What Is a Predicate in Grammar

In English grammar, a predicate (PRED-i-kat) is one of the two main parts of a sentence or clause, modifying the subject and including the verb, objects, or phrases governed by the verb. Adjective: predicative. In both grammar and logic, the predicate serves to make an assertion or denial about the subject of the sentence, as in â€Å"Merdine sneezes† and â€Å"George  never smiles.† In the words of Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, who wrote Understanding English Grammar: â€Å"The subject of the sentence is generally what the sentence is about—its topic. The  predicate  is what is said about the subject. The two parts can be thought of as the  topic  and the  comment.† Don’t confuse the term predicate with the traditional grammatical terms predicate nominative (a noun that follows a linking verb) and predicate adjective (an adjective that follows a linking verb). Etymology From the Latin word meaning â€Å"to proclaim† or â€Å"make known.† Examples and Observations Birds sing, dogs  bark, and bees buzz.In B.B. King’s  hands,  the guitar screams, whispers,  laughs, cries, and  preaches.â€Å"We rob banks.†(Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow in â€Å"Bonny and Clyde,† 1967)â€Å"The Grinch  hated Christmas.†(Dr. Seuss,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"How the Grinch Stole Christmas!† Random House, 1957)â€Å"We should take Bikini Bottom and push it somewhere else!†(Patrick in â€Å"Squid on Strike.† â€Å"SpongeBob SquarePants,† 2001)â€Å"Momma was preparing our evening meal, and Uncle Willie leaned on the door sill.†(Maya Angelou,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.† Random House, 1969)â€Å"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.†(Attributed to  Admiral Hyman Rickover,  Eleanor Roosevelt, and others)â€Å"If you build it, he will come.†(Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson in â€Å"Field of Dreams,† 1989)â€Å"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.†(Mark Twain) Subject and Predicate I came. I saw. I conquered.  In each sentence, Julius Caesar showed unity of thought and expressed himself in the most direct way possible. Like Caesar, you should put your faith in the sentence’s bare bones: subject and predicate. ...The predicate, at its core, is a verb that tells what the subject does or is. In Caesar’s statements, the predicates are the single verbs came, saw, and conquered. ... The predicate, in short, is everything that is not the subject. In addition to the verb, it can contain direct objects, indirect objects, and various kinds of phrases. ...†(Constance Hale, â€Å"Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose.† Three Rivers Press, 2001) Predicate as Action â€Å"The predicate typically describes a property of the person or thing referred to by the subject or describes a situation in which this person or thing plays some role. In elementary clauses describing an action, the subject normally indicates the actor, the person or thing performing the action, while the predicate describes the action, as in Kim left and People complained.†(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, â€Å"A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar.† Cambridge University Press, 2006) Placement of Subject and Predicate â€Å"The  conventional placement of subject and predicate in conversation helps with the identification. We expect to find the subject (the who or what a sentence is about) at the beginning of the sentence, and once that is identified, we expect the rest of the sentence to tell what the subject does or is like.†(Thomas P. Klammer, Muriel R. Schulz, and Angela Della Volpe, â€Å"Analyzing English Grammar.† Pearson Education, 2007) Predicates and Arguments â€Å"Current views of grammar hold that, in selecting a predicate, a language user determines possible syntactic structures. Selecting the predicate GIVE obliges one to construct a sentence on the lines GIVE Noun Phrase Noun Phrase (give the dog a bone) or GIVE Noun Phrase to Noun Phrase (give a bone to the dog). The entities that the predicate tells us about are referred to as its arguments. Thus, the sentence Maggie gives the dog a bone has three arguments: Maggie, dog, bone. Sentences are sometimes represented in terms of their underlying abstract predicate/argument structure, using a format in which the predicate appears followed by the arguments in brackets: GIVE (Maggie, dog, bone).†(John Field, Psycholinguistics: â€Å"The Key Concepts.† Routledge, 2004) Predicate Words and Complements â€Å"The relationship between the predicate word, such like DO, SAY, WANT, and SEE, and its  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœcomplements’ like SOMETHING, ONE THING, or SOMEONE is not the same as that between a head and a modifier in an attributive relation, if only because a head can normally occur with or without its attribute, whereas predicates like DO, SAY, WANT, and SEE do require their complements (if they are not . . . understood as elliptical). At the same time, it is clear that it is the element SOMETHING which is dependent on the predicates DO, SAY, and WANT, rather than the other way around, for it is the predicate which determines whether or not a complement is possible, and what the range of possible complements is. For example, SEE combines, universally, with the complements SOMETHING, SOMEONE, and PEOPLE, whereas SAY and DO (and in many languages WANT) combine only with SOMETHING.†(Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka, â€Å"Semantic Primes and Universal Grammar.† â€Å"M eaning and Universal Grammar: Theory and Empirical Findings.† John Benjamins, 2002)

I once believed that poverty was a state of mind that...

I once believed that poverty was a state of mind that resulted in a variety of physical and mental manifestations. While this may be true in some cases, the simple truth is that many people around the world are born in poverty with virtually no exposure to any other way of life. Others may find themselves in its clutches due to personal choices or from circumstances beyond individual control. The same as any other social issue, it is important to understand the cause of poverty; however the complexity of the problem is such that society is bogged down in assumptions and attitudes that have permeated the minds of community members as a whole. Likewise, there appears not to be a clearly defined agreement concerning what poverty actually†¦show more content†¦Life can change in an instant regardless of background, status, or income. In trying to identify what poverty means to me, I realized that I don’t know. I have spent days trying to form a coherent definition of poverty. I have reached deep into my personal experiences and knowledge, and I am still left with only a surface understanding. Thinking of poverty leaves me paralyzed and depressed. The pain of a hungry, sick, or scared child is intolerable, yet I know that it is a reality around the world. Regrettably, like many Americans, at times, I must push the knowledge aside to endure. Sometimes, I just can’t drive down that road; literally and figuratively. So, for self-preservation purposes at this point in time, I can only share what poverty looks like from my perspective. Poverty is hunger that exists when a person has absolutely no idea when or how he or she will acquire the next meal. Poverty is lack of shelter or the knowledge that shelter is short term. Poverty is being cold and not knowing when one will feel warmth again. Poverty is not having access to a shower or clean clothes. Poverty is looking around and knowing that one’s surroundings are a disaster, but not being capable of pulling together enough energy or care to make improvements. Poverty is being sick or injured with no access to healthcare or medication. Poverty is overwhelming debt. Poverty is being a parent and knowing that your children are not getting their needs met, butShow MoreRelatedThe Elizabeth Poor Law824 Words   |  4 PagesElizabeth Poor Laws: Why were they so important in the development of social welfare in North America?: The Elizabeth Poor Law advocated and placed responsibility of the poor to the churches and government. If parishes could not meet the responsibilities, counties were required to assume relief-giving functions. The government became the chief enforcer of poor relief. However, the local parishes fulfilled their welfare responsibilities in several ways. 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Capital Budget Recommendation Guillermo Furniture Free Essays

Capital Budget Recommendation: Guillermo Furniture ACC/543 Monday October 8, 2009 YouKnew Abstract Guillermo Navallez is the owner of a successful furniture and manufacturing company located in Sonora, Mexico. Navallez’s establishment is known for its quality pieces, crafting a variety of chairs and tables from the abundant supply of timber in the area. In the late 1990’s, Navallez competitors became a real threat to the ongoing success of Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company, producing like quality furniture for a fraction of the cost. We will write a custom essay sample on Capital Budget Recommendation: Guillermo Furniture or any similar topic only for you Order Now What is more, the competitors were producing these pieces at an alarming rate, and using high-tech equipment and absolutely no labor costs. Over the years, Navallez noticed that his profit margins shirked as prices decreased and costs increased. Navallez decided to do his own research on some of his competitors and discovered that to keep up, many of the local competitors was either consolidating by merger or acquisition. Navallez, being proud of his accomplishments did not want to industrialize his company and contacted Wells Accounting firm to help him with alternatives to match the competitors. Wells Accounting Firm plan of action is to assist Navallez by helping him understand the difference between the various capital budget techniques, and then providing Navallez a recommendation on the best-fit project to bring Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company back to excellent financial health. Capital Budget Recommendation: Guillermo Furniture Wells accounting firm was contacted by Guillermo Navallez, business owner after realizing that his company faced considerable profit loss with the onset of competitors producing like quality pieces for a fraction of the cost. Wells accounting firm was challenged to help Guillermo Navallez understand the various capital budgeting techniques and to present a recommendation to restore Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company to excellent financial health. Wells accounting firm immediately went to work, employing various budgeting techniques such as the payback technique, break even analysis, and net present value, internal rate of return, and cash flow expected based on a variety of alternatives. Each technique provides essential information for Guillermo Navallez, and helps the firm best determine how to move forward. To best determine which approach would be most beneficial, the firm must first determine Navallez Company’s current financial position. The figures below represent Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company current financial position for previous and current year, respectively. TOTAL ASSETS $1,350,627 USD $1,356,534 USD According to Guillermo Navallez, his company produces two grades of products to service a wide-range of customer: Mid-Grade, and High-End. Navallez believes that his prices are reasonable. The first capital budgeting technique, the payback technique, or the cash payback technique is used to identify time periods needed to recover the cost of capital investments from the net annual cash flow produced by the investment. For example if Navallez decides to purchase equipment and continue manufacturing High-End products at faster rates, employing less human capital also deciding to purchase as opposed to leasing the new equipment, we will calculate his payback as following: Payback Technique Initial Investment1,200,000. 00 Estimated Useful Life10Years Estimated Salvage0 Estimated Annual Cash flows Cash Inflow from Customer $ 217,630. 33 Cash outflow for Operating $ 77,298. 28 Net Annual Cash Flow $ 140,332. 05 Cash Payback Period $ 8. 55 The payback period is associated with the useful life of the equipment (asset). In this case the payback period is unacceptable seeing that the period is longer than 60% of the life of the equipment (asset), yielding 86%. Another technique is the break even analysis. This technique helps the firm understand the lower ranges of profit where margins are concerned. The firm will be able to determine when Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company will begin to make a profit after all expenses are considered. For example, at current Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company produces the following: Break even analysis makes the following assumptions: 1. Fixed costs are constant 2. Quantity of goods are constant per output 3. Variable cost are constant per output unit Because Break even is a variation of payback technique, the firm is able to further determine the monthly current or projected sales before Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company yields a profit. Net present value is another technique taken into consideration. This technique uses time value of money, and determines the difference between costs and market values of projects. NPV : Investment (150% of book value of assets) $(2,023,244. 07) Year 1 after tax cash flow $ 362,496. 81 Year 2 after tax cash flow $ 362,496. 81 Year 3 after tax cash flow $ 362,496. 81 Year 4 after tax cash flow $ 362,496. 81 Year 5 after tax cash flow $ 362,496. 81 When the net present value of the Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company net present value is a positive number, the general rule is to approve the project because this means that the project will add value to the company. The intent of reviewing these techniques is to determine which project will yield positive profits for the company and how much profit can be expected. Similar to net present value is the internal rate of return, which is used to measure an acceptable investment opportunity. The internal rate of return is equivalent to the net present value rate of zero for an investment. When looking at a variety of alternatives, the firm determined that Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company could be profitable using a variety of alternatives, thus the recommendation. Wells Accounting Firm determined that Guillermo’s Furniture and Manufacturing Company should market and push the flame retardant product, while also coordinating the company’s existing distributor network and essentially becoming a representative for the other manufacturer. Reference(s): Edmonds, T. P. et al. (2007). Fundamental financial managerial accounting concepts. New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved from the University of Phoenix eBook Collection. Fast4Cast. (2007). Retrieved from http://fast4cast. com/break-even-calculator. aspx How to cite Capital Budget Recommendation: Guillermo Furniture, Papers