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      Question about Sentence structure and phrases. | English Grammar Jump to content
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      Question about Sentence structure and phrases.


      Tazhus

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      Hi! I've been trying to nail down my sentence structure, so that I know when a sentence doesn't work.

      So I have these two lines that are making me sad:

      1- Being the boss made Jeff feel uneasy.

      [Being the boss]: Gerund phrase serving as subject. Made: Verb. Jeff: Direct Object.

      Now the problem for me is in [feel uneasy.] I've been searching for like an hour and can't decide what it is:

      Is it a verb phrase serving as subject complement? A verb phrase serving as an object complement? Is it modifying Jeff or Made? I mean what kind of phrase is it and what is function is it serving?

      In a sentence like this: I like making people happy. People is a noun serving as object and happy is an adjective serving as object complement. But the fact that [feel uneasy] has a verb makes me think it's something different.

       

      Second sentence is: 

      2- Tom's favorite tactic has been jabbering away to his constituents.
       
      Now, the website I've been reading (purdue) said that [Jabbering away to his constituents.] is a gerund phrase, which is no problem, but it also said this:
       

      jabbering away to (gerund)
      his constituents (direct object of action expressed in gerund)

      And that just makes me confused. Shouldn't it be: Jabbering: Gerund. Away: Adverb modifying Jabbering. [To his constituents]: Adverbial propositional phrase. [His constituents.]: Noun phrase serving as object of the preposition to?

       

       Hope you can help me. Thanks for reading.

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