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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