That seems about right to me. As an idiom, it "feels" like the units are
starting to "grammaticalize" (sp?), with "bugs out of me" beginning a slow
creep toward phrasal verb status, but maybe that's just me. Isn't that how
phrasal verbs form? An adverbial complement goes through the
grammaticalization process and becomes a verbal particle? I don't know --
just a guess. I vaguely remember something about a process that was akin to:
complement -> clitic   -> particle. Or maybe the order is wrong.

John

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 7:56 AM, Hancock, Craig G <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Dick,****
>
>     I think it would be very much parallel to “beat the crap out of me.” My
> first inclination is to see it as complex transitive. “I sent that man from
> my door.” “I drove that problem out of my mind.”  The second complement is
> adverbial. The direct object (affected participant) ends up in another place
> as a result of the action of the verb.  If I remember right, though, more
> traditional grammars don’t recognize the larger category of adverbial
> compliment in complex transitive sentences. It seems so obvious to me.****
>
>     *“Out of me, this bugs the hell.”  *“This bugs the hell.” These sorts
> of tests aren’t foolproof, but they do seem to confirm that “out of me” is
> complement, not just modifier.  It’s a required element in the construction.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> Craig****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Dick Veit
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 20, 2011 8:17 AM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Parsing requested****
>
> ** **
>
> In a post yesterday, I used the verb phrase "bugs the hell out of me." Can
> we try to parse that? Is "the hell" a direct object? An adverbial? Or is it
> just an unanalyzable idiom--after all, it doesn't analyze semantically.
>
> Dick
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