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What kind of a term is 'shot dead'?

"He was shot dead." Is 'dead' an adverb here?

"He shot Sam dead." This is like a phrasal verb, but 'dead' isn't a preposition or particle.

Is 'shot dead' some weird kind of compound verb, or is 'dead' an exotic adverb, or is something else going on?

Dunsanist
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  • I would argue that we need more context, otherwise we'd need to just take it literally. – Inazuma May 30 '16 at 12:46
  • I think it's of the same grammatical construction as "found alive". That is, dead is an adjective since it modifies shot. – Lawrence May 30 '16 at 13:14
  • "Found" and "shot" are both verbs, so any modifiers must be adverbs. – Dunsanist May 30 '16 at 13:48
  • Related: Using term “shot dead” – TrevorD May 30 '16 at 14:03
  • Your mistake is believing that dead is “modifying” shot. It isn’t. It’s an adjective describing the subject. – tchrist May 30 '16 at 17:08
  • The subject is 'he'. Since when can an adjective come so far after the word it modifies? – Dunsanist May 31 '16 at 05:28
  • 'He' is the subject. Are you saying 'dead' is an adjective to 'he'? I think you mean 'dead' is an adjective to 'Sam'--the Direct Object. – Dunsanist Jun 01 '16 at 13:05
  • This question has been repeated as woke up tired. Same thing. – Lambie Jun 01 '16 at 22:21
  • Possible duplicate of Can object complements make any difference to sentences? – MetaEd Jun 16 '16 at 22:39
  • Look at the John Lawler answer in the link I just posted. Also there is a similar comment by John at Language Log: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2716#comment-89200 – MetaEd Jun 16 '16 at 22:41
  • @MετάEd , the reference seems to imply a process whereby meaning is shoehorned into a pattern or structure. But isn't that, to some extent, how all syntax works? "I am male", "I am tired"--very different meaning (Spanish would use two different 'to be' verbs) but same surface structure. Does trad grammar have a name for the 'conspiracy' structure Green talks of? – Dunsanist Jun 18 '16 at 11:00
  • I've also just realised this: that if we said "He shot dead Sam", with 'dead' in the usual place for an adjective, the meaning would change completely. So if 'dead' modifies 'Sam', putting it after Sam makes it clear that it is a result of the verb. If we call 'dead' an adverb, however, how come it can't move as adverbs normally can--'dead he shot Sam', 'he dead shot Sam'? The word order is crucial here. – Dunsanist Jun 18 '16 at 11:11

2 Answers2

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English has a grammatical structure for describing the condition(s) that can occur to a person, animal or thing. It is a passive construction (subject + passive: be + adverb) where an adverb is appended after the action verb the subject has experienced or been subjected to. They all function like: He was shot dead. Here are some examples I've generated or recalled:

He was sprung loose.

He was eaten alive.

He was beaten silly.

She was carried high.

They were charmed fast.

The diamond was made fast.

We are tickled pink. [my favourite]

They are punched out cold.

He is left cold.

The banner was hoisted aloft

And that old favorite: He was scared shitless

You are left speechless.

They were raised stupid.

It can be argued that what appears to be an adjective is actually an adverb because in the examples those qualifiers answer the question: HOW was X done to the subject? It's interesting to note that many of these are not situations one would want to find oneself in....ain't English great? :) I am struck dumb by it.

Lambie
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  • I partly agree, but I disagree that there is anything adverbial about them. It is not the verb that they modify, but the (resulting state of the) subject. The dialogue "How did you shoot him? Dead." is incoherent. – Colin Fine May 30 '16 at 15:22
  • Well, since all the other examples work the same way, one can see that the structure is in fact adverbial and not adjectival. How do you suppose I came to it? How was he shot? Dead. Works perfectly for me. In fact, it would make a great script line. I did say in my explanation that the adverb describes the state of the person after the action. That state then is an adjective. But it functions adverbially: he was shot cold. – Lambie May 30 '16 at 16:29
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    I think just the reverse. Since all the other examples work the same way, one can see that the structure is in fact adjectival. – Colin Fine May 30 '16 at 17:40
  • Whatevah, as they say in my neck of the woods. :) – Lambie May 30 '16 at 18:00
  • Firstly, is there a name for this structure? And secondly, you haven't addressed the fact that there are active forms for all of these: "He shot him dead." "You scared me shitless." (But not, perhaps, "You tickled me pink.") Note that they look a bit like phrasal verbs, with the pronoun coming in the middle. Is this another kind of phrasal verb, with any old word acting as the particle? – Dunsanist May 31 '16 at 05:33
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    Not only do active forms exist for these examples, they are used as well. Is there any specific reason to approach these as passive by default? – oerkelens May 31 '16 at 10:13
  • @Dunsanist No, there is not a name for this structure. Why should I address the issue of active forms? I was trying to show that English is filled with this structure, as given in my example. These are not phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs have prepositions. And I have defined how it functions based on the examples. passive action verb + adjective that functions as an adverb to denote a condition or state of the subject (usually) of the sentence. – Lambie Jun 01 '16 at 22:55
  • This is just the passive form of an object complement. The complement is adverbial, but I wouldn't call 'dead, silly, wounded or running' adverbs. There is an elision happening, of a subordinate linking verb: [, to be[come]]; "He was shot [, to become] | [, becoming] dead". "She shot him [, making him become] dead". – AmI Jun 07 '16 at 21:37
  • No, there is no subordinate linking anything. The structure is always used to describe a condition or state produced by the action verb: They were struck dumb. They were bashed silly. – Lambie Jun 08 '16 at 16:28
  • See the John Lawler links in comments on the question. – MetaEd Jun 16 '16 at 22:42
  • @ MετάEd Those comments cited in the link are not related to this structure. That is a different issue. Action verb + adjective functioning adverbially (answering a how question) to describe a state or condition of the subject of the sentence. – Lambie Jun 17 '16 at 16:10
  • @Lambie , if English is filled with this structure, why isn't there a name for it? What do we pay Grammarians at universities to do if they can't even come up with a name for a common structure? I find it hard to believe that this structure hasn't been analysed and named in trad Grammar. And I still maintain that 'I woke up tired' is a completely different structure, since it has no object, and is not passive--therefore 'woke up' has to be intransitive. – Dunsanist Jun 18 '16 at 11:20
  • I can't answer that. Ask them, not me. – Lambie Jun 20 '16 at 18:06
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This is just like "His design improvement made the car fast", with "fast" modifying "car".

An instructive contrast is "He drove the car fast", in which "fast" is an adverb modifying "drive".

I don't think "dead" can be used to modify a verb, though it can be used as a "degree adverb" modifying an adjective, eg, "dead tired"

DCDuring
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  • "Made" is a special kind of verb, it's a 'being' or 'becoming' word. Are you saying 'shot' as a verb can work like a 'becoming' word? – Dunsanist May 30 '16 at 13:50
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    @Dunsanist A lot of verbs can do this. Adjectives can be used in this way, and they commonly are. – oerkelens May 30 '16 at 13:54
  • Can you give examples? – Dunsanist May 30 '16 at 14:37
  • @Dunsanist: there are lots of verbs which only work as becoming words with a few adjectives. You can paint a house red, but you can't paint a picture pretty. – Peter Shor May 30 '16 at 14:39
  • Okay, DCDuring, I think you've got it right. "She made him sick", "She shot him dead." 'Made' is a causative verb (I suspect 'causative' means different things in different grammar systems). 'Shot' here is acting like a causative verb. "She made him dead", "She shot him dead". And I think Lambie's examples all work the same way. So 'dead' is indeed an adjective. The interesting point is that these idioms vastly increase the number of verbs that can be causative--'shot', painted', even 'tickled'. I'm not sure about 'found alive', though. I'm going to ask a separate question about that. – Dunsanist Jun 01 '16 at 13:20
  • @Dunsanist: make (and take, set, have, get, and other 'light verbs') are special in that they need some kind of complement, either adjective or noun, to complete their meaning in all but the must literal, basic cases, or they are part of 'phrasal verbs'. I have a lot of trouble with the semantic, rather than syntactic, categories of verbs. – DCDuring Jun 02 '16 at 14:52