Natalie,
Here is the way I understand the
sentence in the reported speech portion. To make it a complete
sentence, it needs a predicate, which appears to have been elided. This
occurs with many exclamatory sentences:
There is no doubt at all about
that.
The phrase “at all”
is indeed adverbial, indicating the degree of the negative “no.”
The “no” is an article. Sometimes we hesitate to analyze
articles as phrases, but logically the prepositional phrase does go with the
fact that the noun phrase is negative. As with most prepositional phrases,
it is post-posed. The pp “about that” is adjectival to “doubt.”
This makes the phrases interlocking since their semantic relation is more like:
[none-at-all] [doubt-about-that]. When you see these two semantic
elements placed like that with “no” pronominalized, you see that
there may be other ways to arrange them: “Doubt about that, there is none
at all,” but few that would maintain their intended meaning: “There
is no doubt about that at all.” Here it is tacked on as an
afterthought, and seems to be intentionally “misplaced” for
emphasis.
Bruce
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Natalie
Gerber
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 12:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: yet another sentence structure!
Dear all,
Do you mind helping me with these examples? If not,
here’s one more:
No doubt at all about that, I thought. (A
Clockwork Orange)
Ignoring the reported speech clause, how would you analyze
the first portion?
Is it correct to say that “at all” modifies the
complete phrase “no doubt about that” and is functioning
adverbially, indicating degree (i.e., how little doubt there is)?
Without the context to clarify what that specifies
(this is a student-located example), can we say that “about that”
functions adjectivally modifying the head noun “doubt”?
I’ve consulted my Longman, but I didn’t
see a clear example to use as a model.
Thanks, as ever—
Natalie
____________________
Natalie
Gerber, Ph.D.
Assistant
Professor
Department
of English
SUNY
Fredonia
ph.
(716) 673-3855
fax
(716) 673-4661
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