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Date: | Thu, 8 Jul 1999 13:40:45 -0700 |
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I don't know, Maureen. In "I am afraid of him," conventional grammar
would call "of him" an adverbial modifer of "afraid." But the distinction
I really got to wondering about was between a friend of Bill Clilnton's
and a supporter of Bill Clinton.
On Thu, 8 Jul 1999, Maureen Fitzpatrick wrote:
> I'm not completely certain, but I'll take a stab. I think this is one of
> those examples that shows why a functional or rhetorical understanding of
> grammar can be more helpful than a strictly traditional understanding of it.
> The best I can do is to mention what you've probably already noticed--that
> the prepositional phrase is acting as an adjective (it can be rewritten "I
> am his friend" just as "I have a watch of gold" can be written "I have a
> gold watch"). In a case like "I am afraid of him", my best guess would be
> that it is acting as either as an object or perhaps as an adverbial
> (answering the adverbial question "why?").
>
> How far off does that sound?
>
> Maureen Fitzpatrick
> Associate Professor, Johnson County Community College
>
> ----------
> From: Michael Kischner [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 6:49 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Yet Another Grammatical Question
>
> To give everybody a rest from Henry James:
>
> An ESL student in my class wrote, "Now I am a friend of him." Is
> there a
> good reason I can give him for why it should be "of HIS"?
>
> It gets funny with proper names, too. If we knew each other well, I
> might
> describe myself as a friend of Bill Clinton's. But, at least for
> the
> first four or five days of his term, I would have described myself
> as a
> supporter of Bill Clinton. Go figure. Please.
>
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