Craig,
It doesn seem like a postposition. I'm thinking that back, ago, hence,
further and others are as well.
I passed my competitor about a mile back and was confident of victory. (back
about a mile)
We met three years ago. (ago three years) Is hence like ago?
We trudged a five miles further. (further five miles)
--
Christine Reintjes Martin
[log in to unmask]
>From: Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: what kind of phrase
>Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 09:37:39 -0500
>
>Bruce, Michael,
> I'm surprised no one wrote in on this, but isn't "about eleven miles
>away" adjectival rather than adverbial? It seems to me to modify
>Laodicea, with the commas present to accomodate its nonrestrictive
>nature. (The Which is test distorts the picture, as it would for many
>postnominal modifiers. The box on the table. The box which is on the
>table.)
> I'm not sure how to describe the internal structure, though it's not
>the only example I can imagine: two miles further, three days past, and
>so on. At a place three miles away, we will stop for lunch. A
>restaurant two miles back had been an ideal place for lunch. If I had to
>choose, I would pick away as the head; it seems to be acting almost like
>a preposition in a postposition (away about eleven miles). "About"
>qualifies eleven. "about eleven miles" tells us the extent of the
>awayness. Don't you think?
> I tried some quick research, but couldn't find a treatment of it.
>Has someone come up with a name for it?
>
>Craig
>
>Bruce D. Despain wrote:
>
>>Michael,
>>
>>In my grammar I take it as a non-restrictive adverbial (of place)
>>modification to Laodicea. Without ellipsis the noun phrase would read:
>>"Laodicea, (which is) about eleven miles (far) away (from it)." This
>>makes
>>_from_ (relation) the head, with the adverb (direction) _away_ modifying
>>it,
>>which in turn has the adverb (distance) _far_ modifying it, which in turn
>>has the adverbial noun (extent) _miles_ modifying it, and then the
>>adverbial
>>noun (number) _eleven_ modifying _miles_ (many varieties of adverbs!).
>>However, the idiom _away from_ seems to be moving in the direction of a
>>prepositional phrase modifying _away_. If you can't live with ellipsis,
>>then perhaps you will have to have some of these basic syntactic functions
>>taken over by the parts that do appear. Maybe _miles_ would then take over
>>as the head with _away_ modifying it, or prossibly better vice versa.
>>They
>>are both adverbial with very similar meaning, one being simply more
>>specific
>>than the other.
>>
>>I hope this helps.
>>
>>Bruce
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "R. Michael Medley (GLS)" <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 7:52 PM
>>Subject: what kind of phrase
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>In the sentence:
>>>
>>>"Colosse has never been either rebuilt or excavated, unlike its neighbor
>>>Laodicea, about eleven miles away."
>>>
>>>What kind of phrase is "about eleven miles away"? I realize it is
>>>performing an adverbial function, but what is the head word of the
>>>phrase?
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance for your advice.
>>>
>>>
>>>R. Michael Medley, Director
>>>Intensive English Program
>>>Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA 22802
>>>[log in to unmask] (540) 432-4051
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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