To: Forum’s members
There, indeed, are some glitches I bumped into—when I read some compositions made by some Forum’s members—some constructions that perplexed me to the bone and made me to react somehow on some of them, to wit:
1. I arrive home late.
2. Just go on with what you think to the best of your lights.
I have posted them not to offend anyone who has written and posted them but rather to ask the Forum’s members to enlighten and assist me to arrive at the right answer. These are my queries, namely:
1. Is the verb “arrive” transitive or intransitive?
2. What is the function of the word “home” in the sentence above?
3. Is there any word missing in the clause “what you think to the best of your lights.”
4. If there is none, can anyone tell me whether or not it is a clause? And if it be, what is the
function of this clause in sentence no. 2?
P. S. Since the Forum is the place where INTELLECTUALS learn more about the English Usage and, perhaps, the place where they stay with in their free-time, I suggest members should, more than ever, be extra-careful about what they are posting. If in doubt really, better yet to get educated opinions from the members who are, at all times, willing to share their knowledge of the English Usage and adept in syntactical and parsing equation.
Here are some thoughts of mine about the questions raised in your posting:
1. The verb “arrive” is always intransitive, which means that it doesn’t need a direct object or receiver of its action; we can say, “They arrived,” and that’s that. In contrast, transitive verbs like “slap” always need a direct object or receiver of the action; otherwise, the sentence simply wouldn’t work or make sense, as in this inchoate fragment of a thought: “We slapped.”
2. In the sentence “I arrive home late,” the noun “home” is simply a complement of the verb “arrive,” not a direct object or receiver of its action. A complement is, of course, any added word or expression by which a predication is made complete (as “chairman” in “They elected Jonathan
chairman” and “distasteful” in “We thought the act
distasteful.”
3. As to your question: “Is there any word missing in the clause ‘what you think to the best of your lights’?” No, I don’t think so. It only seems there’s a missing word because the phrase was detached from this complete sentence: “Just go on with what you think to the best of your lights.” In that sentence, the prepositional phrase “to the best of your lights” actually modifies the verb phrase “go on.” This becomes clearer when the sentence rewritten this way: “Just go on
to the best of your lights with what you think.”
4. No, “what you think to the best of your lights” isn’t a clause but a phrase, although the subordinate clause “what you think” is embedded in that phrase as the object of the preposition “with” in the complete sentence, “Just go on with
what you think to the best of your lights.”
Now, as to your postscript, let me just clarify that Jose Carillo’s English Forum is not meant to be an exclusive haven for intellectuals or experts, whether in English grammar or any other discipline. It’s for everybody who wants to improve his or her English proficiency or who wish to share his or her English expertise with learners. Forum members can therefore freely post their assertions, questions, thoughts, and doubts about English grammar and usage in the discussion boards, with the expectation that other Forum members—not necessarily the moderator (that’s me)—will make an appropriate instructive or corrective response. There’s really no need to be too cautious or too careful in one’s postings in the Forum; all that’s needed is an open mind willing to be helped or willing to help others in matters of English grammar and usage.
