In Langston Hughes's poem "Dreams," a "broken-winged bird" is a metaphor for friends holding hands. A life without dreams. A person dying at a young age. Achieving dreams through hard work.

The line is a metaphor for:

B. A life without dreams.

Explanation:

Let's take a look at the poem:

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

As we can see above, in the first stanza the author compares life to a broken-winged bird after mentioning the death of dreams. What the author means is that a life without dreams is as purposeless as a bird that cannot fly. Dreams are what makes life worth living, what gives us a sense of purpose. Without them, there is no reason to go on.

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).