Hard sentence analysis-please help

Question

It is a logical assumption to say that she may make a fatal mistake in subsequent acts, allowing the townspeople to look into her true self which may in turn anger them; the end of the virtuous life of Abigail will be grave.

Hi, from the analysis below, can you correct the mistakes, please. (had trouble with 'to say that...' Unsure what it modifies etc)

I especially need help with the parts with question marks. Thanks a lot.

It is a logical assumption...=independent clause #1

;the end of the virtuous life of Abigail will be grave=independent clause #2

Independent clause #1

It=subject/dummy it

is=linking verb/verb to be

a=determiner/indefinite article

logical=adjective/pre modifier

assumption=noun/subject complement

to say=infinitive/adjectival post modifier of assumption???

that she may make a fatal mistake in subsequent acts=noun clause/???I don't know what its noun function is...???

allowing the townspeople to look into her true self= present participle phrase/modifying 'she'

which may in turn anger them=relative clause/modifying self???

independent clause #2

The end of the virtuous life=noun phrase

will=modal auxillary

be=linking verb/verb to be

grave=predicate adjective(complement)/adjective

Avangi · Accepted Answer

<< the end of the virtuous life of Abigail will be grave. >>

Please educate me about noun phrases. I'm still trying, but I'm slow to catch on. I never heard of them until I joined EF.

Any group of words beginning with a noun is a noun phrase. Why not call the whole clause a noun phrase? How do you know where to stop??

I'd consider "end" (noun) the simple subject. It has a definite article in front of it. It's modified by a prepositional phrase, "of the life," which functions (of course) adjectivally, answering the question, "the end of what?" "Virtuous" is an adjective, modifying "life" (noun) which is object of the preposition "of."

"Of Abigail" is a prepositional phrase modifying "life," answering the question "what life?" and is therefore adjectival. It could alternately be written in the possessive, "Abigail's virtuous life," in which case "Abigail's" would be adjectival instead of object of the preposition.

"The virtuous life of Abigail" is the complete subject of the clause.

I'd say "will be" is the verb, or possibly the simple predicate. I don't know if you've been following the thread in the Linguistics Forum about whether or not English has a future tense. I'm leaning toward saying the verb in this clause is in the future tense. I surely agree that "will" is an auxilliary, assuming "auxilliary" may be used as a noun. Perhaps we should say "will" is a modal auxilliary, in the sense that to do and to have are non-modal auxilliaries. I'm not sure how to approach this.

I agree that "grave" is a predicate adjective, or complement, as you wish.

"Will be grave" is the complete predicate. (May we call it a verb phrase?)

But it seems that if we could call the whole clause a noun phrase, we'd have it.

- A.

Eddie88 · Answer

Why not call the whole clause a noun phrase? How do you know where to stop??

A noun phrase is just like a noun: it has to be the subject, object, complement etc within a clause. Therefore, no it cannot be a whole clause.

Remember that a phrase is a group of words without a subject or verb, or both.

Consider the following examples:

Jim walked home

Jim is the subject, and it is just a noun.

Jim, the rugby player, walked home.

The underlined words is a noun phrase. It functions as the subject of a clause, but does not have a subject and verb relationship, so it is not a noun clause.

Whether Jim plays rugby this week is a question of much debate.

In this sentence, there is a subject and a verb. Together, this clause functions as a noun clause, functioning as the subject. A noun clause is a dependent clause; that is, it has a subject and a verb, but it isn't a complete thought.

All three examples, function as the subjects of their repective sentences.

the end of the virtuous life of Abigail will be grave.

The end of the virtuous life of Abigail=functions as the subject of the sentence. For instance, this group of words could be replaced by a single word: Jim. It would still be the subject of the sentence.

Will be grave=verb phrase (as you pointed out)

will=modal auxillary

be=linking verb

grave=adjective complement

"The virtuous life of Abigail" is the complete subject of the clause.

I missed this...It seems you know that it is the subject of the sentence. You were just unaware of the terminology.

Avangi · Answer

So we're back to my favorite conundrum: structure vs. function - what it is vs. what it does.

The man walking down the street is my father.
"Down the street" is a prepositional phrase because it starts with a preposition.
"Walking down the street" is a participial phrase because it starts with a participal.
"Walking down the street" is an adjectival phrase because it modifies a noun, "man."
"The man walking down the street" is a noun phrase because it starts with a noun.
"The man walking down the street" is a noun phrase because it functions as a noun (subject of the sentence).
"The end of the virtuous life of Abigail" is a noun phrase because it starts with a noun and also because it functions as the subject of the sentence.

Why in your analysis did you stop after "life"? Why did you not include "of Abigail"? It's not a verb!

In all of the examples you provided in your last post, your "noun phrase" comprised the complete subject, stopping just short of the verb.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Can anyone help me in analysing the term, form and function of the underlined words below please?
Ex. Please call to confirm your booking
Term: infinitive of purpose
Form: present simple + infinitive
Function: to talk about purpose - why a person does something

Question 1:
I would rather stay at home tonight.
Term: ?
Form: Modal Aux.Verb + Adverb of degree + Present simple (??)
Function: ?

Question 2:
They couldn't have known what was in store for them.
Term: ?
Form: Negative modal aux.verb + Present perfect (??)

Thanks. J

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Can anyone help me in analysing the term, form and function of the underlined words below please?
Ex. Please call to confirm your booking
Term: infinitive of purpose
Form: present simple + infinitive
Function: to talk about purpose - why a person does something

Question 1:
I would rather stay at home tonight.
Term: ?
Form: Modal Aux.Verb + Adverb of degree + Present simple (??)
Function: ?

Question 2:
They couldn't have known what was in store for them.
Term: ?
Form: Negative modal aux.verb + Present perfect (??)

Thanks. J

Eddie88 · Answer

Sorry, this is simply me forgetting to add it in.

Yes, it is a part of the noun phrase. As you said, it is a prep. phrase modifiying 'life.'

A noun phrase is simply just the head noun plus its modifiers, in the form of prep. phrases, etc.

Yes, I know. English Grammar is one of those things. Not only is there different terms for the same thing, but there is also different ways to analyse a sentence.

For example, with prepositional phrases they always have to function as a modifier (adjective or adverb) or a noun, but they are prepositional phrases.

In the summer, Jim went to band camp.

In the summer=prepositional phrase-structure
In the summer=adverb phrase-function

It is a logical assumption to say that she may make a fatal mistake in subsequent acts,

Would you agree that 'to say' is a post modifier/adjective for the noun assumption?

Would you agree that 'that she may...' is a noun clause functioning as object of the infinitive?

Avangi · Answer

I need to think about your questions.

Meantime, of what possible practical value is it to call the complete subject of a sentence a noun phrase?

Eddie88 · Answer

It is necessary if one wishes to provide a simplistic analysis of a sentence, which can then be futher broken down if necessary.

When students learn to write, they need to learn that a clause consists of a subject and a verb.

Subject Verb

They then learn of the modifiers, which modify the subject or verb.

When there is a more complex sentence, it is sometimes easiest to analyse a sentence by first identifying the subject and verb, and then identifying the modifiers.

When the subject of a sentence is longer than just one word, it helps to group these words and give them a name so that they then can identify the simple structure (in bold above) as a platform. If one tries to identify the head of the noun phrase (and don't bother with identifying the noun phrase), they then have a whole bunch of words around it confusing them.

Eddie88 · Answer

P.s. sorry about the horrible wording and messy sentences. It's rather late here.<img src="http://www.EnglishForward.com/emoticons/emotion-56.gif"/>

Avangi · Answer

Eddie88 If one tries to identify the head of the noun phrase (and don't bother with identifying the noun phrase), they then have a whole bunch of words around it confusing them.

When we use terms like "the head of the phrase" and "fronting the phrase" I have to think we're not talking about a functional definition. It seems like the complete subject of the sentence would usually be a noun phrase by definition, but would not necessarily begin with a noun. It seems like there are also likely to be nested noun phrases acting as objects of prepositions.

Anyway, it seems naive to call something a noun phrase, thinking that you've somehow disposed of it, or dealt with it, or successfully pigeonholed it in your task of analyzing the sentence.

Hard sentence analysis-please help

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