languages

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Thu Mar 9 19:43:39 2000

Not so! The subject is compound, i.eVERBS and NOUNS (the conjuction AND
makes it compound) the verb is WERE, and MORE is a predicate nominative,
i.e. a substantive (any word functioning as a NOUN) with a role of modifying
the subject. The preposition OF points to ABSTRACTION which modifies the
predicate nominative. The past participle NEEDED modifies the term
ABSTRACTION in its role as a modifier of MORE, which modifies the subjects.
THAN compounds the modification by the preposition by providing a second
object of the preposition OF, which further modifies the term ABSTRACTION by
limiting it.

Now, that's more detail than one normally needs to understand the lines in
the daily paper's comics, but there are sentences, more likely to appear on
the editorial page than in the sports section, which often deserve and too
often require careful analysis prior to concluding one knows what's being
said. You may disagree with that analysis, but it certainly does underscore
that the quoted sentence is complete. It also serves as an example of the
numerous devices about which current high-school graduates know nothing.

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Date: Thursday, March 09, 2000 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: languages


>allisonp_at_world.std.com wrote:
>> Up to that point verbs and nouns were
>> more of an abstraction needed to pass tests than working tools.
>
>This sentence no verb! :-)
Received on Thu Mar 09 2000 - 19:43:39 GMT