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Perfect Stranger Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Grammar question no. 76: by?

Dear All,

Here's a dictionary definition of the word vigilante

'any person who takes the law into his or her own hands, as by avenging a crime.'

How do we use the underlined structure as by? I don't see it often. What kind of grammatical structure is it?

Thank you
  

Top answer

' "as by" is not the correct parsing. You have here a conjunction, followed by a prepositional phrase. Prepositional phrase - preposition by .

— AlpheccaStars

  • ' "as by" is not the correct parsing.
  • You have here a conjunction, followed by a prepositional phrase.
  • Prepositional phrase - preposition by .
  • as is a conjunction, showing a comparison or example.
  • Synonym of "like" No one loves him as I do.
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3 Answers
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Perfect Strangerby avenging a crime.'
"as by" is not the correct parsing. You have here a conjunction, followed by a prepositional phrase.

Prepositional phrase - preposition by.

as is a conjunction, showing a comparison or example. Synonym of "like"

No one loves him as I do.
This month, as in previous Octobers, the
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AlpheccaStars"as by" is not the correct parsing. You have here a conjunction, followed by a prepositional phrase.
I'm quite surprised now because the definition comes from www.dictionary.com, which is one of the largest on-line dictionaries... If as by is incorrect, what should it be replaced with?

Thanks
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Perfect StrangerHow do we use the underlined structure as by?
The parsing of these two words as a syntactic unit is incorrect.
The sentence is correct.

as (conjunction, meaning "like") [by avenging a crime] (prepositional phrase, with "by" as the head word, and a gerund phrase as the object]
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