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1

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Structure of "there"

« on: December 27, 2011, 01:34:28 PM »

Yes, these three sentences are all grammatically correct and they are all inverted sentences that use the expletive-“there”:

(1) “Long, long ago, there lived near the sea an old fisherman and his wife.”
(2) “There stood a tall tree on the top of the hill.”
(3) “There followed an uncomfortable silence.”

See how the expletive “there” can be taken out from those sentences to give them the normal subject-verb-predicate structure:

(1) “Long, long ago, an old fisherman and his wife lived near the sea” or “An old fisherman and his wife lived near the sea long, long ago.”
(2) “A tall tree stood on the top of the hill.”
(3) “An uncomfortable silence followed.”

Please clarify whether the usage of inversion in "there" structure is used for emphasing the verb.

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You Asked Me This Question / Re: Structure of "there"

« on: December 27, 2011, 11:14:35 AM »

Depending on the verb used, “there” can function as an adverb or as an expletive in this sentence structure:

There + live (exist, remain, come, arise, appear, enter) + noun.

“There” as adverb

 As an adverb, “there” works in the sense of (a) “in or at that place,” (b) “to or at that place,” (c) “at that point or stage,” (d) “in that matter, respect, or relation,” or (e) “interjectionally expressing satisfaction, approval, encouragement or sympathy, or defiance.”

For instance, the sentence “There lives the king” can be construed as the inverted form of the sentence “The King lives there,” with “there” working in the sense of “in or in that place.” When expressed interjectionally as “There lives the king!”, however, that sentence becomes an expression of satisfaction that the king is still alive after fears that he had died.

The sentence “There appears the king” or “There remains the king” can similarly be construed to be the inverted form of “The king appears there” or “The king remains there.” However, take note that we can’t use the verb “come” for that sentence structure, we need to replace it with the verb “go” to form the inverted sentence “There goes the king” and its normal structure “The king goes there.” 

The expletive or anticipatory “there”

In contrast, in the sentence “There exists a monster that feeds on newly borns,” “there” works as the expletive “there” or the so-called anticipatory “there.” In this expletive sense, “there” occupies the position of the subject or object of a verb in normal English word order and anticipates a subsequent word or phrase that supplies the needed meaningful content (this definition is from the Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary). It works in much the same way as the expletive “it” in this sentence: “It was a cold night when the baby was born.” Note that in expletive “there” sentences, “there” generally can be dropped to make the sentence more concise; in particular, the sentence “There exists a monster that feeds on newly borns” can be reduced to “A monster feeds on newly borns.” (The intended emphasis or drama vanishes in this “there”-less version, though.)

In the sentence “There remains the matter of the king’s vindictiveness,” “there” also works as an expletive rather than as an adverb; so with “there” in the sentence “There appears to be a conspiracy against the king” and “There arises a conspiracy against the king.” Note that the sentence “There remains the matter of the king’s vindictiveness” can be restructured into “The matter of the king’s vindictiveness remains” and “There arises a conspiracy against the king” can be restructured into “A conspiracy against the king arises.” However, this restructuring can’t be done in the case of “There appears to be a conspiracy against the king”; the construction “A conspiracy against the king appears” is semantically dysfunctional. We need to be extra sensitive to the sense of the specific verb used in “there” sentences.

(For more on the usage of the expletive “there,” check out “The often-derided expletive ‘there’ can sometimes be put to good use” in My Media English Watch.)

We can see from the above examples of “there” usage that how the word “there” works—whether as an adverb or as an expletive—depends on the particular verb used and on how the sentence is constructed or punctuated.

please clarify whether the following sentence belongs to inverted form and are correct or not.

1) Long, long ago, there lived near the sea an old fisherman and his wife.
2) There stood a tall tree on the top of the hill.
3) There followed an uncomfortable silence.

3

You Asked Me This Question / Structure of "there"

« on: December 26, 2011, 09:54:00 PM »

Dear Carillo,

There +live (exist, remain, come, arise, appear, enter) + noun

please describe the usage of the structure of the above "there".

Thanks,
Hairstyler

4

You Asked Me This Question / strange pattern "...because of which ..."

« on: December 08, 2011, 09:25:32 AM »

Dear Carillo,

Please help me describe if the pattern "....because of which ..." exists.
I rarely see the pattern.

Thanks,
Hairstyler

5

You Asked Me This Question / Application and attribute of "whoever's"

« on: November 24, 2011, 08:32:30 PM »

Dear Carillo,

Long time no see !!  Please help me to describe the application and attribute of "whoever's" as follows:

1) Whoever's this is is to be returned.
2) The office is cleaned by whoever's turn it is that day.

Thanks a million.

Regards,
Hairstyler

6

You Asked Me This Question / Gerund and Participle

« on: November 13, 2011, 09:12:59 PM »

Dear Carillo,

Please help me explain the function of Gerund as a subject complement as follows and take some example:

1) What she is going through is called being in labor.

Please help me clarify if the underlined word is Gerund or Participle.

2) I saw him wearing a red shirt
3) I dislike him/his wearing a red shirt

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You Asked Me This Question / Re: second part (as + participle)

« on: October 22, 2011, 10:30:41 PM »

Here’s my grammar take on the two sentences you presented:

(1) “The accident was reported as having been caused by carelessness.”

In the sentence above, the phrase “having been caused by carelessness” is introduced by the adverb “as” so that phrase can function as an adverbial modifier of the verb “reported,” describing the cause of the subject “accident.” When the adverb “as” is used before a participial phrase (“having been caused by carelessness” in this case), it conveys the sense of “when considered in the relation or form” specified by that participial phrase. This is precisely the sense of the sentence in question here.

(2) “She was seen bringing her son in the car.”

In the sentence above, the phrase “bringing her son in the car” is not introduced by the adverb “as” because it functions as an adjective complement in that sentence. It modifies not the passive verb form “was seen” but the subject “she.”

To understand why this is so, think of that sentence in the active voice: “I saw her bringing her son in the car.” In this form, it’s very clear that the phrase “bringing her son in the car” doesn’t modify the verb but its object “her.” Putting the sentence in the passive voice doesn’t change that function of that phrase as an adjective complement.

Upon to now, I really don't know the difference between with and without "as".

Please help me describe what the meaning of the following sentence is:

1) She was seen bringing her son in the car.
2) She was seen as bringing her son in the car.

Thanks a million.

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You Asked Me This Question / second part (as + participle)

« on: October 20, 2011, 10:54:27 PM »

Dear Carillo,

1) The accident was reported as having been caused by carelessness.
2) She was seen bringing her son in the car.

Please help me describe the above-mentioned sentence for the reason why the first is introduced a subject complement by "as" and the second is not introduced by "as".

Thanks a million,
Hairstyler

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You Asked Me This Question / Re: as + participle

« on: October 17, 2011, 12:27:44 PM »

In the sentence “He described the picture as expressing the dream of mankind,” the phrase “as expressing the dream of mankind” is an adverbial complement to the sentence. It is an added expression by which the predication of that sentence is made complete.

Here’s a suggested construction combining all of those three sentences of yours in just one easy-to-understand sentence:

“She quoted Lu Xun as saying that the picture expressed the dream of mankind, showing that the painter had learned his lessons well.”

This construction assumes that Lu Xun isn’t the painter referred to and that the painter is male.

i don't still understand the structure of "as + participle".  Please convert this "He described the picture as expressing the dream of mankind" into a long form only for my reference.

Thanks

10

You Asked Me This Question / as + participle

« on: October 16, 2011, 08:41:12 PM »

Please describe the structure of "as + particple" as follows:

1) He described the picture as expressing the dream of mankind.
2) She quoted Lu Xun as saying that.
3) The results show their lessons as having been well prepared.

Would you like to help me convert the above-mentioned sentence to a long form for easy-to-understand


Thanks,
Hairstyler

11

You Asked Me This Question / rare usage of "that"

« on: October 05, 2011, 09:39:36 PM »

For I had never seen the following usage of "that", please help me describe the function of "that" in the following sentence:

Who that you have ever seen can do better ??



Thanks a million,
Hairstyler

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You Asked Me This Question / Re: Figuring out an odd usage of the function word “that”

« on: October 03, 2011, 04:56:45 PM »

Question from Hairstyler, Forum member (October 2, 2011):

Dear Mr. Carillo,

Firstly, thanks a million again and again, for you always help me solve different English problems without asking for a consultation fee.

Now, according to what I know about English, the function of “that” is to introduce an adjective clause. But in the two sentences below, please tell me what “that” is doing grammatically:   

(1) “He is no longer the simple-minded man that he was five years ago.”
(2) “What he said and did there showed the man that he was.”

Up to now, I really don’t know the function of “that” in those sentences.

Thanks,
Hairstyler

My reply to Hairstyler:

You are correct in saying that the function of “that” is to introduce an adjective clause. This is the case in a sentence like “She made me believe that life is but a dream.” Here, “that” functions as a subordinating conjunction to introduce the modifying adjective clause “life is but a dream” and link it to the main clause, “she made me believe.” But this is not the only function of “that” in English grammar. In fact, as I’m sure you’ll recall, “that” can even function also as a pronoun, adjective, and adverb.

But in relation to your question, let’s just focus on the various functions of “that” as a conjunction. My Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary lists down as many as 10 functions of that, as follows:

1 a (1) —  used as a function word to introduce a noun clause that is usually the subject or object of a verb or a predicate nominative  <said that he was afraid>  (2) —  used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause that is anticipated by the expletive it occurring as subject of the verb  <it is unlikely that he’ll be in>  (3) —  used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause that is joined as complement to a noun or adjective  <we are certain that this is true>  <the fact that you are here>  (4) —  used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause modifying an adverb or adverbial expression  <will go anywhere that he is invited> b —  used as a function word to introduce an exclamatory clause expressing a strong emotion especially of surprise, sorrow, or indignation  <that it should come to this!>
2 a (1) —  used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause expressing purpose or desired result  <cutting down expenses that her son might inherit an unencumbered estate — W. B. Yeats>  (2) —  used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause expressing a reason or cause  <rejoice that you are lightened of a load — Robert Browning>  (3) —  used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause expressing consequence, result, or effect  <are of sufficient importance that they cannot be neglected — Hannah Wormington>  b —  used as a function word to introduce an exclamatory clause expressing a wish  <oh, that he would come>
3 —  used as a function word after a subordinating conjunction without modifying its meaning  <if that thy bent of love be honorable — Shakespeare>

 

You can see from the above functions of “that” that the usage in the two sentences you presented falls under Definition 1a (3), “as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause that is joined as complement to a noun or adjective.”

Now let’s take a close look at your two sentences:

(1) “He is no longer the simple-minded man that he was five years ago.”
(2) “What he said and did there showed the man that he was.”   
       
In Sentence 1, the conjunction “that” introduces the subordinate clause “he was five years ago” as a complement to the noun “man” in the main clause. The intended meaning is, of course, that the man was simple-minded five years ago but is no longer simple-minded now.

Similarly, in Sentence 2, the conjunction “that” introduces the subordinate clause “he was” as a complement to the noun “man” in the main clause. In that sentence, the intended meaning is that the man’s action in the particular place referred to in the main clause showed what kind of man that person was.

The usage of “that” in those two sentences is really as simple as that.

Please clarify if the "that" represents as an object after "he was" and if the meaning of "that"  is completely "simple-minded man" in the first sentence, and "he was" in second sentence is equivalent to "what one is".

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You Asked Me This Question / Figuring out an odd usage of the function word “that”

« on: October 02, 2011, 10:16:08 PM »

Dear Carillo,

Firstly, thanks a million again and again, for you always help me solve any different english problems without any profits.

Please tell me what the meaning or function of the word "that" of the following sentence is, for according to my common knowledge in english, the function of "that" is used to represent an adjective clause.  Up to now,  I really don't know the function of "that" as follows. 

1) He is no longer the simple-minded man that he was five years ago.
2) What he said and did there showed the man that he was.




Thanks,
Hairstyler

14

You Asked Me This Question / How to understand the meaning of these two sentences

« on: September 18, 2011, 10:52:58 PM »

Dear Carillo,

Please help me distinguish the difference between the following sentences :

1) The old man sat on the sofa, his face being serious.
2) The old man sat on the sofa, his face is serious.

Thanks

15

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Some unknown pattern

« on: September 08, 2011, 10:17:02 AM »

To fully understand the grammatical structure of “be they ever so great,” you need to study the sentence pattern known as inversion as well as the subjunctive mood in English. You may want to check out my book Give Your English the Winning Edge (Manila Times Publishing, 486 pages) for a comprehensive discussion of these advanced aspects of English grammar. It devotes five chapters to inversion, and three chapters to the subjunctive mood.

Please clarify if the "be they ever so great" consists of the attribute of inversion and subjunctive mood at the same time.

Thanks.