Parts of speech and functions: "Bob made a book collector happy the other day"
Having been bamboozled by various questions and answers on this site, I'd like to know what are the parts of speech (POS) and grammatical functions of the words and phrases in the following sentence:
- Bob made a book collector happy the other day.
Here I am particular interested in the status of the following items:
- book
- happy
- the other day
But I also need the parts of speech and functions of all the individual words in the sentence. By functions I mean subject, complement and the like. I would also like to know the evidence for the assignments to specific functions and parts of speech.
The reason for asking this question is because the status of the three items listed above may be thought contentious by some people. For example, it might be argued by some that book is an adjective, whilst others will say it is a noun. Similarly, the other day some will argue is an adverb. Whether adverb here should be regarded as a function or part of speech in such analyses seems unclear.
Although this question almost feels like three questions in one, I will try to answer all three parts — and the general question concerning the whole sentence as well.
book
In the noun phrase book collector, the noun book is a noun adjunct, it is used attributively. A common way of expressing this is to say that book is used as an adjective, but this does not mean that the noun is an adjective. It just plays a similar role.
Looking up attributive noun, we find, for example, Merriam-Webster telling us about the label attributive used in dictionaries:
The italicized label often attributive placed after the functional label noun indicates that the noun is often used as an adjective equivalent in attributive position before another noun:
1bot·tle . . . noun, often attributive
busi·ness . . . noun, often attributive
Examples of the attributive use of these nouns are bottle opener and business ethics.
Nouns used in this way are often said to be adjectives or act as an adjective. However, they are not. Adjectives do things that these nouns do not:
A great collector => a greater collector — We can form comparatives from adjectives.
A book collector => *a booker collector — Nouns do not like it when we do that.A great collector => the collector is great — We can use a copula followed by an adjective.
A book collector => *the collector is book — Nouns do not like it when we do that!
In the answers to this question some more arguments are listed.
happy
This is an adjective. It modifies the noun (phrase) book collector. As we can see in this explanation from perfect English grammar about using make and let, this is a very simple construction where we use subject + make + object + adjective to mean “cause the object to be the adjective”:
We can also use subject + make + object + adjective. This means 'cause the object to be the adjective' (the adjective can be good or bad):
• Her story made me really happy.
• The traffic jam made us late.
the other day
This is not an adverb, but a noun phrase that is used as an time adverbial.
The British Council teaches us about adverbials of time:
We use adverbials of time to say:
• when something happened
• for how long
• how often (frequency)We often use a noun phrase as a time adverbial
the whole sentence
Bob made a book collector happy the other day.
Bob — a noun functioning as the subject in the sentence.
made — a verb, functioning as the main verb describing the action that the subject executes.
a book collector — a noun phrase, functioning as the object of the sentence.
happy — an adjective, modifying the object of the sentence.
the other day — a noun phrase functioning as a time adverbial modifying the verb.
The noun phrases can be further taken apart as follows:
a — indefinite article
book — noun adjunct, or attributively used noun, modifying collector
collector — noun, head of this noun phrase
the — definite article
other — adjective modifying day
day — noun, head of this noun phrase
Parts of speech are categories, their members sharing various properties. One of these properties is the functions that the members can perform. These functions are relations, and each should be capable of coming before of. For example, in book collector, book is a dependent (more specifically an attributive modifier) of office. It generally makes no sense to say that something is a noun of or verb of.
If we look at families. Man and woman are categories (like parts of speech). You can see a man or woman outside of a family situation and generally still put them in the right category based on various properties such as facial hair, breasts, size, voice, etc. One of the properties of men is that they can function as 'husband of', 'brother of', 'parent of'. Women can be distinguished from men partly in their inability to function as 'husband of' or 'brother of', but both men and women can function as 'parent of'.
Back to words, the members of the category of English nouns share a range of properties, not just the relations into which they enter. They (typically) inflect for number, and many name concrete objects. Adjectives have other properties, like inflecting for grade (tall, taller, tallest). Number and gradability are distinguishing characteristics, but functioning as 'attributive modifier of' nouns is a shared characteristic. Only when book takes on more characteristics of adjectives such as becoming gradable (booker, bookest; like fun--traditionally a noun--being inflected funner and funnest) would we say that it actually now belongs (also) to that new category.
Here, as always, happy is an adjective (it inflects for grade: happier, happiest), but its function is not attributive modifier but rather the predicative complement of make. Here, we could say also she made the book collector president, and president would similarly be the predicative complement of make. Finally, the other day is a noun phrase (it's headed by a noun & can function as a subject of a verb). It's not an adverb (it can't be modified by very, it doesn't inflect with -ly). It is an adjunct of make.
There are many more properties of adjectives, nouns, etc, but it would be too much to discuss here. Suffice it to say you need to look at more than simply the relations something enters into.
Book collector is a noun+noun compound.
Happy is an adjective.
The other day is a noun phrase.
Abstract
The example expression can be redistributed in the following structure:
[Subject][Verb][Object][Modifiers]
Each phrase serving one of the above mentioned purpose is further sub-divided in to individual parts of speech.
Result
Description
Structure of an expression can be deduced by understanding the following:
- Meaning
- Grammar
- Style/Idiomatic usage
I'll tackle this by identifying the right questions and proposing precise answers. Expression: Bob made a book collector happy the other day.
What is going on here? --> (Someone) made (Someone) happy. Verb = made
What did they make? - (That is how was verb applied) --> happy - a state A state would be an abstract Noun.
Who made (Someone) happy? - We are looking for the Subject, the entity that did the activity in this case --> Bob Bob is a subject. Bob is also a (Proper) noun.
Who was made happy? - We are looking for the Object, the entity for which the task was done --> a book collector 'a book Collector' is an object.
'A' is the indefinite article. An indefinite article points to nonspecific objects, things, or persons that are not distinguished from the other members of a class. Essentially, articles are Adjectives as they point to a noun.
In addition, 'book collector' is a compound of: Book + Collector. What does a 'book collector' mean? Someone who collects books. Breaking this further down, a 'book collector' is a type of collector who collects books. As 'book' provides the information on the type of the noun 'collector', 'book' is an adjective. 'Collector' is a noun.
To read more on Noun Phrases and Compound Nouns, refer to: Compound Nouns
To delve deeper in to the nuances, 'book collector' is a Noun phrase or Noun-equivalent. Source:Chicago Manual of Style - Noun-equivalents and substantives
- When did this happen? The other day We get the information about when the action took place. Therefore, 'The other day' acts an adverb.
Looking in to the terms individually: 'The' acts as the 'definite article to 'other day'and acts as an adjective. More on the topic: Purdue University OWL: Using Articles 'day' is the time when this occured. It is a Noun. 'other' tells us about the day. It is an Adjective.
More on compound adverbs here: Chicago Manual of Style - Phrasal and compound adverbs
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