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What is the last thing you ordered takeout?
What part of speech is takeout in this sentence and how does it figure into the rest of the sentence grammatically? I can't really make proper sense of this sentence.
Answer
What is the last thing you ordered takeout?
In this sentence, takeout is a reduced form of the relative clause that is takeout. The relative clause modifies thing.
In its unreduced form, the relative clause is used as follows:
What is the last thing that is takeout you ordered.
You can move the relative clause to the end of the sentence to highlight it:
What is the last thing you ordered that is takeout?
You can reduce the relative clause by removing both that and the verb to be:
Thus:
Whst is the last thing you ordered (that is) takeout?
Which equals:
What is the last thing you ordered takeout?
Note: you can also reduce the relative clause in its original position to get:
What is the last thing (that is) takeout you ordered?
Or:
What is the last thing takeout you ordered?
The above sentence is grammatical, but not necessarily idiomatic.
To get the idiomatic usage, reverse the order of thing and takeout:
What is the last takeout thing you ordered?
Takeout cannot be an adverb. It does not describe in what manner the person ordered.
To show this, we use a word that can only be used as an adjective, spicy and a word that can only be an adverb, abruptly.
As an adjective, the following sentences work in the same manner that the sentences with takeout work:
What is the last thing that is spicy you ordered?
What is the last thing you ordered that is spicy?
What is the last thing you ordered (that is) spicy?
What is the last thing you ordered spicy?
Spicy can only be an adjective, so it cannot modify ordered.
As with takeout, you can also reduce the relative clause in the original position:
What is the last thing spicy you ordered?
Which is equivalent to
What is the last spicy thing you ordered?
As mentioned, spicy is only an adjective, so you canot use it as an adverb. The following two sentences are not acceptable, because in them spicy fails as an adverb:
*What is the last thing you spicy ordered?
*What is the last thing you ordered spicy (adv)?
Now, a word that functions only as an adverb:
Abrubtly can only be used as an adverb.
So, you can have the following, with abruptly as an adverb modifying ordered:
What is the last thing you ordered abruptly?
However, the following does not work, because abruptly can not function as an adjective:
*What is the last thing you ordered that is abruptly?
The following also does not work:
*What is the last thing (that is) abruptly you ordered?
Nor does:
*What is the last abruptly thing you ordered?
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There will be sentences in which the modifier could function either as an adjective or an adverb:
As an adjective:
What is the last soup you ate cold?
What is the last soup you ate that was cold? What is the last soup that was cold you ate?
(What is the last cold soup you ate?)
As an advervb:
What is the last soup you ate cold?
The above can mean either
What is the last soup you ate while you were cold?
Or:
What is the last soup you ate in a cold manner? (cold = indifferently)
(In the above, cold is a dialectal version of standard English coldly.)
In the following, is damaged an adverb or adjective:
What is the last DVD you received damaged?
According to the very first construction, it functions as an adjective:
What is the last DVD you received (that was) damaged?
But it is arguable whether damaged can be an adverb here. In some dialects, it could:
What is the last DVD you received while you were damaged (mentally damaged, for example)?
But
What is the last thing you ordered takeout?
cannot be construed to mean takeout is an adverb.
The following do not work:
*What is the last thing you ordered while you were takeout?
*What is the last thing you ordered in a takeout manner?
We are left with
What is the last thing you ordered takeout?
With takeout functioning as an adjective in a reduced relative clause, in the same manner as:
What is the last thing you ordered to go?
What is the last thing you ordered (that is) to go?
What is the last thing (that is) to go you ordered?
What is the last "to go" thing you ordered?
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