Homer B Week 3 Parsing Review (p. 47 of SW)

[Kim in FL]

It's me again...

This time our specific question is regarding the following sentence in Week 3: The Trial of the Bow -

"He took the bow and tried to bend it, wearying himself with it, making his hands sore, for they were soft."

My daughter parsed the verb, "tried" as INTRANSITIVE rather than transitive.

Is it transitive because "to bend it" is an infinitive (verbal) phrase functioning as a noun - particularly a DO? Is it correct that "it" is another DO embedded within the verbal phrase?

We are just getting acquainted with verbals and are still on shaky ground. I am currently skipping the sections in the core for older students so we are not sunk from the get go.

Look forward to hearing back from you all,

Kim
Merritt Island

[Carolyn]

Kim,

Your understanding is correct. 'To bend it' is an infinitive phrase serving as the DO of 'tried', and 'it' is the DO of the infinitive phrase.

Sounds like you've got a good handle on this!

Carolyn

[Kim in FL]

Perfect...got it! Thank you, Carolyn.