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
12
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 ...
- 16.6k
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 ...
- 15.2k
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
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, ...
- 28.2k
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, ...
- 48.1k
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 ...
- 48.1k
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 ...
- 89.5k
5
votes
Resultative Complement in English?
There is nothing wrong with your example. If it helps, you can change the word order, or even omit the PP that may seem to slightly disrupt the flow:
She has emerged a much stronger person [from the ...
- 35.7k
4
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 ...
- 84k
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 ...
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 ...
- 13.4k
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 ...
- 85.9k
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. ...
- 19.3k
4
votes
A question about syntactic function of the clause
I recommend not trying to make too much of this exotic, seldom heard construction. You can analyse it like you do a reason+why or place+where or time+when clauses, but it is not standard English today ...
- 136k
3
votes
Participial Phrases As Objective Complement
Simplified Tree Diagram (NP Object with Clausal Modifier)
The object in full is "many pictures showing birds in flight". The gerund-participial clause is a modifier in the NP Object. Such clauses are ...
- 13.4k
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 ...
- 18.5k
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:
...
- 136k
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 ...
- 84k
2
votes
Use of "confess" when followed by interrogative clause (e.g. I confessed to my parents what I ate last night)
Confess in the sense of admitting to a transgression licenses a prepositional phrase with to as a complement defining the transgression. The object of the preposition can be any noun phrase. Thus
&...
- 44.8k
2
votes
Does "Predicate" includes object, complement and modifiers?
Predicate is a term from Logic which gets used in talking about language. On the other
hand, Verb, Subject, Complement, Modifier, and Object are terms about language.
Naturally they don't compute ...
- 108k
2
votes
Accepted
Does "Predicate" includes object, complement and modifiers?
A sentence may have a subject and predicate, only:
I know.
The predicate 'know' does not include other elements, because that sentence needs no more. The statement is complete. Only if the ...
- 6,907
2
votes
Mckee believed WAS the Mary Rose Vs Mackee believed TO BE the Mary Rose
The sentence is fine as written. This is the ordinary way of relativizing a constituent in a subordinate content clause:
McKee believed it was the Mary Rose.
↓
...
2
votes
Is this an adverbial complement? "They led me _to believe that there was no danger_."
No, this is not an adverbial complement.
The sentence pattern is indeed S-V-O. The subject and verb are obvious. The direct object is the entire clause following, me to believe that there was no ...
2
votes
Accepted
How to tell if something is a core complement or a non-core complement?
In CaGEL's terminology, it's clear as day how to figure out whether a complement is a core or non-core complement.
Ditransitive/monotransitive contrasts
i I gave her the key. I gave the key ...
- 6,797
2
votes
What exactly falls under the label of "complement"?
After a lengthy discussion with a talented user, BillJ, on this site, I have gotten a pretty good look at complements and how they function, so I have followed through with the suggestion to post an ...
- 420
2
votes
What exactly falls under the label of "complement"?
Alex, I think part of the problem understanding complementary relations is that there are a lot of different theories and terminology at work in traditional English instructional grammars, they just ...
- 21
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