Sentence Diagrams
Sentence 3
Unhappy bus and truck drivers
argued yesterday that proposed limits on the time they can drive will
cost the economy millions of dollars and make the roads less safe.
- Associated Press (published on June 1, 2000, in Louisville, KY, in The
Courier-Journal, page A3)
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Lesson 3: A verb is a word that
expresses action, state of being, relation, or condition. Verbs have
various tenses; here are some examples:
| present tense |
is |
has |
asks |
runs |
sees |
| past tense |
was |
had |
asked |
ran |
saw |
| future tense |
will be |
will have |
will ask |
will run |
will see |
| perfect tense |
has been |
has had |
has asked |
has run |
has seen |
| past-perfect tense |
had been |
had had |
had asked |
had run |
had seen |
| future-perfect tense |
will have been |
will have had |
will have asked |
will have run |
will have seen |
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| In a sentence diagram, the verb is separated
from the subject by a vertical line that passes through a principal
horizontal line. In the above sentence, notice that such a line
separates the subjects drivers, limits, and they from the
verbs argued, will cost and make, and can drive,
respectively. |
| Apologia pro descriptione mea: 1. An
entire clause, in this case an indirect statement, functions as the
direct object of the main verb argued. It is introduced by the
word that, which serves as a place holder or a signal word for
the indirect statement. When used in this way, that is called an
expletive. Other expletives include if in I don't know if I
should tell you and there in There are 20
students present. 2.
The clause they can drive is a relative clause whose
introductory relative pronoun that (which here functions as an
adverbial objective) is unexpressed. Since the antecedent of the
unexpressed that
is time; a broken line is drawn between the x and time.
3) Neither economy nor millions is a direct object. To
qualify as a direct object, a word has to be able to become the subject
of a corresponding sentence in the passive voice. Since the verb cost
cannot be used passively, it cannot have a direct object. One is tempted
to call economy an indirect object; however, in English, an
indirect object, like a direct object, can become the subject of a
corresponding passive-voice sentence. The best solution seems to be to
assign it to that huge class of words called adverbial objectives (nouns
that function adverbially). In any case, the other word in question, millions,
is (one can say with greater confidence) an adverbial objective. 4) The
word safe is an objective complement. |
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