UNIT 1 A&I Lesson 7: Diagramming Question

[mjwheeler]

FL Greetings,
This question pertains to Unit 1 A&I Lesson 7 found on p. 29 of the SW. The sentence is from Silence Dogood No. 6 - Paragraph 1, Sentence 5:

"He has made himself a King of Solioquy; fancies himself conquering the World, and the Inhabitants thereof, consulting on proper Methods to acknowledge his Merit."

Question 1: What ADJECTIVE question does the verbal phrase, "conquering the World," answer?

Question 2: What ADJECTIVE question does the verbal phrase, "consulting on proper methods," answer?

By "ADJECTIVE question," I mean the ones from Aesop like "Whose?" "Which one" etc.

Thanks so much,
KIM

[admin]

Both answer - not superbly well - the question 'what kind.' 'Consulting' and 'conquering' are both participles, so they must be behaving as adjectives somehow. They could also be diagrammed as objective complements.

[mjwheeler]

Yes, the participle phrases functioning as adjectives are a little weak and that's while we had trouble diagramming them as such.
SO
I had to read up on objective complements in my "Descriptive English Grammar" book to better understand the alternative you proposed.

To diagram these phrases as objective complements they would go next to the verb, before the DO, in parenthesis?

Their role as objective complements that are adjectives is to describe or limit the objects: "himself" and "inhabitants" ?

Thanks for your help,
KIM

[admin]

Different grammars diagram objective complement differently, I believe. DEG does them as follows:

He | fancies / /\ | himself

and on the /\ (which is the base of a tree-type stand) would go conquering --> world.
Conquering would be on whatever sort of a line you use for participles.

And regarding the role - you've got it!

My apologies for taking so long to answer your question. The post wasn't showing up in the moderation queue for some reason.

Carolyn