Edit note: This question with some good answers does not explain (or ask) why it is an adjective that’s used as opposed to an adverb in this type of construction: Is this an objective complement or adjective phrase? My Question: Consider this sentence: “Garlic can be eaten raw or cooked“. In the dictionary, “raw” is … Read more
I was marking some exams for my Japanese high school students, and one of the test problems is: Arrange the following words into a sentence: walk / started / they / soon / to Without fail, all ~300 students wrote: They started to walk soon …which definitely sounds wrong to me. I believe the correct … Read more
It is possible to say this: It formed inside him an ambition to teach his students all the more. I brought the “inside him” to the front of the noun phrase “an ambition to…” since the noun phrase was too long as below. It formed an ambition to teach his students all the more inside … Read more
I took a class for becoming a tour guide. I took a class to become a tour guide. Which one is more natural of saying? Answer …to become a tour guide. (NOT for becoming a tour guide) We don’t use ‘for‘ before a verb to talk about purpose. Instead, we use to + infinitive. She … Read more
When speaking and writing, we often use phrases such as ‘so to speak’, ‘as it were’, ‘if you will’, ‘to say the least’, and ‘to name a few’. I understand how to use these; however, I can’t identify their place in linguistics. An easy classification would be an aside or adjunct, but I was wondering … Read more
I came across the following sentence: People can play for fun, to win, AND to make money. According to “the rule”, because can is a modal verb, it should be followed by a bare infinitive without to. But here we see the rule acts only for the first verb. Wouldn’t it be more correct to … Read more
If he had fought in the First World War, he might have returned _____. Is it correct to insert " as a different man" or " a different man"? I suppose both are correct. "as a different man" function as an adverb phrase for return; for "a different man," I think it is an adjunct … Read more
The aim of this paper is to clarify that uniform asymptotic stability is equivalent to exponential stability for the half-linear differential system.(https://advancesindifferenceequations.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13662-015-0494-7) The purpose of this contribution is to clarify that such algorithms need proper calculation of the update direction in undermodeled situations.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474667015323521) Does "to clarify" here mean "in order to clarify"? In other words, … Read more
I heard a lot that people use sentences like I like fruit, say, an apple, or he has, say, a thousand dollars. What about I get, guess, a hundred dogs. Answer It took me a while to understand your question: you are asking whether you can use guess as a parenthetical on its own, like … Read more
Since though quiet in He is friendly, though quiet. is non-essential to the whole meaning, it can be described as an adjunct. But what type of adjunct? My guess is that it is an adjectival one, but I am not completely sure because of the role that though plays. If we consider though quiet to … Read more
