How much is it worth?

[anhnha]

I am wondering how would you parse the sentence "How much is it worth".
For the sake of anylisis, I rewrote it as follows:

It is worth how much.

It: subject
is: linking verb
worth: preposition
much: pronoun
how: ???
Is my analysis correct?
Could you tell me your opinion?

 

[BobK]

'How much' is an adverb phrase. It might as well be one word (though it isn't: howmuch). ;-)

b

 

[TheParser]

Hello, Anhnha:

You are right: for the sake of simplicity, many books tell us to parse "worth" as a preposition.

"It is worth ten dollars." (The noun phrase "ten dollars" is the object of the so-called preposition "worth.")

*****

But many books say that "worth" is actually an adjective.

A very strange adjective, indeed, for it takes an object.

IF we accept the traditional view that "worth" is an adjective, then maybe we can parse your sentence as:

It = subject.
is = linking verb.
worth = adjective (that refers to "it").
much = adverb that modifies the adjective "worth."
how = adverb that modifies the adverb "much."

James: That is a beautiful vase. I think that it must be worth very much.
Mona: Yes, it is.
James: You say that is worth very much. Can you tell me exactly how much it is worth?
Mona: No.




James

 

[anhnha]

Thank you very much, BobK and James.

Actually, I prefer to classify "worth" as a preposition. I just found two interesting discussions about this problem but I need some time to digest them.
Here are the links to discussions:
1. http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-3858.html
2. https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/118106-Is-quot-worth-quot-a-preposition