At  6:51 AM 10/12/97 -0400, "" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>              <[log in to unmask]>
>Poster:       "<Janet Master>" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      Re: Period or Question Mark?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I vote in favor of the question mark, inside quotation marks.  How would the
>sample in question differ in structure from a quote introduced by "he said,"
>or "he asked"?  Such would also form complete sentences in themselves, the
>quotation itself functioning as the direct object of the larger sentence,
>wouldn't they?
>My question comes directly from a grammar worksheet.  In the sentence, "The
>treasure is worth two million dollars," what part of speech is "worth"?  The
>answer key labels it as a verb.
>Janet Master
 
Janet:
I would call "worth" an adjective, functioning as a subject complement
after the linking-be.  Quirk et al., in their wonderful "Comprehensive
Grammar" call it a preposition, with the noun phrase following as its
object.  But it has no qualities of verbness--you can't add an -s or an
-ing.
 
Martha Kolln