Laura Corin Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 The sentence: Todd and Curt painted the race car purple. What does 'purple' modify? The answer sheet gives it modifying the car. This doesn't feel right to me, but I'm new to this. Doesn't purple modify the painting (how is it being painted? In a purply kind of way) rather than the car? Doesn't 'purple' have a different function here than in: Todd and Curt have a purple race car. Thank you (I'm sure that this is the first of many questions as I investigate this new skill.) L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 No. Purple is an adjective and modifies car in both sentences. If the sentence were "Todd and Curt painted the car lazily" (or "lazily painted the car"), then lazily--an adverb--would modify painted. Adjectives can modify nouns or pronouns, not verbs. They often appear before the noun they're modifying but can come after it as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Yep, what Word Nerd said! We're just digging into diagramming for the first time and I'm learning so much. Much more than I ever learned when I was in school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 A forum member jdahlquist sent me this info about that sentence when I first got the book and asked her about it: It has been about six months since I have used the book' date=' but the most memorable mistake that I found was in the problems on Page 9. For sentence #3, the answer key has "purple" diagrammed as an adjective. This would be the correct way to diagram the sentence if the sentence read "Todd and Curt painted the purple race care." However, the sentence is "Todd and Curt painted the race car purple." In this case "purple" is an objective complement (or sometimes called an object complement). You can see how to diagram an objective complement at this website. She also pointed out a couple of more mistakes. I'll share them if you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 An objective complement is still a noun, pronoun, or adjective. In this case, it's an adjectiive, and it isn't wrong to label it one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted June 9, 2013 Author Share Posted June 9, 2013 She also pointed out a couple of more mistakes. I'll share them if you want. That would be brilliant, if you could. PM me if you prefer. Many thanks Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted June 9, 2013 Author Share Posted June 9, 2013 Thanks everyone - I can see that 'purple' can't modify the verb, but diagramming it as an objective complement sits better with me than as if it were simply an adjective modifying the noun. L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I believe a modern guide to grammar (like the Cambridge) would identify "purple" in your sentence as a predicative complement, which would be modifying the entire phrase "painted the race car" rather than any particular word in that phrase. This would be easy to diagram using a tree-structure diagram. What would be the traditional way of diagraming it? Now I'm curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted June 9, 2013 Author Share Posted June 9, 2013 I believe a modern guide to grammar (like the Cambridge) would identify "purple" in your sentence as a predicative complement, which would be modifying the entire phrase "painted the race car" rather than any particular word in that phrase. This would be easy to diagram using a tree-structure diagram. What would be the traditional way of diagraming it? Now I'm curious. Interesting. Answering your question is a long way beyond my competence, but maybe someone can come up with an answer. Thanks L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Laura, thanks for asking the question!! I have never seen diagramming like the one in the posted link and it really makes far more sense than diagramming it as an adj. Love learning all the new stuff I do from the ladies on this forum. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 This thread is great. Thanks for posting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 This thread is great. Thanks for posting! BTW, what book are you referring to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted June 9, 2013 Author Share Posted June 9, 2013 This thread is great. Thanks for posting! BTW, what book are you referring to? This one. L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.