"[T]heir best" seems adverbial to me as well. My instinct tell me it is a
shortened form of "to the best of their abilities" or something like that.

"They tried to the best of their abilities to describe...."
"They tried their best to describe...."

These seem related, carrying the same semantic weight. The first example
makes the adverbial usage clearer.

John

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 12:46 PM, Wanda Van Goor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  I see "their best" as adverbial, modifying "have tried"--telling how hard
> they've tried; "to express...them" as infinitive serving as direct object of
> "have tried" ...and "what love means to them" as noun clause, direct object
> of the infinitive."
>
> Is that too old fashioned to be useful?
>
>  In a message dated 4/30/2009 1:12:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> 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
>
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