Another point about PPs. There is a big difference in the roles of the
two prepositional phases in this sentence:

 

*         Fastow was in the penitentiary after the scandal.

 

"In the penitentiary" is a complement. "After the scandal" is purely
adverbial and modifies the verb phrase "is in the penitentiary." 

 

*         Adverbials can be moved to the front of the clause, so you can
say "After the scandal Fastow was in the penitentiary." 

*         Complement PPs can't be moved to the front. Adverbial PPs
cannot follow a linking verb. For both reasons you can't say *"In the
penitentiary Fastow was after the scandal."

 

________________________

 

Richard Veit

Department of English, UNCW 

 


To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/