Hazard Warning Lights

This is  a light used to warn of a hazard.

 The structure that supports its recognition is

usedwarn.png (93429 bytes)

 A group of things is used to warn a person of a hazard. LightNoun is in the group, so “warning lights” is resolved as a “light used to warn”.

 The third parameter (the second object) of ToWarn is protected – it is only accessible through a preposition, as

     He warned John of the danger.

 Both the first and second objects are used to evaluate “hazard warning”.

 Reversing Lights

     Reversing lights are fitted to the vehicle.

     Picking winners is fun.

 The present participle at the start of a sentence can either be the subject of a clause, or an adjectival use. We need modelling to tell us which is which. We have lights used for reversing, so this becomes an adjectival use.

reversinglight.png (87831 bytes)

 “Picking” becomes the subject of the “is”, with its object being “winners” – people can pick people.

The sentence structure can be more complicated -

Reversing lights and an audible warning system shall be fitted to the vehicle.

 The “and” shields the initial phrase from the verb, preventing culling of the verb form of "lights".

 This could be

   Participial Noun  - “picking winners”

 Noun Verb – “Fishing stinks and...”

 Adjective Noun                                                           Verb

 We have to wait until we can see all the structure, so we build a structure on top of the interim symbol that joins together all the necessary elements. When we can see the clause verb, we can tell whether “lights” can be “fitted”

partsub1.png (75686 bytes)

We check the alternatives against semantic modelling, change the lower level symbols and remove the check structure, resulting in

partsub2.png (81374 bytes)

We eliminated the other possibilities when there was sufficient information to do so, creating a SubjectNounPhrase from “Reversing lights”.