Good at grammar? What do you call...

mongoose29

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My sentence is: "The boy turned to stone." What is the grammatical term for the portion of the sentence "to stone"?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Sincerely,
A one-time sentence diagramming all-star / current amnesiac
 

Bufty

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Not being into diagramming, I presume it's the predicate.

But - re the sentence in question - do you mean 'The boy turned into stone.'? Or do you mean -as it is written- that the boy turned with the intention to stone somebody or something?
 
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GregFH

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It is a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverb: http://www.softschools.com/examples/grammar/the_adverb_phrase_examples/86/ (See also ironmikezero's link.)

But, at the same time, if you mean it either figuratively, as in "stood motionless", or more literally, as in "turned into stone" or some force petrified him, while it certainly looks like a prepositional phrase, it may not be entirely appropriate to break those two words out from what is a three word idiomatic phrase since the literal meaning of "turned to stone" (without an object) would be something like he turned to face a/the stone. If you add an object, as in he turned to stone him/her, then it become an infinitive.
 

Keithy

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It's difficult to say for sure because stone might have some meaning beyond becoming "stony" or stoning something. For instance:

The wizard gestured, and fragments of elemental magic rose around the boy: fire, water, air, stone, metal, lightning.
"Choose one," commanded the wizard.
The boy turned to stone. "This one calls to me."

That looks like a noun to me, and before anyone says anything, as far as I can tell, the classical elements are not proper nouns.
 

Roxxsmom

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That looks like a noun to me, and before anyone says anything, as far as I can tell, the classical elements are not proper nouns.

Not generally, but they might be treated as such when they're used as specific names for something that's being treated as an entity or category. I've read modern fantasy novels where names of magic schools and so on are capitalized, even if the words themselves wouldn't be under normal circumstances. Sort of like if you had a place or being named "Stone."

But your point is a good one. Context will determine how a sentence is read, as will one's cultural and linguistic experiences and one's expectations regarding genre and so on. This is one problem with asking for grammatical information on an isolated sentence. When I read the sentence in the OP, though, I defaulted to assuming the boy was turned to stone in the sense of being turned into stone by a wizard or something. It may be different in the UK, but in the US "turned to stone" is a pretty common idiomatic expression, one that turns up in songs and so on.

Even used in this way, though, a fantasy reader might assume that the turning to stone is literal, while someone used to reading more realistic fictional genres would assume it's a metaphor for becoming paralyzed or frozen with shock or fear.
 
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Keithy

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How about "The man turned to drink."

It has a generally accepted meaning of becoming a drunk, but why couldn't the man transform into a bottle of vodka?

(this reminds me of a local laser tattoo removal shop: they offered a "massive laser sale" a few months back. What, are they selling massive lasers? I'll have three, being as they're going cheap.)
 

Bufty

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Out-of-context snippets often raise more questions than provide a basis for a single clear answer.
 

Keithy

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How about "The man turned to drink."

It has a generally accepted meaning of becoming a drunk, but why couldn't the man transform into a bottle of vodka?

In a metaphorical sense, if the man drinks enough he could become a (two-legged) bottle of vodka. You'd hear the liquid sloshing around inside him.
 

HSDarke

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hello. May I chime in?

"The boy turned to stone."

This sentence, for me, was interesting, because it in and of itself could mean so many things. Here are a few.

1) for some reason, the boy looked at some type of relationship with stone . . . and that's stone in the broad sense, as opposed to one specific stone.
2) even though the word is not "into," it could still be perceived as physically changing into stone.

that wasn't your question, OP. I was just commenting. I'm sorry. anywho, that was kind of fun. ;)