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Avy #197324 02/12/11 09:14 PM
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['Wondering what the deep structure and surface structure of this sentence could be in nursery rhyme terms' e]

This one? > Then I go "uff" and switch off.

Bah bah black sheep are you a flock..........?
Hum tee dee dum tee dee dum etcetera.

LukeJavan8 #197325 02/13/11 12:21 AM
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Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
I am trying to think if I ever heard of the cowhands
saying "the herd are restless" tonight, in any old
Western, but nope, it is always the herd is.


But they might say "The beeves are restless tonight."

Faldage #197331 02/13/11 04:06 PM
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Originally Posted By: Faldage
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
I am trying to think if I ever heard of the cowhands
saying "the herd are restless" tonight, in any old
Western, but nope, it is always the herd is.


But they might say "The beeves are restless tonight."


Yupper!
or "them dogies".


----please, draw me a sheep----
Faldage #197398 02/15/11 11:00 AM
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Originally Posted By: Faldage


But they might say "The beeves are restless tonight."


Nope: "The beef is restless tonight. So is the hosses."

Avy #197400 02/15/11 11:33 AM
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Originally Posted By: Avy
I want to know what is the subject of the sentence "A trail of ants marched across the table". Is "trail" the subject or "a trail of ants". Isn't "of ants" an adjectival prepositional phrase? So how can it be the subject? OTOH a trail marching sounds wrong and incomplete. What marched? A trail marched - sounds incomplete. Yet can a prep phrase be a part of a noun phrase? Thanks for your help.


Avy, trail is the subject, and the rest is logic. Boiled down, the sentence is "Trail marched." You're absolutely right, a trail can't march, so the sentence logically is absurd; but you could use it poetically, on the pride or exaltation model.

Peter

Tromboniator #197402 02/15/11 11:58 AM
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Originally Posted By: Tromboniator
Originally Posted By: Faldage


But they might say "The beeves are restless tonight."


Nope: "The beef is restless tonight. So is the hosses."


In my days in cattle country I never heard anyone use beef to mean anything but the meat on the table (or grill). Someone might say "I got 400 beeves," but not "That there beef over there's got him a case of hoof-in-mouth disease. Cain't shut up and all the other beeves just laugh at him."

Tromboniator #197408 02/15/11 01:39 PM
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Okay thanks Peter.

Faldage #197422 02/15/11 04:27 PM
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Up until a couple decades ago, our License plates
bragged: "The Beef State".
And don't forget the little old lady "Where's the Beef?"


----please, draw me a sheep----
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