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 Ling 131: Language & Style
 

 Topic 7 (session A) - The grammar of complex sentences > More on nesting > Task A

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More on nesting

Task A - our answer

S

P

A (= Prepositional Clause [PCl]

The student |

was astonished |

by the professor squirting his joke bow tie at her

This kind of embedded clause is called a Prepositional clause (PCl) because it takes the place of a prepositional phrase (PP) in the adverbial slot of the sentence (you could substitute 'by the professor's antics' for 'by the professor squirting his bow tie at her' without altering the overall structure of the sentence). This process of substitution is the same grammatical test we used (with noun phrases and adverb phrases) to establish noun clauses and adverbial clauses in the 'linking, listing and nesting' page in this topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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