How is a “secondary verb,” for lack of a better word, classified? Here are some examples I am thinking of:
“You knew I was kidding” and “What did you think I said?”
What are “was kidding” and “I said”? Are these some sort of verb phrase?
Kidding is a gerund or verbal noun. Adding “ing” to some/all? verbs makes them nouns.
Don’t know about “I said”.
Murasaki312a, your two examples–<You knew I was kidding> and <What did you think I said?>–both contain clauses acting as nouns. The first example, <You knew I was kidding>, follows the traditional structure for a declarative sentence: subject-verb-object. The sentence’s subject, which says who is performing the verb’s action, is you. The sentence’s verb, which tells what action the subject is performing, is knew. The object says whom the verb’s action is being performed upon;but the object here, rather than being a noun as usual, is the entire clause I was kidding, which acts as a noun. The clause has its own subject, I; and verb, was kidding. The verb is in the progressive mode, and so takes the form [be] + [present infinitive + ing]. (The verb, fully parsed, is the first person singular, imperfect indicative active progressive form of the infinitive to kid.) The verb here is intransitive and so does not take its own object, but it could (as it does in your second example). To answer your actual question, the clause is called an indirect statement, distinguishing it from the direct statement You knew. An indirect statement is usually introduced by the conjunction that, as in <You knew that I was kidding>, but omitting the conjunction is not incorrect.
Your second example–<What did you think I said?>–is a little trickier, but mostly because of word order. The basic structure is the same: a direct construction followed by an indirect construction. The indirect construction here is an indirect question rather than an indirect statement. The direct construction is you [subject] did think [verb], with its order properly inverted to did you think. (The verb is in the emphatic mode, and so takes the form [do] + [present infinitive]. The verb, fully parsed, is the second person singular, past indicative active emphatic form of the infinitive to think.) The indirect construction is I [subject] said [verb] what [object], again with its order properly inverted to what . . . I said. The entire indirect-question clause again (as in your first example) functions as the object of the verb think in the direct construction. Like an indirect statement, an indirect question can be introduced by the conjunction that, as in <What did you think that I said?>, but omitting the conjunction is again not incorrect.
A gerund is a verbal noun, and it is formed by adding -ing to the infinitive stem, so there is a gerund kidding. The present participle, a verbal adjective, takes the same form. But kidding in the example is neither a gerund nor a participle: it is an actual verb, as my preceding post explains. For example, if the sentence is <I am just kidding around>, then kidding is a verb (with am). If the sentence is <Kidding around is what I am doing>, then the gerund kidding is the subject’s sentence, functioning as a noun. And if the sentence is <I was the one kidding around>, then the participle kidding describes the pronoun one, functioning as an adjective.
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[sup]I thought that sentence diagraming was a torture outlawed long ago.[/sup][/ul]
I’m just waiting around to see if anyone is foolish enough to challenge brianmelendez’s impeccable grammar.
Peace.
Although, I’d be truly impressed at a sentence diagram…
Thank you both- That had been nagging at me. I used to love to diagram sentences for fun (yes, you heard right) but all that was so long ago- BrianM. you are brilliant! Loved reading your explanation. In case you’re wondering I was actually trying to use the word “said” in several different ways in different sentences for a student. I used it in both direct and indirect quotes, but couldn’t explain that last one- thanks again.
Brianm
That was wonderful! I can’t say how pleased I am to encounter someone else who loves and understands sentence structure.
moriah, I could diagram that sentence for you, but I’d have to use a pencil and paper. I don’t know how I would manage it with typed characters.
I stand corrected. Thanks for the info, Brian.
I don’t remember ever having to diagram a sentence in school; at least not formally, requiring pencil and paper as MLS mentions. Sure, we learned subjects and predicates, nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on; but I don’t recall ever hearing the phrase “Diagram a sentence” in school.
The grammar book I use with my students contains sections on how to diagram a sentence, but I don’t cover them. Strangely, I’ve had students ask if they could PLEASE diagram some sentences, as they’d done them in grammar school and it was so much fun.