[MD] Food for Thought

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[SA]
Arlo, since your a language person, what is a predicate?  I was never very good
with grammar, my writing would go all over the place and I had many tell me I
didn't follow certain writing rules.

[Arlo]
Oh God, _not_ grammar. It has its place, but I have little interest in it. Like
all those "rules" of writing Pirsig talked about. 

[SA]
I was always more concerned with just getting the point across, even if it meant
(means) making up words.  I still make words up at times.

[Arlo]
Language is about nothing BUT negotiated meaning. Making words up is the way
language expands. Microsoft Word hates me for that same reason. 

[SA]
For instance, ever notice the English language doesn't have certain words be
verbs, yet, I have come across moments in my writing where nouns needed to be
verbs.

[Arlo]
Well, we can now "parent" our children. We couldn't do that years ago. Richard
Lederer wrote about "needed words" in his "Miracle of Language" (I'll try to
post some of it). And, of course, don't forget Sniglets! 

[SA]
The emphasis of this post though is what is a predicate?  

[Arlo]
A sentance contains two parts, the subject and the predicate. The predicate
tells you about the subject. "SA's house is nice". "SA's house" is the subject,
"is nice" is the predicate. Basically, remove the subject (or subjective
clause) and everything that is left is the predicate. (For point of
clarification, the predicate includes the verb).