Questions tagged [syntactic-analysis]
Parsing or syntactic analysis is the process of analysing a string of symbols, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar.
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How to parse and understand "Can can can can can can can can can can"? [closed]
I saw it on Wikipedia here where explanation for the sentence "Can can can can can can can can can can" is given as:
"Examples of the can-can dance that other examples of the same ...
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Is "don't" an auxiliary verb?
I remembered my teacher told me that "don't" is an auxiliary verbs. But today I jave just learnt that only "do" in "don't" is an auxiliary verb and "don't" is ...
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a tree five feet around — Do you think "around" is an adverb or an adjective here?
There isn't a general consensus among dictionaries whether "around" is an adverb or an adjective when it's used for showing a measurement of something in circumference.
So I'm interested to ...
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The grammar and semantics of "eat our way to ours" in a specific context
I encountered an unusual grammatical construction while watching a scene from Scooby-Doo! first frights (video link for context).
The character Shaggy says:
"With Scoob and my sweet dance moves ...
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Shakespeare, Sonnet 104 [migrated]
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey’d,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,
Three beauteous ...
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Gerund or adjective?
Is there any doubt that the word meaning below is a present participial adjective?
Zeitgeist is a German word meaning spirit of the age.
Any reference materials on this subject would be greatly ...
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Does the semicolon work in this sentence, or should it be a comma? Why or why not?
Why does — or doesn't — the semicolon work here?
The role of religion and mythology, at their best, has always been to bear witness to that fumbling effort; to observe and try to make sense of this ...
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'Denote something as "X" ' vs 'denote something by "X" '
This question "Denoted by" or just "denoted"? discusses whether we need to say "denoted by" or just "denoted".
I am wondering whether it is grammatically ...
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"She talked to him like a child"
Given the sentence
She talked to him like a child.
Could it be interpreted both ways:
She talked like a child.
and
She talked to him as if he were a child.
Or is it only the former?
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The Middle and South Atlantic states
To refer to a large porch, especially with a suggestion of luxury,
veranda is most common in the Middle and South Atlantic states
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009
I can find:
Middle (Atlantic) States
South ...
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What determines whether “to” before a verb functions as a preposition or as an infinitive marker?
In English, some constructions require “to + gerund” (e.g., look forward to meeting), while others use “to + infinitive” (e.g., want to meet). The usual explanation is that in the first case, “to” is ...
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Why do English sentences often begin with a meaningless dummy pronoun + 'to be' construction?
Reopen Rationale
Araucaria writes in a comment:
There's no doubt that such constructions introduced by expletive pronouns are perfectly grammatical and acceptable - which is why this question got so ...
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"It depends on what article you read" <--- Is 'what article you read' a relative clause construction?
The sentence is:
It depends on what article you read.
How would one parse this sentence according to the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Huddleston and Pullum (2002)?
Is what article ...
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'A lot of salespeople are shouting at the market': is this statement ambiguous?
Is the title an ambiguous sentence, or has it only one correct meaning, where the salespeople are arguing with the market?
I think it has two meanings:
[1] the salespeople are shouting and they ...
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A noun can't function as an adjective in a NP?
Huddleston and Pullum in their answer guide for their A Student's Introduction to English Grammar mention that the following statement of Exercise 10i of Chapter 2 is false:
A noun can function as an ...
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