syntactic functions

Question

I really need help with figuring out this assignment.

"Specify what syntactic function each of them have"

When he tried his hand at screenwriting.
To Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby.
Has been managing to elude every attempt to translate it successfully To the screen.
Certainly.
The production.
British director Jack Clayton’s previous work.
A misguided adaptation.
The 1974 movie.
A monumental failure.
The boy with the thorn in his side.
After all this time.
A plundering desire for love.

Any help will be greatly appriciated.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

ejay8400I really need help with figuring out this assignment.

Have you asked your teacher for help? Or at least a classmate?

ejay8400Specify what syntactic function each of them have

Obviously, you have to start with a list of syntactic functions. Where's your list? Didn't your teacher talk about syntactic functions?

CJ

Ejay8400 · Answer

CalifJim ejay8400I really need help with figuring out this assignment.Have you asked your teacher for help? Or at least a classmate?ejay8400Specify what syntactic function each of them haveObviously, you have to start with a list of syntactic functions. Where's your list? Didn't your teacher talk about syntactic functions?CJ

At this time I don't have anyone to help me.

The task is given with a text to begin with and some sentances/words are put in brackets. The taks goes as follows:

"Some constituents have been put [between square brackets]. Specify what syntactic function each of them has."

The sentances I wrote in my inital questions are those constituents that were put in the square brackets. I can write them up again:

When he tried his hand at screenwriting.
To Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby.
Has been managing to elude every attempt to translate it successfully To the screen.
Certainly.
The production.
British director Jack Clayton’s previous work.
A misguided adaptation.
The 1974 movie.
A monumental failure.
The boy with the thorn in his side.
After all this time.
A plundering desire for love.

CalifJim · Answer

You don't seem to understand what a syntactic function is. It means 'function within the sentence it appears in", for example, subject or object.

Suppose I ask you the function of a tree, but that's all I say. If it's placed over a garden of plants that require shade, then its function is to provide shade. If it's planted with many other trees on a hillside, its function is to prevent the erosion of soil. And so on. If I don't give you the context, you can't answer.
_________

Apply this to little phrases like "the production". What is the syntactic function of "the production"? Who knows? We can't see the sentence it came from.

The production of cereal is the main activity in this factory. The function here is to be part of the subject of the sentence.
We are having trouble with the production of electricity at this plant. The function here is to be part of the object of a preposition.
We had to stop the production line because someone got hurt. The function here is to modify the noun 'line'.
The company will discontinue the production of these cars next July. The function here is to be part of the direct object of the sentence.

It doesn't matter which sentence you get "the production" from, you can't ask what the function is unless you tell me what sentence it was in. You have failed to provide the whole sentence. I think you can see that from the examples above.
________

It looks to me like you haven't been keeping up with your course and asking questions as you went along. Now you've left it all to the last minute and there's no time to catch up.

If I'm wrong about this, then you may need to wait until you see your teacher again and ask her or him. This forum is not here to teach whole courses privately one student at a time.

CJ

Ejay8400 · Answer

Yes, I do understand what you mean and you are correct, I have been falling behind, but it has had its reasons, but currently trying to work my *** off to catch up and I'm determined to do so.

Currently with this assignment I wont have an opertunity to ask my teacher, but will defiantly be doing so after completing this assignment.

I have attached the whole text to give the context:

[When he tried his hand at screenwriting.]
[To Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby.]
[Has been managing to elude every attempt to translate it successfully To the screen.]
[Certainly.]
[The production.]
[British director Jack Clayton’s previous work.]
[A misguided adaptation.]
[The 1974 movie.]
[A monumental failure]

The boy with the thorn in his side.
After all this time.
A plundering desire for love.

CalifJim · Answer

OK, but we're not here to do your work for you. So what do you think the answers are? You must know some of the answers. Don't you?

I believe I can see a subject there, and a prepositional phrase, a direct object, a subject complement, and an object complement. Do you even know what these are? What are the names of some of the syntactic functions mentioned in your book?

CJ

syntactic functions

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