a ...
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Do I need to add "in" before "an English-speaking country" in this sentence?
1 All my life, I have dreamed of living somewhere overseas, potentially an English-speaking country.
2 All my life, I have dreamed of living somewhere overseas, potentially in an English-speaking ...
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What is the grammatical structure of “making such an endeavour unjustified”? [duplicate]
The focus on the exterior of a building alone will lead to the increase in construction cost, making such an endeavour unjustified.
I want to know about the grammatical structure of this part: making ...
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"He fought in World War II as an infantryman" - does 'as' change 'fought' into a linking verb?
Can an as-headed prepositional phrase turn an action verb into a linking verb?
Consider the following examples:
With the fall of the Roman Empire, cities were abandoned as centers of administration. [...
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Can a single adjective be an appositive for the clause?
He made no comment and there was a long and unhappy pause during which
the cab leapt forward a foot or so, only to pause and pant again,
frustrated.
I thought 'frustrated' explained the atmosphere of ...
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How should this English sentence be parsed linguistically?
On p173 of Section "Subjective Truth and the Problem of Relativism" of The Big Questions by Solomon:
Rationality is tying our knowledge and our lives together in the most coherent and ...