I agree many nominal uses of prepositional phrases can be analyzed differently, but what about this one where the subject is a prep phrase?

"In the morning is too late."

Could it fall under Joshua's first explanation below?  I have a hard time seeing "too late" as a reversed subject; for one thing, the sentence sounds too unnatural if it were un-reversed as "Too late is in the morning."  (Unless it's you-know-who doing the speaking--the short guy with pointy ears.)

Larry


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Larry Beason, Associate Professor
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University of South Alabama
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>>> "Joshua D. Hill" <[log in to unmask]> 9/3/2010 2:11 PM >>>

John,
Some of these could be analyzed differently.

Subject: Behind the table is where I looked.  This could be a sentence pattern 1 (Subject, being verb, adverb of Time/place), just in a reversed syntax.  "behind the table" would then be an adverbial prepositional phrase.
Subject Complement: The best part of my day is after lunch.  Same as above, with "after lunch" being the adverbial prepositional phrase answering the question "when."
Direct Object: Don't nose about in my business.  "In my business" would seem to be an adverbial prep phrase answering the question "where," following the phrasal intransitive verb "nose about."
Object Complement: I bought the best gift at the party. (could be adjectival depending on analysis)  there are two kinds of object complements, one adjectival and the other nominal.  I could see "at the part" as an adverbial, as a peripheral adjectival, or as an essential adjectival for a pattern 9 sentence, but I can't see it as a nominal object complement.
Indirect Object: You might want to give inside the car a good cleaning as well.  This may be used in informal speech (I think I've heard this actual phrase), but in more formal speech, of course, it would read "you might want to give THE inside OF the car a good cleaning as well."  Point taken in informal speech, though.
Telling my students that prepositional phrases are never used as nominals is one of the few absolutes I have left to give them-I'm loathe to give it up.  :)
J. Hill


> wrote:
Dear List,

Does it make sense that a prepositional phrase can be used nominally?  If it makes sense to substitute "that," "this," "it," or some other pronoun for the prepositional phrase, could it make sense to call a prepositional phrase a direct object?

For instance: in <he told his friends of the peculiar weather>, does it make sense to call "friends" the indirect object and "of the peculiar weather" the direct object?  In <he told his friends the truth> would "friends" be the indirect object and "truth" the direct object?  In <he told his friends> is "friends" a direct object, or an indirect object with an implied direct object? In <he told the truth> is there an implied indirect object, those who were told? In <he told the truth to his friends> is "truth" the direct object and "friends" the indirect object in a prepositional phrase? In <he told his friends about the truth> is "friends" the indirect object and "about the truth" the direct object? In <he told his friends that the truth can be found> is "that the truth can be found" a clausal direct object?  How else could these be analyzed?

Thanks for your help,

Scott Woods

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