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I have been reading The Dark Elf trilogy and one sentence got my attention, and I don't know what grammar structure is behind the sentence which justifies its grammatical correctness.

The sentence is:

"Where, in ages past, there had been an empty cavern of roughly shaped stalactites and stalagmites now stands artistry."

I do understand the meaning of "stands artistry" means the cavern now looks good, but I can't search other similar usage of adding a noun after the verb "stand".

user405662
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Danny
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  • Have you researched what kind of verb stand is with this meaning? – livresque Jun 04 '21 at 06:58
  • I do have researched for different explanation of the verb "stand" to justify this. I also find the usage of "stand empty" quite similar to this one but again, empty is adjective. I still don't understand how "stands artistry" is correct in the novel. If it follows the rule of "stand empty", wouldn't it be "stand artistically"? – Danny Jun 04 '21 at 07:41
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    @Danny: I think what's causing the confusion here is mistaking stands for a transitive verb, when in fact it is used intransitively here (a linking verb, perhaps). And the meaning is: to be placed or situated. The American Heritage Dictionary provides this usage of stand under the intransitive heading: The building stands at the corner, which could be rephrased as: At the corner stands the building. This is similar to your sentence [Verb+NP]. – user405662 Jun 04 '21 at 07:53
  • @user405662. Thank you for providing an example. – Danny Jun 04 '21 at 07:54
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    Yes: "stands" here takes a predicative complement, not a direct object. – BillJ Jun 04 '21 at 07:56
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    Where once was farmland, now stands my house. My grandmother in London might have said this around 1890. – Michael Harvey Jun 04 '21 at 08:04
  • ... Michael gives a clearer example of the structure, which is subject-final. << My house stands on that hill. >> is the typical S-Vint-Comp loc structure; << On that hill stands my house >> is the inverted-for-literary-effect C-V-S structure. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 04 '21 at 11:26
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    @user405662 ... Convert your comment to an answer – GEdgar Jun 04 '21 at 11:51
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    @BillJ Well, a locative complement! – Araucaria - Him Jun 04 '21 at 14:30
  • @GEdgar... Done. :) – user405662 Jun 04 '21 at 16:28

1 Answers1

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I think what's causing the confusion here is mistaking stands for a transitive verb, when in fact it is used intransitively here (a linking verb, perhaps). And the meaning is: to be placed or situated. The American Heritage Dictionary provides this usage of stand under the intransitive heading: The building stands at the corner, which could be rephrased as: At the corner stands the building. This is similar to your sentence [Verb+NP].

EDIT

Thanks to @Araucaria for suggesting a useful edit to the answer. Constructions such as this are examples of S-V inversion (precisely, locative inversion in this case.)

Per Wikipedia, An adjunct phrase is switched from its default postverbal position to a position preceding the verb, which causes the subject and the finite verb to invert. The fronted expression that evokes locative inversion is an adjunct of location.

user405662
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