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Joined: Mar 2000
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 19 |
(A) What is the matter with you?
What is the subject of (A)?
What?
or the matter?
Thanks.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,803 |
What is the subject of (A)?
Realizing that this will be of no help whatsoever, the subject is what.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
Subject: Re: the subject of what
Realizing that this will be of no help whatsoever, the subject is what. -faldage
What? Whatness is not a subject?
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
(A) What is the matter with you?
What is the subject of (A)?
The subject is matter.
What is one of those hard-to-classify words that introduce questions. Grammarians tend to call them interrogative pronouns. It's usual in a question to find the subject after the verb. (Middle-school English teachers love this stuff. No one else much cares.)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Psst, soojin, I'd go with slithy toves on this--He's a retired edugator.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear soojin: Rearrange the order of words:
The matter with you is what? Now the subject is obviously "matter".
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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OH, yes, that is what i always do when i am uncertain. I'v heard it called "re-casting". Recast the sentence, and sometimes you can get rid of, replace or clarify: a case, a word, or just make things clearer!
or "answer" the question.. "the matter with me is..." and now it become clearer.. Matter is the subject!
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>or "answer" the question.. be careful with that! "contrariness is the matter with me." http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Rearrange the order of words:
The matter with you is what? Now the subject is obviously "matter".
But you are presuming, dr. bill, that such rearrangement of the sentence does not alter (but merely makes more evident) the subject of the sentence. I suggest that that premise is faulty, and that the rearrangment changes the gramatical subject where the verb "is" is followed by a noun. Contrast for example:
Property is theft. with Theft is property.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Property is theft. with Theft is property."
Dear Keiva: Forgive me, but I do not think the above construction is likely to be of any help to soojin.
You have taken an absurd statement, which in reverse order is still absurd. I expect better things from you than that. To tease me is OK, but to further confuse soojin is not.
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