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Post by Mary R on Oct 7, 2004 13:13:51 GMT -5
I'm stuck again! I can't figure out the sentence below, taken from the story The Frogs Desiring a King:
The Frogs were living as happy as could be.....
Frogs- subject
were living - verb
as happy? - is happy an object complement?
Does that make the verb a copula linking happy to frogs or an intransitive verb with happy modifying HOW the frogs were living?
Thanks for the help!
mary
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Post by Tracy Gustilo on Oct 7, 2004 15:38:24 GMT -5
Hi Mary,
Good puzzling. It's a tricky one. I looked it up in Descriptive English Grammar (p. 398). Yes,
frogs - subject
were living - verb
Most as...as constructions involve adjectives, so I would probably take "happy" as an adjective (subject complement), which would make "were living" a linking verb, as in:
They | were living = happy.
(Maybe it's almost as if "living" in this case is a sort of intensifier to the "were", stressing the progressive aspect of the existence.)
If it were an adverb, I would except it to be "happily": They were living happily.
About the as...as. These are correlative adverbs. The first "as" modifies happy: how happy? as happy. It is an adverb modifying an adjective. The second "as" is technically a relative adverb, since it leads into a second clause. The subject and subject complement of the second clause are ellipsed. Written out it would be: "as happy as THEY could be HAPPY." You diagram "they | could be = happy" as a separate clause. If you like, put an (x) for "they" and "happy", since they are ellipsed. Then connect the two clauses via a dotted line, along which you write the relative adverb "as". It goes between the first "as" and the implied "happy" (or "x") of the second clause.
frogs \the | were living = happy \as
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|as (linking \as above to x-happy below)
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(x-they) | could be = (x-happy)
That's just one take on it. If it makes more sense to you differently, feel free to modify.
Tracy
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Post by Mary R on Oct 7, 2004 22:18:36 GMT -5
First off, I think I was thrown by the word *as*. I was reading through the Descriptive Grammar book and came to page 254. *As* introduces the object compliment. I can see that the sentence in question fits the example you mentioned on page 398.
To clarify- You are calling the word *happy* a subject complement, another name for this in this sentence would be a predicate adjective, is this right?
Thanks for the help Tracy, I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.
As a side bar, is there any way to logically progress in the studies of English grammar? I sit in the evenings and read through my old grammar texts but I don't know how much of it really gets retained with this old brain! Any ideas or suggestions on how to teach ourselves advanced Grammar?
mary
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Post by Tracy Gustilo on Oct 9, 2004 11:07:19 GMT -5
"as" is one of those little words with way too many tricky uses!
Actually, I find DEG to be a bit odd in its understanding of object(ive) complements.
Yes, "subject complement" is another word for predicate adjective or predicate nominative (predicate noun). It covers both. I also like it because it allows me to classify "objects" (DO, IO, OP) and "complements" (SC, OC). By "object complement", I understand things like the following:
They | elected -> him (DO) = president (OC).
Instead the verb linking a complement to the subject, the verb links a complement to the direct object.
The best way I have found to tackle advanced grammar is to do what we're doing right here, i.e. puzzle over tricky sentences with the aid of more advanced texts and resources (including the dictionary for those "little words"). It also helps to go through additional textbooks systematically. But what I have found is that as you get into the upper levels, each text will vary in its terminology, diagramming technique, and even basic classification and understanding. That puts the onus on US to try to make sense based on our own experience. The more experience we have working with real sentences (vs. theoretical texts), the better our own judgment becomes. Having to teach (whether kids or other adults who are educating themselves) also helps a lot. You explain to yourself a lot better when you have to try to explain to others! :-)
Some of my longest lasting grammatical puzzles are also being helped by the study of Latin (and Greek). This is my own present push in self-education. For example, I have many qualms about infinitives and how they are used in phrases/clauses (and how the cases of related nouns change inexplicably). There's lots of insight to be found in Latin (and Greek) grammar.
Keep up the good work!
Tracy
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