4
votes
A linking verb or a part of the verb phrase?
First of all, in both cases, were is a part (in fact, head) of the verb phrase. The question then becomes: what is its complement, a past participle (i.e. a verb) or an adjective?
There are a couple ...
- 179
3
votes
What part of speech is the word "having" in this context?
Having is a verb. Traditionally we would call it a participle; some authors, like Huddleston & Pullum (2002), would call it a "gerund-participle," since modern English doesn't cleanly ...
- 19.2k
2
votes
Accepted
meaning of sentence with "include __ other than __" structure
The sentence suggests that "maximizing profit" is expected to be a goal of the entity, but it does not imply that it actually will be a goal of the entity.
As you suggested, a non-profit ...
- 5,112
2
votes
"Some folks are born made to wave the flag." Is this sentence in the passive voice?
To be born is historically and syntactically passive; but in the modern language, it does not behave as passive (you can't add a by phrase, for example).
I find the sentence as a whole, with the ...
- 77.4k
2
votes
Understanding the gap in syntactic analysis
It may simplify things a bit to compare their account of this sort of coordination with their account of complement preposing (see p. 1080 and pp. 1372-1382).
Compare these two clauses:
She wrote the ...
- 19.2k
1
vote
Accepted
"Some folks are born made to wave the flag." Is this sentence in the passive voice?
Consider someone who is extremely tall. A basketball coach might say to him:
You were made to play basketball.
That is, the guy's innate physical qualities are suited to playing basketball, a game ...
- 2,999
1
vote
Is sentence itself a syntactic function or not?
The misconception that consists in thinking that a sentence could have a syntactic function should be cleared away through a careful examination of what is a syntactic function and what is a sentence; ...
- 23.3k
1
vote
Would you put a possessive pronoun before "destitution" in this sentence?
In this particular context, using the possessive pronoun sounds perfectly fine; it is even indicated to use it. There is no hiccup:
This story tells of a young man who asks for his inheritance early, ...
- 35.7k
1
vote
Sentence structure 'The furniture arrives fully assembled.'
The furniture arrives fully assembled.
You are right when you say that "fully assembled" is connected to the subject.
I would analyse "fully assembled" as a predicative adjunct ...
- 13.4k
1
vote
Accepted
Subject placement in not only ... but also construction
(CoGEL § 13.42) Not (only) . ... but
The negator not/n't or the combination not/n't only may be correlative with a following but :
He didn't come to help, but to hinder us.
They not only broke into ...
- 23.3k
1
vote
If the first half of the sentence is a hypothetical scenario and other half is the postulated outcome, should one use "had been" or "was"?
Had been is the choice.
Pragmatically, (i) "had been" obviates any controversy about whether the subjunctive is needed and (ii) the past perfect is used for context and background.
- 45.2k
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