Maybe this won't be so bad after all...
Jul. 31st, 2005 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricafter spending some hours struggling with parts of speech last night (for english... i think i'd be happier if it were French!), decided i hated grammar and was going to loathe english this semester. However, if i'm going to loathe it then i'm damn well going to UNDERSTAND it so i can loathe it properly. So i attacked 'groups and phrases' this afternoon. Am forced to admit that it's kinda cool. I mean, look at this:
'He lowered it down in a satchel at the end of a rope'. That's got three prepositions in it.
There's the prepositional phrase 'in a satchel at the end of a rope', which describes how he lowered it down. So it's an adverbial prepositional phrase.
Then there's the nominal group 'a satchel at the end of a rope', in which the prepositional phrase 'at the end of a rope' works like an adjective.
Then there's the nominal group 'the end of a rope', in which there's another prepositional phrase 'of a rope', which contains another nominal group, 'a rope'.
its like maths with no numbers in it whatsoever (the best kind of maths, imho). (in (a satchel (at (the end (of (a rope)))))) = actually, what DOES it equal? its not a whole clause yet... still. you get the idea. (the idea being, amy's gone off the deep end finaly... :P)
'He lowered it down in a satchel at the end of a rope'. That's got three prepositions in it.
There's the prepositional phrase 'in a satchel at the end of a rope', which describes how he lowered it down. So it's an adverbial prepositional phrase.
Then there's the nominal group 'a satchel at the end of a rope', in which the prepositional phrase 'at the end of a rope' works like an adjective.
Then there's the nominal group 'the end of a rope', in which there's another prepositional phrase 'of a rope', which contains another nominal group, 'a rope'.
its like maths with no numbers in it whatsoever (the best kind of maths, imho). (in (a satchel (at (the end (of (a rope)))))) = actually, what DOES it equal? its not a whole clause yet... still. you get the idea. (the idea being, amy's gone off the deep end finaly... :P)