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In the sentence 'John weighed the letter', the letter is the direct object of the predicate weighed.
In the sentence 'The letter was blue', blue is a predicative nominal.

In the sentence 'The letter weighed 2 oz.', what function does 2 oz. have?

  • I wouldn't say it is a predicative nominal, because weighed is not a linking verb.
  • I wouldn't say it is a direct object, because weighed, here, is used in a detransitivized verb: this sentence has a different structure than 'John weighed the letter'.

This problem arises, in my view, because weighs appears in the middle voice here. Hence my question: what is the name for the 'object' of a middle voice?

Examples were taken from R.C. Benton, 2009: Aspect and the Biblical Hebrew, p. 162.

tchrist
  • 134,759
  • As John Lawler says, it's a measure phrase. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 25 '16 at 16:01
  • @EdwinAshworth thanks! I think I didn't find that question because it didn't mention middle voice. –  Sep 25 '16 at 16:02
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    No problem. I have the sort of memory that retains what my wife calls trivia (rather than important things like whose turn it is to wash up, say). I think 'male' describes it. And some of the previous material here certainly takes some finding; question titles can be bemusing. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 25 '16 at 16:07
  • Just for fun, we weighed some different objects and noted the results. the objects included a spade, a lump of lead, a letter and a flange-warbler.

    The spade weighed 12lbs. The lump was 3lbs. The letter was 2oz. The flange-warbler was a boojum.

    How is the description of the weighed letter not grammatically the same as the description of the coloured letter, please?

     – Robbie Goodwin Oct 08 '16 at 20:37
  • @RobbieGoodwin weigh is not a linking verb, so it cannot have a predicative nominal. See the question this is a duplicate of. –  Oct 08 '16 at 21:22
  • Thanks Camil and the question this was a duplicate of didn't specifically address the issue…

    I was trying to look not at "weighed" but at "was".

    Could you address "The letter was 2oz", please?

     – Robbie Goodwin Oct 08 '16 at 21:33
  • @RobbieGoodwin ah, I see, apologies. In that case I would think it is like blue, yes. But I'm in no way an expert. If you want to be sure, consider opening a new question :) –  Oct 08 '16 at 21:48

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