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Margie Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Help with clause structure!!

Hi everyone!

I'd be really grateful if you could help me with analysing the following phrase:

He enjoys being an artist.

Would it be correct to say that 'being an artist' acts as object in this phrase?

Could we call 'an artist' a subject complement for this sentence?

I came to the following clause structure: S V O (O = Gerund + Subject Complement)

Would you agree with me?? Emotion: thinking

Thank you all! [L]

Margie
  

Top answer

Hello Margie I think your analysis is right. As "enjoy" is typically a transitive verb, we cannot parse "being an artist" as an adverbial participle clause. We should parse it rather as a gerundive clause, which is acting as an object of the verb "enjoy".

— Paco2004

  • Hello Margie I think your analysis is right.
  • As "enjoy" is typically a transitive verb, we cannot parse "being an artist" as an adverbial participle clause.
  • We should parse it rather as a gerundive clause, which is acting as an object of the verb "enjoy".
  • Because "He enjoys being an artist" is "He enjoys (the fact) that he is an artist", "an artist" should be semantically equal to the subject "He" in the main clause.
  • However, I am not sure whether we can call it a subject complement.
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1 Answers
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Hello Margie

I think your analysis is right. As "enjoy" is typically a transitive verb, we cannot parse "being an artist" as an adverbial participle clause. We should parse it rather as a gerundive clause, which is acting as an object of the verb "enjoy". Because "He enjoys being an artist" is "He enjoys (the fact) that he is an artist", "an artist" should be semantically equal to the su
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