As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn’t help noticing
that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about.
People in cloaks. Mr. Dursley couldn’t bear people who dressed in
funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed
this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the
steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing
quite close by. (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)Can the highlighted part be parsed as one of the following?
- Noun phrase + relative clause (modifying NP) + prepositional phrase (modifying NP)
- The getups is raised for emphasizing (plus, does on mean preposition #2 on Wiktionary?)
Answer
Let’s break this down… it’s been here a while so I will take a shot at it.
Can the highlighted be parsed as one of the following:
-
Noun phrase + relative clause (modifying NP) + prepositional phrase (modifying NP)
A: I do not believe so. I think what we’re looking at here is an exclamatory phrase which is a type of sentence fragment and does not necessarily follow any rule of parsing. In this passage, Mr. Dursley is feeling exasperation over the crazy clothes kids are wearing these days, and lets his feelings be known in this exclamation.
-
a) The getups is raised for emphasizing.
A: I do not believe this is an example of raising.
b) Plus, does on mean preposition #2 on Wiktionary?
A: Yes, you are correct here. The word “getups” means, loosely, clothing or manner of dress. It is usually used when the speaker does not understand or cannot relate to the style of dress being observed. Substitute “clothing” for “getups” and your preposition on (to cover) makes perfect sense. 🙂
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Listenever , Answer Author : AWT
