Okay,
I do try so very hard to stay out of the fray; but honestly, I just fell off my chair. Craig, you are a poet. Maybe grammarians make the best poets, because they know so intimately how language works--where the boundaries are, where they are permeable, where to push and prod and yet still create meaning.
"I am thin to be around you"
---I would have commited a lot of minor sins to have written that line. Think about the implications of such a statement: thinning oneself, becoming "thin" to be around another being--making that "thiness" a part of your being, an identity, "I am thin." It would be really great if you wrote the rest of it. If you were in my class, I'd say, "Publish it." Go. Now. Write.
From: Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: What kind of clause is this?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, December 11, 2008, 1:01 PM
Scott (and Marshall),
I forgot to say the obvious, which is that these are complements in
part because they complement (and are in effect licensed by) certain
kinds of adjectives. Generally speaking, modifiers aren't constrained
that way.
As Marshall points out here, these are sentient (mental, emotional) and
the complement clause will give us the source or the nature of the
emotion.
We also have prepositional phrases that will do that. (eager for. happy
for. happy with. sad for. and so on.)
We can't say "I am beautiful that you are here". Or that
"I am thin to
be around you." The fields can't be wet that it rained, but they can
be happy that it rained or eager for it (metaphorically feeling.)
From a cognitive or functional view (since it has been in discussion),
these are highly functional forms, able to expand a feeling or give its
roots.
Craig
Scott,
>
> Klammer et al. in Analyzing English Grammar discusses this particular
> construction and notes that in addition to "happy" lists
"glad," "sad,"
> "angry," "hurt," "confident,"
"doubtful," "positive," and past participles
> functioning adjectively like "disappointed,"
"distressed,"and "pleased"
> take "noun phrases as adjective complements." Pretty unusual
stuff, eh?
>
> Marshall Myers
> Eastern Kentucky University
>
> ________________________________
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Woods
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:30 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: What kind of clause is this?
>
> What kind of clause is the underlined part below? I think it is an
> adverbial clause modifying happy. Is this reasonable? Are there other
> reasonable analyses?
>
> The boy was very happy that his mother did not see him being such a pig.
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Woods
>
>
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