Phrase structure
Is the "of" prepositional phrase in the following setence an adverbial or ellipsis of a noun phrase acting as complement?
One of my earliest memories is of a total eclipse of the sun.
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Top answer
One of my earliest memories is of a total eclipse of the sun . While it's tempting to say it's a noun phrase with "that" ellipted, as in "(that) of a total eclipse of the sun", I'm inclined to say that the underlined element is a preposition phrase functioning directly as complement of "is". Since "a total eclipse of the sun" has "one of my earliest memories" as predicand, we could say that it was predicative.
- One of my earliest memories is of a total eclipse of the sun .
- While it's tempting to say it's a noun phrase with "that" ellipted, as in "(that) of a total eclipse of the sun", I'm inclined to say that the underlined element is a preposition phrase functioning directly as complement of "is".
- Since "a total eclipse of the sun" has "one of my earliest memories" as predicand, we could say that it was predicative.
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One of my earliest memories is of a total eclipse of the sun.
While it's tempting to say it's a noun phrase with "that" ellipted, as in "(that) of a total eclipse of the sun", I'm inclined to say that the underlined element is a preposition phrase functioning directly as complement of "is".
Since "a total eclipse of the sun" has "one of my earliest memories" as predic
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