Re: preposition at end - differed preposition in infinitive clause

Le 09/01/2011 14:13, James Hogg a écrit :


It's got nothing to do with the preposition, as you will see with the
third and fourth examples if you put in a single-word verb instead. The
third one remains meaningless and the fourth would not mean what you
want to say:

*Your homework is unacceptable to postpone.
*Your friends are mean to criticize.

In the first two examples the adjective can be applied equally well to
the person (he is fun, my boss is difficult) as to the dummy subject
"it" (it is fun, it is difficult). In the third and fourth examples you
are applying the adjective to the wrong thing, not to a dummy subject:
it's the postponing that is unacceptable, not the homework itself; it's
the act of speaking ill that is mean, not your friends.

Thank you so much for your analysis.

I had a hunch about the importance of the adjective and the 'predicate', but couldn't pinpoint how those elements interacted with the semantics of the sentence.

CHL



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