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Am I correct in saying that the verb 'looked' is intransitive in the first phrase, transitive in the second phrase? Is there a name for this type of rhetorical technique playing on the two senses of the verb 'to look'?

tchrist
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cunning linguist
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    It’s called *syllepsis* but I’m pretty sure this is a duplicate question. – Jim Apr 06 '20 at 17:06
  • I'm not sure it can be a syllepsis if there is no word missing? (Syllepsis: 'a form of ellipsis, and like ellipsis the sense of the word is repeated, but not the word itself.') – cunning linguist Apr 06 '20 at 17:25
  • not sure where you found that def?! https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/syllepsis – Jim Apr 06 '20 at 17:31
  • Look is a sense verb, and they are mostly intransitive. The first one is a "flip" verb, with the source of the sensation as subject and the perceiver presupposed (to be me). The second one is a volitional agent verb, with the agent/perceiver as subject. At me is a prepositional phrase, not an object. Though if your theory permits, you can reanalyze the sequence look at as a transitive verb (like listen to, another sense verb). The transitive agentive non-volitional sense verb that corresponds to these two senses of look is see. – John Lawler Apr 06 '20 at 17:31
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    Does this answer your question? Using verbs with multiple meanings – Robusto Apr 06 '20 at 17:53
  • Note that the second use is not transitive, but rather the verb is modified by a adverbial prepositional phrase. – Hot Licks Apr 06 '20 at 18:09
  • Thanks everyone for your comments. I'm still not sure how it can be a syllepsis if the word is repeated, as this definition https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/syllepsis also refers to 'A word modifying two' (the verb never being repeated as in my example.) – cunning linguist Apr 06 '20 at 18:24
  • 'She looked incredible and at me' is an example of syllepsis (one word pressed into two different, conflicting roles in the same sentence) and arguably unacceptable except for comic effect. Your example, with the repeated verb in different sentences (albeit in different roles), is grammatically less contentious (though the first 'looked' is stative, and so the 'then' is suspect). – Edwin Ashworth Apr 06 '20 at 18:34

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Apparently, this is an example of antanaclasis:

antanaclasis:

The repetition of a word whose meaning changes in the second instance.

[Rhetoric.byu.edu_Figures of Repetition]

John Lawler's analysis (in his comment) can hardly be improved upon, but flip verbs have been covered on several occasions.

Edwin Ashworth
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