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I am not a native English speaker. I don't quite understand why the phrase is "you don't look your age" instead of "you don't look like your age" or "you don't look like you are at your age."

I understand that "you don't look your age" means you look younger than people at your age. Just I don't understand how come the meaning of "look" is different from its usual meaning which is to stare / gaze / watch something.

KillingTime
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Yi Ng
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This looks an interesting question.

look = to appear or seem:

You look well! The roads look very icy. That dress looks nice on you. He has started to look his age (= appear as old as he really is).

Cambridge dictionary

And therefore the answer depends on an associated meaning of look, derived from the one you already know, in the following way. "I look at the house"; "the house looks old". "I look at the book; the book looks interesting".

Anton
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  • I have considered my answer in the light of an unexplained downmark and I still maintain that it is correct. Any other opinions? – Anton Oct 09 '20 at 12:40
  • the question asks why look takes like a direct object. Your examples are all clearly adverbial or adjectival (clearly?), but your age is not obviously matching the same pattern. Indeed, one might expect it means something else than ... like your age. But we will never find out, because you haven't actually explained what the phrase means in sum. OP's question clearly concerns the whole phrase, "look one's age". Similar constructs exist: act the part, look the part, act like a [fool], act a [fool] (afool?) maybe show one's age and more; but also act like a fool – vectory Oct 09 '20 at 14:49
  • And the part of the question that you do answer, you don't answer very well. It might be notable that to show is cognate to German schauen "to watch", and that sehen "to see" derives aussehen "to look [like]" as well. So there seems to be a commutativity that deserves explanation (besides the grammatical quirk). – vectory Oct 09 '20 at 15:04
  • Thanks. I prefer detailed criticism to mute negativity. I leave it to you to add a more complete answer than mine. – Anton Oct 09 '20 at 15:48
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    @vectory We also have the sentence "You don't act your age" which means "You do not act in a manner appropriate to your age" with the very strong implication that you are acting in an immature manner. This has the same structure as "You don't look your age" but is not related to schauen, sehen or aussehen in any way. "Look your age" and "Act your age" are specific idiomatic constructs in English which don't, I believe, really fit into the normal grammatical structures. – BoldBen Oct 10 '20 at 06:48
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    @Anton I think your answer is correct and at the right level for the OP. He asks why "look" differs from "stare and gaze". – Greybeard Oct 10 '20 at 17:08
  • @Greybeard Kind of you. You reassure me. I hoped as much when I answered and had no wish to answer aspects that were not posed explicitly. – Anton Oct 10 '20 at 17:38
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In this case `your age' needs to be read as an adjective adjectival phrase (on par with young, old, ancient, etc.). In particular, it works as a predicative adjective adjectival phrase, i.e., it can be viewed as a part of the predicate.

Note that the verb `look' needs an adjective. The sentence *You look. looks strange. Even in your example with You look like X, the phrase like X operates (semantically) as adjective.

This usage is a set phrase: although syntactically, one would read 'your' as a modifier of 'age', we can't really take away the `your': *You look age. sounds all wrong.

There are other set phrases (with age) that do not conform to the usual interplay of syntax and semantics: She will only come of age in October. Here basically 'come of age' operates as a single verb.

anemone
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  • Perhaps adjectival phrase? Likewise, of age is fixed collocation, the verb has little to do with it (perhaps short for "of legal age" and similar phrases, or an adjective from prepositional use similar to above age, ov(er) age and underage). – vectory Oct 11 '20 at 00:08
  • "syntactically, one would read 'your' as a modifier", it just occured to me that German constructs similar adverbial phrases commanding genitive, i.e. meines-Alters entsprechend "corresponding [to] my age", whereby the head is entsprechend (while word order is free). It can be dative too, meinem-Alter entsprechend. This particular adverb is relatively new (ca. middle low german) and the derivation I find dubious (ent- nominally cognate 1. to answer, and, anti 2. tto in, in-, or 3. to one, any in entweder "either"; more over expect binding -s-). Anyway I'd look for adverbs. – vectory Oct 11 '20 at 00:23
  • @vectory In 'come of age', I don't think it is a fair rendition of the situation to say that 'of age' is a set phrase: only a few verbs (perhaps only 'come' and 'be') that can be idiomatically used with it, which is why I took the verb as a part of the set phrase. – anemone Oct 11 '20 at 16:10
  • I thought "a man of age" works as well. If you want to see a hidden "that is" in there I don't know. – vectory Oct 12 '20 at 12:01