I'll venture a guess: a prepositional phrase, with "hence" serving as the preposition, "attempt" as the object, and "to focus on mainstream institutions" as an adjectival infinitive phrase modifying "attempt." But how does the prepositional phrase (if that's what it is) function? Is it adverbial, modifying the verb "has" in the main clause? I'm going to print out our discussion and share it with my advanced grammar class-all English majors, some of whom have already discovered the joy of such discussions-the next generation of ATEGers. Nancy _____ From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Crow Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 4:09 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: What Is This? In a very well-supported response to Nancy's inquiry about Master's Degree, Bill wrote the following sentence: Part of the dynamic has to do with who is using which version, hence my attempt to focus on "mainstream" institutions (emphasis added). I find the sentence perfectly well formed, but I cannot figure out what the underlined part is. Any ideas? John 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/ 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/