FI grammar article Part 2-5 [AM]

[Elliot]

8. “I like reading non-fiction books out of order.”

@ActiveMind

I have “out” as an adverb while Fire and Eternity has “out of order” as a prepositional phrase.

@Fire

Prepositional phrase: ‘out of order’. The phrase functions as an adverb modifying ‘reading’. The preposition is ‘out of’ and it governs the noun ‘order’.

@Eternity

out of order is a prepositional phrase modifying reading

I was unsure whether you could have two prepositions after each other like “out of” (as prepositions). I checked New Ox which said this sentence uses “out” as an adverb:

they lived eight miles out of town

I tried making a tree for this sentence, but can’t make it make sense.

• lived
  • they
  • out
    • of
      • town
    • miles
      • eight

It doesn’t make sense that “miles” modifies the adverb “out”. It doesn’t make sense to have “miles” be the object of “lived” (“they lived eight miles”).

Under “out”, New Oxford has “out of” as a listed phrase with 3 definitions. When dealing with phrases you can put them as a single node like “Elliot Temple”. I’m not saying it’s a phrase here, but it being a phrase is one of the options to consider. Sometimes a multi-word sequence is a basic English element that functions basically like a single word with its own definition.

One of the “out of” definitions is:

2 from among (a number): nine times out of ten.

So it can work with numbers.

However, I considered this:

They lived.

Works ok.

They lived away.

Works ok.

They lived miles away.

Works ok.

They lived miles.

Not ok.

Therefore, I don’t think “miles” is the object of “lived”.

So I think (eight) “miles” is telling us how far out or away. So it’s a modifier. This probably involves some sort of special case or implied/omitted words. So I agree with your tree.

PS word usage - Use of 'out' to indicate a particular distance from somewhere - English Language Learners Stack Exchange

EDIT Alternatively, the “miles” might be telling us about where they lived, and modify “lived”. Again this requires a special case or implied/omitted words.