He is friends with the Smiths
He is friends with the Smiths.
In the sentence above, I parse is friends with the Smiths as a verb phrase where is is the head of the phrase and friends with the Smiths the complement in the VP.
I don't see is as a linking verb and I don't take the complement friends with the Smiths as the subject-oriented one in that sentence.
Is my parsing acceptable?
Top answer
"To be friends with" is an idiomatic expression, which means that it is not subject to any rules of grammar and is therefore not subject to grammatical analysis.
- "To be friends with" is an idiomatic expression, which means that it is not subject to any rules of grammar and is therefore not subject to grammatical analysis.
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"To be friends with" is an idiomatic expression, which means that it is not subject to any rules of grammar and is therefore not subject to grammatical analysis.
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