Would someone parse this, please:

Question

He is six feet tall.Please, would someone give me the word class for each word in this sentence - thanks.

Jussive · Accepted Answer

Ok, let me parse it and see if people here agree:

Pronoun + verb + adverb + adverb + adjective

Paco2004 · Answer

My analysis is:
He [is [(six feet) tall]]
He = **** : is = verb : tall = adj : six feet = adv NP

paco

Jussive · Answer

Paco2004My analysis is:
He [is [(six feet) tall]]
He = **** : is = verb : tall = adj : six feet = adv NP

paco

Thanks, Paco. I agree with you but I wanted to know people's opinions on the word class of every seperate word. This includes the grammatical relationship between 'six' and 'feet'. To my mind, 'six' is an adjective which modifies the noun 'feet', even though they are being used together as an adverbial to modify the adjective 'tall'.

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello Jussive

JussiveTo my mind, 'six' is an adjective which modifies the noun 'feet', even though they are being used together as an adverbial to modify the adjective 'tall'.

If this is your analysis, I don't think our thoughts are different.

First of all we have to recognize that a word or phrase can be used in various ways, i.e., can function various syntactic roles. Secondly we have to recognize that a sentence is hierarchically structured. That is, a sentence consists of some units and each of units can have their own structure inside. In another words, I don't think it is productive to break down a sentence flatly into words and talk about the categories of the words thus separated.

I parse "six feet" itself as a noun phrase where the noun "feet" is modified by a numeral adjective "six". The phrase is used as a genuine noun phrase in the case when it is used in a sentence like "Six feet is longer than 1.8 metric meters". But in your sentence the phrase obviously works as an adverbial phrase, which modifies the adjective "tall". Therefore I told "six feet" is an adverbial noun phrase.

paco

[PS] That adverbial use of a noun phrase is called "adverbial accusative or objective" by some grammarians.

Would someone parse this, please:

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