19
votes
Accepted
To infinitive used after adjective
Adjectives which take infinitival phrases as complement fall into three camps.
Some adjectives determine our interpretation of the subject of the infinitival clause.
Some adjectives determine our ...
- 44.5k
12
votes
Is "I gave a hundred dollars to my father, and she did so to her father" grammatical?
I guess I’m in the minority here but it sounds totally fine to me (USA, native speaker, South/East Coast). It’s clear to me from context what action “she” is performing: giving $100 to her father. If ...
- 276
11
votes
Is "I gave a hundred dollars to my father, and she did so to her father" grammatical?
Too long for an comment, so an answer.
I find the meaning of the sentence clear enough, but would not use do so in this construction because there is insufficient connection between the doing so ...
- 15.1k
10
votes
Is "I gave a hundred dollars to my father, and she did so to her father" grammatical?
As I posted in the chat, "did so" [do so, does so] is anaphoric to the preceding action or active verb or verb phrase.
So, this: I gave a hundred dollars to my father, and she did so to her ...
- 13.7k
9
votes
Is "I am who(m) God made me" grammatical?
It's grammatical. As per my answer at SAH's question, it's grammaticality is flushed out when one adds what has been (or can be taken to have been) elided, so:
I am who/m God made me to be.
For ...
6
votes
Accepted
In structures such as 'football manager', is 'football' a modifier or a complement of the head noun?
Short answer
(Assuming that Modifiers and Complements exist ...)
It's a Complement.
Here's some evidence, which will be explained in more detail in the longer answer. Firstly, the noun manager ...
- 44.5k
6
votes
Similar adjectives to "worth"
Worth is a member of a class of adjectives known as transitive adjectives: those that require or permit a complement. Such complements are often prepositional phrases (proud of, delighted with, ...
- 27.9k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the nature of, and syntactic distinction between, modifier and complement?
Here is an extract from another post of mine, slightly modified:
1.0 Complements versus Modifiers
1.1 Complements
OK, so let´s have a look at what Modifiers and Complements actually are. Well, ...
- 44.5k
5
votes
To infinitive used after adjective
*"He is difficult to be pleased" is ungrammatical. The object of the infinitival verb can be made subject ("He is difficult to please [him]"), but the subject cannot ("He is difficult to [him] be ...
- 17.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Why can an adjective be placed after "eat" as in "garlic can be eaten raw"?
Short answer
Raw here is a Predicative Adjunct. It is an adjective and not an adverb because it is describing the noun phrase, garlic. Predicative Adjuncts are very often adjectives. They're almost ...
- 44.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Why can I vary the position of the noun phrase only in certain sentences?
It formed inside him an ambition to teach his students all the more.
It formed an ambition to teach his students all the more inside him.
He kept in the book bag an apple. (awkward or marked)
...
- 44.5k
5
votes
Is "I am who(m) God made me" grammatical?
The reason is that traditionally, you can't use who in fused relative clauses; that is, you cannot use who when it figures in two clauses, being the subject (object) of one and the subject (object) of ...
- 87k
5
votes
Similar adjectives to "worth"
Adjectives most often take preposition phrases, or clauses as Complements. However, very few of them can take noun phrase Complements. There are, nonetheless, four common adjectives that are ...
- 44.5k
4
votes
not followed by to or ing
The rule is that verb in the main clause—try, need—determines what form its complements take.
Need takes marked infinitival complements—that is, clauses headed by a verb in the ...
- 68.6k
4
votes
Indirect complement or extraposed subject?
It just (so) happens [that she saw him commit the crime].
It can't be extraposition since the content clause cannot occupy the subject position: we can't say *"That she saw him commit the crime ...
- 12k
4
votes
Accepted
To dance oneself
The following Google ngrams show that various [V] [P ref] [Adj]/[to N] (and including other prepositional heads) strings have been used for quite some time. But they also show that these unusual ...
- 79.9k
4
votes
Accepted
"It is comfortable to sit on this chair." is not grammatical, but why are similar constructs grammatical or used... ? - 'preparatory it' complements
It is comfortable to sit on this chair.
This is a very bad example, since on the obvious reading it is perfectly correct.
Here is what I suspect he may be trying to say, without having read the book. ...
- 13.9k
3
votes
Participial Phrases As Objective Complement
Leonardo drew many pictures showing birds in flight.
I would definitely consider the participial phrase starting with "showing..." in this sentence to be an adjunct of the object rather than a ...
- 79.2k
3
votes
Important to learn is this stuff
This song is fun to sing.
This pizza is too hot to eat.
Sentence 1
In the first sentence the infinitival clause to sing is a hollow infinitival clause functioning as the Complement of the adjective ...
- 44.5k
3
votes
Accepted
Verb-Subject Order
Short answer
If the phrase that is being fronted is a Complement of the verb, then it is often best to use Subject-dependent inversion, and if you don't your sentence may sound ungrammatical.
If the ...
- 44.5k
3
votes
Is 'to resign' an object or subject complement in 'The teacher wishes to resign'?
Are you looking for CGEL terminology? In your sentence—
The teacher wishes to resign.
—to resign is a catenative complement. It complements the catenative verb wishes.
Here is what CGEL has to ...
- 14.3k
3
votes
Accepted
Is this sentence missing a noun?
It's not missing a noun: it has a pronoun! Here other can be read as being a pronoun.
This is an example of what the OED describes in other sense 7 under section B for nominal (and pronominal) uses:
...
- 133k
2
votes
it's important that he... -- it's important for him to
You can make the sentences even shorter. In most cases, you can omit "that" and "should." Some sentences can have double meanings, so you may want to say exactly what you intend.
"It's vital that ...
- 545
2
votes
"Who(m) will it be?" vs. "Will it be he/him?"
Only
Who will it be?
is correct. The issue arises from a difference between ordinary English grammar and prescribed English grammar concerning the case of complements of the verb "to be".
The ...
- 79.2k
2
votes
Accepted
Gerund phrase....is it really?
Some people consider my interest in gardening an obsession.
As to the first example, I have read your analysis and you are 100% correct. That website is wrong: you're not gardening an obsession, ...
2
votes
Accepted
Complement of "dealer" or "trader"
The term "counterparty" means:
noun, plural counterparties. Finance.
1. the other person or institution entering into a financial contract or transaction
www.dictionary.com
I don't think it ...
- 11.2k
2
votes
In structures such as 'football manager', is 'football' a modifier or a complement of the head noun?
According to Herbst 2010: English Linguistics. A coursebook for Students of English, there are different models by different authors concerning determinative compounds. 'Football manager' is a ...
- 75
2
votes
In structures such as 'football manager', is 'football' a modifier or a complement of the head noun?
This is exactly the kind of question that keeps grammarians wide awake and scrabbling far into the night. It is to be appreciated and savored.
It's a question that many dead-tree grammar books dodge ...
- 5,496
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible