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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Sentence structure
I read an article today. One of the sentence is as following:
'The adults who where not yet mothers or fathers lounged about like minor gods, plucking tans from the sky, their secondhand freedom lustily inhaled by young and old alike.'
I can understand the main sentence "The adult ... " and the phrase "plucking...". But for the last part, what kind of structure is that? What is it describing? It looks like an adverb phrase describing the whole sentence. Can anyone explain the sentence structure of that?
'The adults who where not yet mothers or fathers lounged about like minor gods, plucking tans from the sky, their secondhand freedom lustily inhaled by young and old alike.'
I can understand the main sentence "The adult ... " and the phrase "plucking...". But for the last part, what kind of structure is that? What is it describing? It looks like an adverb phrase describing the whole sentence. Can anyone explain the sentence structure of that?
Top answer
their secondhand freedom lustily inhaled by young and old alike. This is a reduced clause with the past participle "inhaled", functioning as an adjunct (adverbial). htm As to meaning, it is a reference to "secondhand smoke".
- their secondhand freedom lustily inhaled by young and old alike.
- This is a reduced clause with the past participle "inhaled", functioning as an adjunct (adverbial).
- htm As to meaning, it is a reference to "secondhand smoke".
- Secondhand smoke is the smoke from a cigarette that is inhaled by other people, not the smoker.
- So these adults without kids exude an air of freedom, and this freedom is enjoyed (or envied) by other adults who do not have it..
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1 Answers
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their secondhand freedom lustily inhaled by young and old alike. This is a reduced clause with the past participle "inhaled", functioning as an adjunct (adverbial).
http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/adjunctterm.htm
As to meaning, it is a reference to "secondhand smoke". Secondhand
http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/adjunctterm.htm
As to meaning, it is a reference to "secondhand smoke". Secondhand
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