Do metaphorical agents follow special rules?

Question

While I can easily parse this sentence, something feels grammatically incorrect and I can't figure out what rule would make it right or wrong.

"Fatigue from traveling had him in bed by midnight."

I've tried replacing the words to look at it in other ways, but I still get confused. For example "His mother had him in the car before sunrise." In this case, it sounds like the sentence is missing a verb?

I don't see anything 'wrong' with it but it is an interesting sentence for more than one reason. 'Fatigue [...] put him to bed [...]' I agree would be a bit odd. — Nigel J, Apr 19 '18 at 21:20
I don't see or hear anything unusual about the sentence. But if it does not ring right, then change it. — J. Taylor, Apr 19 '18 at 21:42
Seems straight out of ODO def 6, which includes I soon had the trout in a net’. — Arm the good guys in America, Apr 19 '18 at 22:52
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the matter has nothing to do with grammaticality. — Robusto, Apr 19 '18 at 23:10
I can't use had in that sentence, but I can use saw. Fatigue from traveling saw him in bed by midnight. — Phil Sweet, Apr 19 '18 at 23:24
I've re-read the rules, and did my best to rephrase my question so that it's not "off topic." — Christopher Issac, Apr 20 '18 at 18:06
Close voters, again: English language does include English semantics and pragmatics. — , Apr 20 '18 at 20:11

score 4 · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-20T20:17:19.353

A construction includes a syntactic frame and an associated meaning.

The example seems weird to you because the construction X have [passive S] has a meaning that X caused S to happen indirectly, and usually intentionally: e.g.,

I'll have you thrown out on the streets!

Since fatigue is not an intentional agent, it's a metaphorical use of the construction, which is why it sounds a bit odd at first, but the metaphorical meaning is clear.

Do metaphorical agents follow special rules?

1 Answers1