The 'to'-infinitive is the complement of 'about'; the infinitive does
not link directly to the subject. Therefore it is 'about', not 'to study
grammar', that is linking to the subject via 'be'. That makes a
predicative analysis possible.

I'm afraid your students' adverb analysis won't work, Dawn. But it's
great that they're are trying! You might lead them to explore the
difference between prepositional verbs like 'turn in', prepositional
phrases like 'in the room', and infinitivals like the one at issue. But
a little at a time!!

We don't really have to reinvent the wheel in these instances. The
authors of the two major reference grammars I cited in my previous post
are relying on many subtleties of grammatical and semantic behavior,
many hours of work comparing constructions to one another, to come to
their conclusions. They are a terrific resource for grammar teachers.
True, one needs to learn a significant amount of terminology to use
them, but I would consider that an obligation of those who teach grammar
at the college level; it is our charge, then, to pass on these analyses
to teachers whose work assignments don't allow them time to do this kind
of delving, and to future teachers who will be teaching a lot of other
subject matter, e.g., primary and middle school teachers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics 
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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