Herb did provide my response.  I can't add to it.

Bob Yates

Stahlke, Herbert F.W. wrote:

>
>Craig,
>
>Not to preempt Bob, but the interesting property of the "easy/eager to
>please" types of sentence is that the grammatical relationship of the
>subject to the verb "please" can't be described with a single diagram,
>whether  phrase structure tree or RK.  Since RK has not concept of
>derivation, it's inherently incapable of capturing the facts about such
>sentences.  Phrase structure trees would require two trees, one showing
>the NP as subject or object of "please" and the other showing the same
>NP as subject of the copula.  There are several ways of doing this,
>depending on which variant of generative grammar you use, but they all
>require some way of showing dual function.
>
>=20
>
>Herb
>
>=20
>
>________________________________
>
>From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock
>Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 9:26 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: diagramming
>
>=20
>
>Bob,
>   You leave me curious about how you would diagram these two sentences
>to show the underlying (deep structure) differences.  John is certainly
>the object of "please" in easy to please, but isn't it also the subject
>of the sentence?  Can both roles be shown within a phrase structure
>diagram? Is John simultaneously the subject of a copular verb and object
>of a transitive one? Is your point that certain understandings elude all
>diagrams? =20
>     I find phrase structure diagrams much more useful than the old
>Reed-Kellog system (which I loved, by the way, in Junior High.)  You can
>certainly add functional labelling to show functional roles. Whatever
>system we use, we need to keep reminding students (and ourselves) that
>diagramming is never an end in itself.  Diagrams are simply useful ways
>to express an understanding.  We need to be very flexible in how we use
>them.
>
>Craig
>
>

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