Consider the underlined chunk in the following sentence: ‘The wind carried a whisper of blue flames’.

Which of the following options correctly applies the Sentence Fragment Test to the chunk [a whisper of blue flames]?

Question

Consider the underlined chunk in the following sentence: ‘The wind carried a whisper of blue flames’.

Which of the following options correctly applies the Sentence Fragment Test to the chunk [a whisper of blue flames]?

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

A correct application of the Sentence Fragment Test produces a grammatical question whose answer is exactly the chunk: "A whisper of blue flames."

1. Relevant concepts
- Sentence Fragment Test: take the chunk and see whether it can serve as a complete answer to a direct question (usually a wh-question) about the sentence. If it can, the chunk is an independent constituent (here, a noun phrase).
- Constituents: Determiner + noun + complement (a whisper [head noun] + of blue flames [prepositional complement]) forms a grammatical noun phrase.

2. Step-by-step reasoning
- Identify what role the chunk plays in the sentence: The wind (subject) carried (verb) [a whisper of blue flames] (object).
- Choose an appropriate wh-question for the object: "What did the wind carry?"
- Supply the chunk as the answer: "A whisper of blue flames."

3. Intermediate steps shown
- Original: The wind carried a whisper of blue flames.
- Question formed: What did the wind carry?
- Answer (chunk): A whisper of blue flames.
- The answer is grammatically complete: determiner (a) + noun (whisper) + PP complement (of blue flames).

4. Why the correct answer is correct
- The chunk stands alone as a grammatical response to the wh-question, which confirms it is a constituent and not a fragment. It preserves the full meaning and structure; nothing essential is omitted, so the test is successful.

5. Why the other options are incorrect
- Option 1 ("The wind carried which blue flames?") uses "which" awkwardly and imposes a choice among blue flames rather than asking for the object; it’s unnatural and not the standard wh-form for the direct object.
- Option 2 ("What blue flames did the wind carry?") presupposes "blue flames" and asks for specification of flames, but the chunk includes "a whisper of" as the head, so this question mismatches the constituent tested.
- Option 4 ("What did the wind carry? *[A whisper of blue].") is incomplete—the answer omits the noun "flames," producing an ungrammatical or semantically incomplete fragment.

6. Conclusion
The correct application is "Q: What did the wind carry? A: [A whisper of blue flames]." This matches the provided answer.

Consider the underlined chunk in the following sentence: ‘The wind carried a whisper of blue flames’. Which of the following options correctly applies the Sentence Fragment Test to the chunk [a whisper of blue flames]?Single choice

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