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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Noun phrase
During a English research, I came on this clause, a famous english proverb: "killing two birds with one stone".
How is the syntactic analysis? Is it a noun phrase? Which term is the head of it? Killing?
How is the syntactic analysis? Is it a noun phrase? Which term is the head of it? Killing?
Top answer
You say you came across this clause , and then you ask if it's a noun phrase . Logically, it can't be both at the same time can it? Groups of words are either phrases or clauses; this one is a clause, a gerund clause to be precise.
- You say you came across this clause , and then you ask if it's a noun phrase .
- Logically, it can't be both at the same time can it?
- Groups of words are either phrases or clauses; this one is a clause, a gerund clause to be precise.
- So, the head of the clause is the verb killing ; and the whole clause is analysed like this: Killing (verb) two birds (object) with one stone (adjunct of means).
- (adjunct is another term for adverbial) BillJ
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1 Answers
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You say you came across this clause, and then you ask if it's a noun phrase. Logically, it can't be both at the same time can it? Groups of words are either phrases or clauses; this one is a clause, a gerund clause to be precise.
So, the head of the clause is the verb killing; and the whole clause is analysed like this:
Killing (verb) two birds
So, the head of the clause is the verb killing; and the whole clause is analysed like this:
Killing (verb) two birds
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