25
votes
'The Kukhtarev's model' or 'Kukhtarev's model' ('John's car' or 'The John's car')?
In short:
The supervisor's edit is ungrammatical because it uses two Determiners within the same immediate noun phrase. As shown below, this is ungrammatical in modern English:
*the my car
The full ...
- 44.4k
21
votes
Accepted
Is the signature of a letter a subject or an object?
The default pronoun to use in English is the objective case. See this EL&U.SE answer. For example, if you were to label a picture, you would label it "me at the beach in 2011" and not "I at the ...
- 87k
19
votes
'The Kukhtarev's model' or 'Kukhtarev's model' ('John's car' or 'The John's car')?
Short answer - you are right, your supervisor is wrong.
However he could have said
"Here, we will use the Kukhtarev model to describe the ..."
The possessive is not used in this version.
So it'...
- 1,681
19
votes
Accepted
Should I use "her" or "she"?
"But" functions as both a conjunction and a preposition. If you look at "but" as a conjunction, it leads to that other sentence -- "she does not like you".
But if you look at "but" as a preposition, ...
- 3,317
16
votes
Help Fixing Yoda-like Sentence Structure?
I don’t think there is anything wrong with either sentence for each number, honestly. Both pairs are grammatical, although for the second pair the meaning is slightly different because in the first ...
- 676
15
votes
"Wish" in the Passive
“He is wished to be here” is marginally grammatical, but in practise very unlikely.
Although he may be cast in the “object” case with an infinitival complement (I wish him to ...
- 68.6k
14
votes
Identifying the subject: Should ‘who’ or ‘whom’ be used here?
The relevant portion of the linked article is sloppily written.
It is correct to say that "whom" is ungrammatical in these sentences:
He is demanding £5,000 from the elderly woman who has ...
- 79.2k
12
votes
If someone calls something by a wrong name, what are they actually referring to?
We need to think about the speaker and listener in all communications, and bear in mind that all communication requires inference on the part of the listener, in order to correctly interpret what the ...
- 23k
8
votes
"Whomever" as both object and subject
It’s the clause as a whole (whoever keeps working on this) that is the object. Whoever is the subject of that clause. So it should be whoever, not whomever.
- 14.4k
7
votes
"There is to be no drinking beer today" What is the status of "no" and "beer" here?
I'd say that 1-4 are hybrid constructions where "no" is a determinative functioning as a determiner in construction with a gerund-participial VP head.
In 1. and 4. the post head NPs are objects, but ...
- 12k
7
votes
If someone calls something by a wrong name, what are they actually referring to?
So the question is, if someone says "panda bear", what are they referring to?
Well, they are referring to either a panda or a bear, unless it is something else entirely.
The technical term for the ...
- 9,390
7
votes
Is the signature of a letter a subject or an object?
I don't think signing a letter with a personal pronoun fits into the conventional format of a letter. As such, I don't think this question is really answerable. You can do whatever you want; you're ...
- 79.2k
7
votes
Help Fixing Yoda-like Sentence Structure?
The second example is perfectly fine. What you are afraid of is ending a sentence/clause with a preposition, for, which is actually not wrong at all. Perhaps, in a very formal context, one would avoid ...
6
votes
Accepted
You can't put a flower in an a**hole and call it a vase
You can't put a flower in an a***hole and say it's in a vase
and
You can't put a flower in an a***hole and call the a***hole a vase
would both also be valid paraphrasings of the same sentence, ...
- 4,885
6
votes
Was it common in Shakespeare's time for adverbial phrases and objects to precede the verb in spoken English?
One important factor is that Shakespeare usually wrote in iambic pentameter. This tells where the stress falls on the words. The rhythm is often described as de DUM dee DUM. I could write it in music ...
4
votes
Accepted
"Everybody else in our party {has/have} missions of their own."
"has" is correct in both sentences, whether you use "mission" or "missions." The word that defines whether the verb should be single or plural is "everyone," and although "everyone" refers to multiple ...
- 99
4
votes
Accepted
"SALLY had been the first one to greet PAULINA when SHE appeared in the doorway" Pronouns
There are grammatical restrictions on the use of pronouns when they occur within the same sentence as co-referential noun phrases. A pronoun can co-refer with another normal noun phrase if either:
it ...
- 44.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Is it best to use height or length associated to width for describing a 2D object?
Width × Height is standard for programming and markup languages, which is probably why you found it in your Adobe software. Examples include:
HTML img and Canvas
CSS
Java Rectangle
C++ Rectangle (...
- 12.3k
4
votes
Is the "-ee" suffix changing in meaning?
The dilution you are seeing is not a new set of uses in slightly different circumstances, but rather you're recognizing that the consistent usage always had a broader meaning reflecting the original ...
- 70.6k
4
votes
Meaning of "Peron" as used in Le Morte d'Arthur
Supplementing ab2's answer: from context, it would be the stone of the tomb of Lanceor and Colombe:
And by the craft of Merlin he made to inter this knight, Lanceor, and his lady, Colombe, under ...
- 7,194
4
votes
What object am I referring to in this sentence?
The "one" refers to "a beautiful image" for the reason stated above - "with a ray tracer" adds information in a prepositional phrase, and is neither an object or subject here. But it still adds ...
- 51
4
votes
If someone calls something by a wrong name, what are they actually referring to?
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" except, perhaps, to a pedant.
The assignation of a name to anything, concrete or abstract, is a social contract. As educated elites, experts certainly ...
- 27.9k
4
votes
If someone pleads guilty to a crime, can they be described as "convicted"?
To put it simply, is "John plead guilty" synonymous with "John was convicted"?
No. The court convicts John. John doesn't convict himself.
John would still be the defendant or the accused.
A ...
- 749
4
votes
Identifying the subject: Should ‘who’ or ‘whom’ be used here?
"He is demanding £5,000 from the elderly woman wh?? has ruined his life."
The confusion is because "elderly woman" is the [indirect] object in the first half, and the subject of the second.
As a ...
4
votes
Accepted
Help Fixing Yoda-like Sentence Structure?
Firstly, I'd say that there isn't anything particularly Yoda-like in your examples. Both sentences follow the standard-English [Subject][Verb][Object] ordering rather than a Yoda-like [O][S][V] ...
4
votes
Accepted
What is the function of "their way" in "they went their way"?
And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said
unto them.
I don't see any reason why the NP "their way" should not be considered direct object of "went".
- 12k
4
votes
What is the object in the sentence "my sister and her work together"
No, "together" does not change it.
If the desired sentence is
My sister works with her
you should say that.
The correct sentence is
My sister and she work together
although, actually, I ...
- 3,984
3
votes
Accepted
"He who" as an indirect object
One and the same person is serving both as object of the preposition to and as subject of the verb gave. Thus both subjective and objective pronoun forms come into play. It is part of the virtue or ...
- 16.2k
3
votes
Can a pronoun functioning as Object also be a Subject?
First, is it a grammatically correct sentence? Yes. This type of sentence is very common.
As Greg Lee mentions, there are several different theories of English grammar, and ...
- 1,979
3
votes
Accepted
Do passive sentences have objects?
The direct object of an active verb is the noun or noun phrase that receives the action of the verb. So in
Billy's car ran over Bobby
Bobby is the unfortunate recipient of the verb, so "Bobby" ...
- 44.4k
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