Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Why can't prepositional phrases contain the subject?
Consider this sentence: "Many of the conquistadors died at sea." Now, any reasonable person would think the subject of this sentence is "conquistadors." NOT SO!!!! Why? Because it is the object of the prepositional phrase "of the conquistadors." No, the subject is--are you ready for this?--"Many."
Here's another one: "Neither of the Bibles were for sale." Well, well, well, your just certain that "Bibles" is the obvious subject. No, the subject is "Neither." Which, as far as I can tell is neither a noun or a pronoun--yet there you go.
Whoever made the STUPID rule ought to be shot, then run over, then drawn and quartered, then slapped, then made to watch reruns.
Can someone explain this stupid rule? Certainly if there is another qualified subject, let it devolve to that one instead of the object of the preposition, but in such cases as I have mentioned, surely we can do better than that. HELP.
Inverse Mushroom--thanks. But let me ask you this: If I remove "of the" from the sentences, does the subject change? That is, does "conquistadors" or "Bibles" now become the subject--or are we still where we left of when we had prepositional phrases?
Thanks. (and I would likely rant whether I understood or not--ha!)
EDIT II: Thank you Mushroom. Even so, however, it seems that that doesn't make a bit of sense. To say that "conquistadors" is no longer the subject because it is preceded by "of the"...well, it just doesn't seem to make sense.
2 Answers
- TechnologirlLv 51 decade agoFavorite Answer
A prepositional phrase is a modifier. It is not necessary to the sentence, but it provides additional information about a noun (subject or object).
Just leave out "of the" in your first sample. It's a tendency of inexperienced writers to crap up sentences with all sorts of unnecessary words ... filler to compensate for a lack of substance.
Many conquistadors died at sea. Simpler. Means exactly the same thing, but with fewer words.
Neither Bible was for sale. Boom. No more prepositional phrase, same meaning as the original.
Learn to edit yourself, rather than rant about grammar rules that have existed for centuries.
EDIT: Yo, yes, exactly, the subject does change if you modify the sentence as I describe. Now, conquistador is the subject and many is an adjective. In fact it is a better constructed sentence as the most important word, conquistador, is now the subject. Same with Bible in the second sentence.
Go ahead and rant if you want lol. I do it all the time.
