I broke this sentence into the following components:

"their best to express what love means to them" as a noun phrase-direct object of "have tried"

"to express what love means to them" as an infinitive phrase- adjective complement of best
[test: "their best" is "to express what love means to them"  Removing "their best" creates "have tried to express what love means to them"]

"what love means to them" as a noun clause- direct object of "to express" 

Dee

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Castilleja, Janet" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Apr 30, 2009 10:11 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New Sentence
>
>Hello
> 
>How would you analyze this sentence?
> 
>Artists of all kinds have tried  their best to express what love  means to them.
> 
>'their best to express what love  means to them' seems to be the direct object of 'have tried,' but I am having trouble with 'their best' as  a direct object.  Or is it a noun phrase now?  Or can an adjective phrase function as a direct object?
> 
>I also see 'to express what love  means to them' as an infinitive clause functioning as a complement to 'best' and 'what love  means to them' as a clause functioning as the direct object of 'express.' It seems to be a relative clause (Love means something to them), but if it is, what noun is it relating to? Or is it a nominal here/
> 
>I know structures like this occur all the time:  the best is yet to come, etc.  I'm curious about how people handle them, especially when discussing them with students.
> 
>Janet
>
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