There is something I am aware of.
There – subject
is – linking verb
something – predicate nominative
And here is where I get a little confused. Is this part a subordinate clause?
I – subordinate clause subject?
am – subordinate clause linking verb?
aware – subordinate clause predicate adjective or nominative?
of – preposition
And here is where I get really confused.
(which) – understood relative pronoun, object of the preposition "of", whose antecedent is “something”?
Most importantly, as Dr. Peikoff explains, this little sentence expresses the three basic axioms of Objectivism.
There is (existence)
something (identity)
I am aware of (consciousness).
I don’t know about you, but I think its proper diagram would make one bitchin’ t-shirt. Any grammatical help in this effort would be greatly appreciated.
Update: added attribution to OPAR which at the time I wrote this seemed obvious to me. Of course, you weren't all reading the book at the same time as me - or were you? Nor could you possibly know that this is entirely too clever for me to come up with on my own - or could you? In any case, I hope the 2.1 possible readers of this post will be able to mentally integrate this new information and I apologize to Dr. Peikoff for my unattributed use of his ideas.
Comments
However, lately I've been struggling to improve the word order of my sentences. So, in this one, I definitely would have said, "There is something of which I am aware."
I would say it this way because everybody knows that a preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with. :)
By the way, you can tell Dr. Peikoff that his sentence would read better if it didn't end with a preposition (OPAR pg. 7).
I think it would certainly be easier to diagram. I've also decided that "aware" is a predicate adjective. But that's as far as I got in the confusing bit.
Now that I think about it, apparently I did not make it clear that it was from OPAR. I will correct that now.
And there is the extent of my knowledge of grammer! And it's not even my knowledge. (How do you like all those sentences beginning with conjunctions?)
Still, are you saying that "something" is the object of the preposition, or that "which", which is missing or possibly understood, is truly missing or possibly understood as the object of the preposition "of"? I must know before I get a million printed up.
Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog is a really funny book about diagramming and I've never made it through all the exercises of Rex Barks. Perhaps I should dig that out rather than searching for answers on the internet.
If I figure it out, I'll at least comment here if not update the post (including a new diagram).
And why is "there" never a subject?