TransWikia.com

Is it possible to have a "noun or noun phrase" as object/subject complement in "Depictive or Resultative" construction?

English Language & Usage Asked on November 29, 2020

A sentence containing ditransitive verb can have two objects.
In the ditransitive verbs a subcategory, as it is described in some of the articles, usually called "Attributive ditransitive verbs" segregates these verbs in two.
Attributive ditransitive verbs include name, call, consider among others.
But in grammatical terms attributive ditransitive verbs are not ditransitive as they have only one object.

"They called me a liar"
Here "a liar" is the object complement, not direct object.

In most of the articles I’ve read about object complements the sentences they have instantiated with are the ones including an attributive ditransitive verb.

The other type of sentence is Secondary predicate Construction.
As described in wikipedia there are two types of secondary predicate construction

  1. Depictive
  2. Resultative

And they say it’s mostly "Adjectival" in construction.

For example

  1. The cup arrived broken
    (Broken is the resultative secondary predicate)

  2. They shot him Dead (Resultative secondary predicate over object)

  3. I only eat carrots raw (Depictive secondary predicate over object)

  4. Sam ate fish hot. (Depictive secondary predicate over object)

And reading this article amI’ve found an example where they used a "Noun phrase" as complement in the resultative secondary predicate construction.
The sentence goes like this

  1. Sue finished the project a complete wreck. ( "a complete wreck" here used as the complement of object "Project")

In almost every article about object complements on internet, including the trustable wikipedia, they say that both "Noun phrases" and "Adjective phrases" are used as object complements. And at the same time they give "Attributive ditransitive construction" as examples of "noun" as object complement, whereas giving examples of "Resultative and Depictive construction" as examples of "adjective" as object complement.

Is it possible to have a "noun or noun phrase" as object/subject complement in "Depictive or Resultative" construction?

For example

  1. Winter froze the lake an ice block. ("An ice block" is complement of object "Lake")

  2. I pounded the metal a rectangular sheet. ( "a rectangular sheet" is complement of object metal)

  3. He drank the soup a dead man. ( "a dead man" is complement of the subject "he")

  4. She pulled the luggage an elephant. ( "Elephant" is complement of object "luggage")

Are these constructions legit from linguistic perspective?

Also, in the constructions without object it is still possible to use resultative and Depictive constructions; can we still construct a sentence in the same vein?

For example

  1. The lake froze an ice block. ("an ice block" is the complement of subject "the lake")

Please help.

UPDATE:

Please Refer to these articles

  1. Resultative
  2. Secondary Predicate

The construction with "adjective" immediately after object is grammatically correct even though to my eyes they sound a bit weird. It’s justified by the construction called "Resultative" in most of the places and at some other places "depictive".
Together they are called "Secondary predicate" as they are not part of the main predicate. It sparked a doubt in me when I read that article I have included in the question. If they consider "Attributive ditransitive" construction an example of object complement (The second "noun" in the construction is obviously COMPLEMENT) then why not this very example of noun being the complement not considered one? (Depictive and Resultative)

The only example I’ve seen of it is from the Berkeley article

Sue finished the project a complete wreck. ( Here "a complete wreck" is without a doubt a noun phrase and "Complement" to the subject or object)

If i write "Sue finished the project tired" or "Sue finished the project nearly incomplete", it is justified according to the above articles.

But what if i change these adjectives to nouns? (As it is written in the Berkeley article)

  1. Sue finished the project an insane woman.
  2. Sue finished the project a boring mess.
    (Remember to read these sentences from the Depictive/resultative POV, otherwise they may sound awkward.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditransitive_verb (Attributive ditransitive close to the end)

2 Answers

"Sue finished the project a complete wreck."

This is highly artificial to the point I wouldn't immediately understand it if someone said it to me in conversation. At first glance it is not even clear whether Sue is a wreck or the project is a wreck. On thinking about it, I believe the author intends that Sue is the wreck. In real life no-one would utter this as a standalone statement. Here's a possible version:

"Sue's project was so all-consuming that she finished it a wreck." However even that sounds unnatural.


Your other examples make no sense.

He drank the soup a dead man. Dead people don't drink soup.

She pulled the luggage an elephant. If this means anything at all in English, it means that she became an elephant in order to be strong enough to pull the luggage.

The lake froze an ice block. I could understand "The lake froze solid" or even "The lake froze into a solid block of ice" however it is impossible for a lake to freeze an ice block because an ice block is already frozen.

Answered by chasly - supports Monica on November 29, 2020

He drank the soup a dead man.

This is valid and follows the same form as “He arrived a beggar and left a rich man; He arrived Wednesday and left Friday” etc.

"A dead man/beggar/rich man/ Wednesday and Friday " are complements of the whole clause: they are adverbial free-modifiers of the whole clause.

This may be clearer when the adverbial is fronting:

“A beggar he arrived and a rich man he left.

"Wednesday he arrived and Friday he left.”

The adverbial is created from an unspoken preposition + NP.

He drank the soup in the state of being a man who already knew (or "who was unaware") that he was about to die.

“He arrived as a beggar and left as a rich man"

"He arrived on Wednesday and left on Friday” etc.

Thus

  1. Sue finished the project as a complete wreck.

Answered by Greybeard on November 29, 2020

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP