Structure of a sentence

Question

Hi,I was trying to break down the following sentence into its parts, but I was having some trouble.“Reading can save your life, if you do it today”Reading is the subject, a verb in its particle form. Can save is the verb, with it having the simple form of the verb and an auxiliary verb. Your life is a phrase acting as the object, but is “your” a modifier? Since it describes the life that’s being mentioned, but if we were to remove “your” doesn’t it change the entire meaning therefore not making it a modifier? “If you do it today” is a prepositional clause acting as a modifier.Within the clause mentioned before:“If” is the opening preposition “You” is the subject “Do” is the verb “It” is the object? I am very unsure on this because I think it could also be the phrase “it today”. If we were to remove “today” it would change the meaning of the clause? I’m unsure on that to.“Today” can also be a modifier Please correct me if I have made any errors Thank you

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

[ [Reading]_subj [[can]_{modal aux} save]_pred [[your]_det life]_{dir obj} ]_maincl
[if]_subord [ [you]_subj [do]_pred [it]_{dir obj} [today]_ajnct ]_subcl.

maincl ~ main clause
subcl ~ subordinate clause
subord ~ subordinator

subj ~ subject of a clause
aux ~ auxiliary verb
pred ~ predicator (the verb of a clause)
dir obj ~ direct object

ajnct adjunct
det ~ determiner (includes, for example, articles (a, an, the), demonstratives (this, that, ...) and possessives (my, your, his, ...))

The adjunct in this case is an adverb of time (today).

CJ

Structure of a sentence

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