Action Noun . Doubt from the Strategy guide's explanation

[trepechi]

Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is a CONDEMNATION of racial injustice and a CALL for nonviolent resistance to that injustice.


How is "Dr King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"" an Action noun phrase.

The explanation in the strategy guide says that both "Condemnation of racial injustice" and "Dr King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"" are Action Noun Phrases .

I get why Condemnation ... is an Action Noun
Please help me out

[tim]

i wouldn't consider it an action noun. the more important question though is why it matters. don't worry so much about such specific categories; it's more important to be able to recognize simple parts of speech and make sure they are functioning appropriately in the sentences..

[trepechi]

Tim
Thanks for taking out time to go through my question.

The trouble is how do I know whether the two are parallel.

If I go by "rules" I have a hard time, if I go by my ear I make a lot of errors.

Can you tell me how these two - Condemnation and Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"


GMAT's not so easy I guess.

[tim]

"condemnation" and "call" are both nouns, so they are parallel. when looking to see whether things are parallel, you mainly need to ask yourself if they are the same part of speech..

[trepechi]

how about the 2 elements on either side of the linking verb "is"

Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is a CONDEMNATION.


I shouldve made that clear in the first post itself.

[tim]

that's not parallelism..

[trepechi]

Then how is this considered parallel ?

the bouquet of flowers was a gift of love ?

I find it strikingly similar to

Dr King's "XYZ" is a condemnation

[Willy]

Then how is this considered parallel ?

the bouquet of flowers was a gift of love ?

I find it strikingly similar to

Dr King's "XYZ" is a condemnation

'bouquet' and 'gift' both are noun so both are parallel.

though I am not sure about following

Dr King's "XYZ" is a condemnation

but I think in this sentence we are trying to make possessive noun (Dr King's "XYZ") parallel to noun (condemnation). Is this the issue with this sentence?

Am I right? Experts please.

[tim]

this whole discussion is irrelevant. "is" or any of its other forms is not a parallel marker. so to ask yourself whether things on both sides of "is" are parallel means you are wasting time dealing with a grammar rule that is not applicable. one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself is to recognize the signals that indicate you are dealing with a particular grammar rule so you can analyze the sentences efficiently..

[Willy]

this whole discussion is irrelevant. "is" or any of its other forms is not a parallel marker. so to ask yourself whether things on both sides of "is" are parallel means you are wasting time dealing with a grammar rule that is not applicable. one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself is to recognize the signals that indicate you are dealing with a particular grammar rule so you can analyze the sentences efficiently..

Thank you Sir, I missed that in the flow. :)
Thank you.

[tim]

:)

[trepechi]

this whole discussion is irrelevant. "is" or any of its other forms is not a parallel marker. so to ask yourself whether things on both sides of "is" are parallel means you are wasting time dealing with a grammar rule that is not applicable. one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself is to recognize the signals that indicate you are dealing with a particular grammar rule so you can analyze the sentences efficiently..

Tim , I think I need to point you to the relevant section in the Strategy guide so you know what I am refferring to.

Here's text from the Strategy Guide - Copied
Strategy guide 4 Pg. 57

"A more subtle form of parallelism involves Linking Verbs."

"When you use a linking
you have to make the subject and the object parallel"

"The most common linking verb is naturally the verb to be"

And as far as I know "is" is a form of "to be"

Not sure why you think the discussion is irrelevant.

[trepechi]

Anyone else other than Tim who can answer this ?

[tim]

"is" is not the type of parallel marker that requires the two sides to be the same part of speech. so in other words, it is a completely different thing, which means that the rules about being structurally parallel are indeed irrelevant here. consider this (grammatically correct) sentence: "the GMAT is awesome". "GMAT" is a noun, but "awesome" is an adjective. this is NOT acceptable under the normal paradigm of parallelism, where there must be structural similarity, but it DOESN'T MATTER here, because "is" is not a parallel marker..