I broke this sentence into the following components: "their best to express what love means to them" as a noun phrase-direct object of "have tried" "to express what love means to them" as an infinitive phrase- adjective complement of best [test: "their best" is "to express what love means to them" Removing "their best" creates "have tried to express what love means to them"] "what love means to them" as a noun clause- direct object of "to express" Dee -----Original Message----- >From: "Castilleja, Janet" <[log in to unmask]> >Sent: Apr 30, 2009 10:11 AM >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: New Sentence > >Hello > >How would you analyze this sentence? > >Artists of all kinds have tried their best to express what love means to them. > >'their best to express what love means to them' seems to be the direct object of 'have tried,' but I am having trouble with 'their best' as a direct object. Or is it a noun phrase now? Or can an adjective phrase function as a direct object? > >I also see 'to express what love means to them' as an infinitive clause functioning as a complement to 'best' and 'what love means to them' as a clause functioning as the direct object of 'express.' It seems to be a relative clause (Love means something to them), but if it is, what noun is it relating to? Or is it a nominal here/ > >I know structures like this occur all the time: the best is yet to come, etc. I'm curious about how people handle them, especially when discussing them with students. > >Janet > >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/