Thank you, Johanna.  They will be excited to hear your response.  Their analysis is
still pretty simplistic, but I believe their attempt shows that they're ready for
more difficult concepts.  They enjoy grammar (believe it or not), and they have fun
with unusual constructions.
Dawn

Johanna Rubba wrote:

> 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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