Hah. Point 'em at Chip Delany's The Jewel-Hinged Jaw if you can find a copy. Chip does just that sort of analysis of the first sentence in Heinlein's Beyond This Horizon. You can just see the typical academic following Dr Delaney through the first two paragraphs of the deconstruction (I'm paraphrasing, mind, it's been twenty years since I've seen a copy):
"The" ... okay, definite article indicating that it is this object in front of us rather than some other object elsewhere, mumble, mumble ...
"The door" ... Right, obviously this is an object of the class door, since it's the subject of the sentence we're going to see it open or perhaps shut in some manner, mumble, mumble, this will be on the test, I'm so sure ...
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-05-14 05:09 am (UTC)"The" ... okay, definite article indicating that it is this object in front of us rather than some other object elsewhere, mumble, mumble ...
"The door" ... Right, obviously this is an object of the class door, since it's the subject of the sentence we're going to see it open or perhaps shut in some manner, mumble, mumble, this will be on the test, I'm so sure ...
"The door dilated." WTF???