How would we diagram this sentence?
So on page 958 of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Huddleston & Pullum, we are given the sentence: "They told us that the battery was flat." I am trying to diagram the sentence (tree diagram), and I'm having trouble.
So basically, we would have subject NP on the left ("they"), predicate VP on the right branching off with the left branch predicator V ("told") and here is where I get confused. Would there be 3 branches coming off of predicate VP or two? What is "us"? Is "that the battery was flat" a content clause functioning as internal complement to the verb "told," or is it some sort of a reduced relative?
This feels to me like some sort of an indirect object/direct object construction, but subordinate clauses don't function as objects as far as I know. So what's going on here and how would we draw out the diagram?
BIG THANKS to anyone who can come through with an answer. This is A LOT to ask of anyone, and I know that. You guys are the best.
Top answer
BillJ is about the only one on the forum who knows CGEL really well. Hopefully he'll be able to help you. In the meantime I can tell you that "that the battery was flat" is a content clause, and it's definitely not a relative clause of any kind.
- BillJ is about the only one on the forum who knows CGEL really well.
- Hopefully he'll be able to help you.
- In the meantime I can tell you that "that the battery was flat" is a content clause, and it's definitely not a relative clause of any kind.
- anonymous some sort of an indirect object/direct object construction, but subordinate clauses don't function as objects as far as I know.
- I can't say whether CGEL would call "us" a direct object or an indirect object, but the that -clause is not called an object of any kind.
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BillJ is about the only one on the forum who knows CGEL really well. Hopefully he'll be able to help you.
In the meantime I can tell you that "that the battery was flat" is a content clause, and it's definitely not a relative clause of any kind.
anonymoussome sort of an indirect object/direct object construction, but subordinate clauses don't function as obje
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