Parse this sentence.
"by giving back" -- "back" -- "back to Him" -- What are these combinations?
Top answer
She glorified *** by giving back to Him the very thing He desired. She : subject glorified : verb *** : direct object by giving back to Him the very thing He desired : prepositional phrase, which modifies glorified giving back : gerund (noun) from the phrasal verb to give back , which means to return to Him : prepositional phrase which modifies giving back. ( Him would be the indirect object if to were omitted and the phrasing were by giving Him back....
- She glorified *** by giving back to Him the very thing He desired.
- She : subject glorified : verb *** : direct object by giving back to Him the very thing He desired : prepositional phrase, which modifies glorified giving back : gerund (noun) from the phrasal verb to give back , which means to return to Him : prepositional phrase which modifies giving back.
- ( Him would be the indirect object if to were omitted and the phrasing were by giving Him back....
- ) the very thing He desired : the direct object of giving back
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She: subject
glorified: verb
***: direct object
by giving back to Him the very thing He desired: prepositional phrase, which modifies glor
0It is perhaps possible to say also that «he desired» is a defining relative clause that modifies «the very thing».
Kind regards,
0thing: direct object of giving back
the: definite article modifying thing
very: adjective, meaning precise, modifying thing
0So you consider back a separate adverb rather than giving back a phrasal verb? Mary Ansell's English Grammar: Explanations and Exercises, dictionary.com, and Webster's Third New International Dictionary treat giving back as a phrasal verb.
Ansell puts
0It will depend on how to interpret the word "parse". If I have to classify each word into parts of speech, I'll classify "back" as an adverb rather than a preposition, because we can say "give him back something". I have no intention to oppose the idea of taking "give back" as a phrasal verb.
paco
000 "back" is an adverb of position 02 br
00 "back to him" is a combination of the adverb 'back' and the prepositional phrase 'to him' which is acting as an adverb of direction (answers the question 'where' or 'to whom') 0-
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