who

Question

Why is 'who' used here? Is it a relative or interrogative?And is 'fool' a noun or verb?

Philip · Accepted Answer

Fools is a noun; who is a relative pronoun referring to fools.

Contraposition · Answer

Is 'to act' the object of 'expects' or 'love'?

BillJ · Answer

contrapositionIs 'to act' the object of 'expects' or 'love'?

".. I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love [to act]"

No, the infinitival clause "to act" is catenative complement of "love". 'Catenative' in this sense means chain of verbs. Objects are almost always nouns or noun phrases (cf. "...who love peace")

BillJ

GPY · Answer

BillJNo, the infinitival clause "to act" is catenative complement of "love".

Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you mean by "catentative complement", but I don't read "to act" as attaching to "love". I read the sentence like this:

I acted exactly as Voldemort expects [we fools who love] to act.

I.e., "we fools who love" is a noun phrase, meaning foolish people, including the speaker, who love (others).

BillJ · Answer

GPY BillJNo, the infinitival clause "to act" is catenative complement of "love".Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you mean by "catentative complement", but I don't read "to act" as attaching to "love". I read the sentence like this:I acted exactly as Voldemort expects [we fools who love] to act.I.e., "we fools who love" is a noun phrase, meaning foolish people, including the speaker, who love (others).

You make a good point. "To act" is not part of the relative clause as catenative complement of "love", but catenative complement of "expects". Thus it's a complex catenative construction, the kind with an intervening object between the two verbs; in this case the intervening object is "we fools who love".)

I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act.

Thanks for spotting that.

BillJ

Anonymous · Answer

GPY BillJNo, the infinitival clause "to act" is catenative complement of "love".Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you mean by "catentative complement", but I don't read "to act" as attaching to "love". I read the sentence like this:I acted exactly as Voldemort expects [we fools who love] to act.I.e., "we fools who love" is a noun phrase, meaning foolish people, including the speaker, who love (others).

I interpret "we fool who love" as the object of the verb "expects". In other words, it can be replaced by the pronoun "us", i.e. "expects us to act".

BillJ · Answer

AnonymousI interpret "we fool who love" as the object of the verb "expects". In other words, it can be replaced by the pronoun "us", i.e. "expects us to act".

Yes, "we fools who love" is direct object of "expects". It's the intervening object in the complex catenative construction "Voldemort expects we fools who love to act", in which "to act" is catenative complement of "expects".

Complex catenatives are quite common: "We persuaded Sue to read the report"; We helped Ed move the furniture", and the like.

BillJ

who

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions