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Jirickoo Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Elements of one sentence

Hey guys,

Im new to this forum but not quite to English. Despite this fact, could you be so nice and devote one minute in analyzing this sentence?

"I am a single male older than 18".

Please pay your attention especially to "older". I have been wondering for while what element that is. Is it modifier (adjectival)? If so, modifier of what? Or is it complement of "single"??? methinks the latter, but im not sure.

I - subject
am - linking verb
single - ??????
than - conjunction / but in this contex i incline to preposition
18 - numeral
  

Top answer

"older" is a comparative adjective, modifying "male". "single" is an adjective, modifying "male". " "than" is a conjunction.

— AlpheccaStars

  • "older" is a comparative adjective, modifying "male".
  • "single" is an adjective, modifying "male".
  • " "than" is a conjunction.
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9 Answers
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"older" is a comparative adjective, modifying "male".
"single" is an adjective, modifying "male".
The phrase "than 18" completes the comparative "older."
"than" is a conjunction.
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ok, thank you for your input, so it seems like the "older" is a modifier - what type then? ...adjectival or any other (adverbial, noun adjunct?)

could anyone clarify that...?

One more think...."single" is bound to be the subject complement - i missed noting that in my original post.
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"older" is a comparative adjective.

Example:

I am an older but wiser woman.
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What i meant was what role the given comparative adjective played in the sentence - as for what type of sentence element, ...anyway....

much appraciate your effort and time, but what about this sentence:


I had my car stolen. /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;
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What i meant was what role the given comparative adjective played in the sentence - as for what type of sentence element, ...anyway....

much appraciate your effort and time, but what about this sentence:

"I had my car stolen."

I - subject
had - transitive verb
my car - object (my is an adjectival of car)
stolen- ????

stolen - it's a past participle,
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jirickooI had my car stolen.
my car stolen is called a "small clause". These clause types have only an implicit verb.

I had this (happen to me): that my car was stolen.

my car is apparently the object of had, but if you look at the bigger picture, my car is the subject of the small clause. was stolen (
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thank you Jim; i had already noticed some of your older posts and i gotta tell you all of the definitions and interpretentions presented by you were crystal clear and esasily comprehensible. Doing a great work.

Let me ask you one more think, though.

I still seem not to figure out under what circumstances an ambitransitive verb is transitive or intransitive. How do we determine
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You can always consult a good dictionary.
In this sentence:

I keep running.

The dictionary shows "keep" as intransitive, meaning to "continue in the same state, to continue to do", so "running" is the present participle, predicate adjective, describing my state.

There are many other definitions in which keep is used with an object.

I keep food in the cup
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keep is only transitive when it is followed by the expression that tells what you are keeping (holding, storing):

I keep a gun in the closet.
Lucy keeps a can of soup in her purse.
George keeps some paper towels in the garage.

When an -ing verb follows, it's intransitive (and has a different meaning then, too, as you already know).
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