garmmatical role !

ripsi   Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:51 pm GMT
what is the grammatical role of "all" in this sentence?

Italy, France and US are all trying to ..........
guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:13 pm GMT
adverb
Skippy   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:19 pm GMT
Are you sure? Not a noun or pronoun or something?
guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:25 pm GMT
'all' can be used as adj, noun, adv yes, but the way it is used above is adverbial

it can be spaled ("substituted") with 'wholely' or 'completely' or 'in total'

but I do see your reasoning, and you are on the right track, this adverbial use of "all" originated from adj or noun, as in:

They *all* are trying to

or

*All* of them are trying to

but like so many other ur-adjectives and ur-nouns, they end up being employed like adverbs

sad I know :)
ripsi   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:41 pm GMT
Dear guest , you mean "all" is an adverb ,in these two example, as well ?!
"
They *all* are trying to

or

*All* of them are trying to

"
And what do you mean by "ur" ?
ripsi   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:42 pm GMT
by the way! can it's role be "determiner" ?!!
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:55 pm GMT
"ur" is short for "your".
ripsi   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:55 pm GMT
That guest wasn't I, but I can answer your questions here:

They *all* are trying to - is an example of *all* as ajective
*All* of them are trying to - is an example of *all* as noun

"ur" my dictionary says "original, primitive"; I guess it means "old, ancient words"
Mary   Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:56 pm GMT
oh, the last message from "ripsi" was actually from Mary for ripsi; sorry
guest   Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:02 pm GMT
<<"ur" my dictionary says "original, primitive"; I guess it means "old, ancient words" >>

correct
Humble   Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:23 am GMT
Hi,
It's a pronoun used in apposition. Sure as eggs is eggs, because A.S.Hornby gives a similar example: " They were all broken".
I don't know what it is syntactically, though. :((
Guest   Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:42 am GMT
You're supposed to write "rôle", not "role".
Guest   Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:21 pm GMT
<<I don't know what it is syntactically, though. :(( >>

It is a pronoun used appositively as an adverb.
Humble   Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:42 am GMT
No, it's not an adverb.
IMHO syntactically "Italy, France and US ... all" is sort of a cleft subject.

I think the question is not precise. What is "the grammatical role"?
Grammar is the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology, sometimes also phonology and semantics.

If we define a word as part of the sentence, it's the syntactical role; if we define it as part of speech, it's the morphological role.