"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:19:07 +0100, "Donal" said:

The word "cheaply" is qualifying the word "hold". "Hold" is a verb.
Therefore "cheaply" is an adverb.

Now, Dave. The word "so" before the word "cheaply" makes a slight
change
to its gramatical status. Are you capable of explaining it to us?

Thank God we had Jefferson rather than Donal writing the Declaration of
Independence. Otherwise it would have come out reading "We hold these
truths
to be self-evidently."

Dear me!
I notice that you have snipped your own example.
"How shameful that
the commission's attack dogs hold their sacrifices so cheaply."





The correct word in the Declaration is, as Jefferson wrote,
"self-evident."
And the correct word in the Post would have been "cheap." Why? Because of
the words "to be."

The words "to be" do **NOT** appear in your quotation.


"Be" in its variations (is, are, etc.) is a reflexive
verb.

Perhaps! However, the word "Be" didn't appear in your quatation either.


It's followed by either a noun (or pronoun)

It wasn't followed by anything at all. "Be" DIDN'T APPEAR in your
quotation.


or an adjective referring
in either case back to the subject of the sentence or clause. E.g. "I am
cold."

The verb "To be" did *NOT* appear in your original post.

In the case of the Post's line, the words "to be" are there, but
silently--they're understood.

Bwahahahaha! You mean that they were NOT there, but you *thought* that
they were?

Thus ""How shameful that the commission's
attack dogs hold their sacrifices" [to be] "so" _cheap_. "Cheap" refers
back
via the reflexive "hold [to be]" to the noun "sacrifices," not to the verb
"hold."

You are a complete idiot! The words "to be" weren't there. You know as
little about language as you do about sailing.



Regards


Donal
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