Query Details
| Query Subject: |
Grammatical Category of Worth
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| Author: | Karen Stanley | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Syntax
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| Query: |
In the sentence,
''The rainforests are worth preserving.'' an advanced ESL reading textbook calls 'worth' an adjective, as does the Newbury House dictionary (with the example, ''Her dress is worth $100.'') The Collins CoBuild Advanced Dictionary calls it V-I (yes, intransitive verb, which seems a great deal stranger, even after looking at the examples - further explanation of this from list members would be welcome) and gives the examples: He's decided to get a look at the house and see if it might be worth buying. Most things worth having never come easy. A very old Jespersen's ''A Modern English Grammar,'' of the phrase 'worth while' says that 'worth' has evolved into a preposition, and 'while' is its object. I would be interested in opinions about the grammatical category of [worth] in the initial sentence. Karen Stanley http://karen.stanley.people.cpcc.edu Charlotte, North Carolina, USA |
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| LL Issue: | 19.3748 | |
| Date posted: | 07-Dec-2008 | |
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