Post Profile

I read the front page of the Columbus Dispatch earlier this week, and saw this headline: I thought, they’re offering the guy a bounty? That is, I read it as diagrammed on the right. I saw the verb offer, and automatically seized the name that followed as the recipient of the offer (in syntactic terms [...]
read more

I saw this headline in the NYT today, as one of the “most-emailed” stories: When I saw it on the teaser, I thought, “Oooh, ‘Corner Office’ conversation with someone who wants subjects, verbs, AND objects?? Is it an interview with Ch... Read Post

Having covered the basics of diagramming verb phrases (VPs) with intransitive, transitive, and linking verbs in my last post, I’ll turn now to adverbs and adverb phrases. I’ll use an intransitive verb to keep things simple: swim. Th... Read Post

The top headline on the front page of The Columbus Dispatch today was “Janitor’s desperation turns deadly at OSU”. The subhead read: “Nathaniel Brown lashed out by killing his boss, Larry Wallington, and wounding supervisor Henry Bu... Read Post