Thinking over the variations with grammar, I wonder if a good way to think about the relation of grammar to vocabulary in language is like a skeleton to flesh. Also, I'm wondering if anyone else had some difficulties trying to figure out the pedestals. I'm not sure if I fully understand them.
posted by Jason @ 6:43 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Yeah, the pedestals serve a definite purpose, but it's the differentiation they make between a prepositional adjectival phrase that describes the predicating verb and, say, an adverbial phrase, or a direct object that confuses me.
Some of the examples in the book were exceedingly misleading: "under the weather" immediately sounds like weather is going to be treated like a noun, but it's not, because it describes how someone "is" or "was".
Also, those crazy arms that swing around the pedestal have their own rules, but I think they're the same for any preposition and, um... indicator. (That's what "the" is called, right?). The adjective gets the pedestal, though, that much I'm sure of.
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Now you've done it. From now on, I'll be thinking of dead people when I diagram sentences. ;)
In regards to the pedestals, if my memory is correct (and I really wouldn't count on it being so), the prep. phrase goes on the pedestal when it is the subj. complement. "The lecture was over my head." "Over my head" means "difficult" or "confusing" or something similar, and is rephrasing what the lecture was. So, the pedestal is used, and then those crazy arms do their magic like Max said.
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