Odd construction
Odd construction
I have been reading Duff Cooper (a caddish 30's-50's politician) and he uses the phrase: 'I thought her not so pretty'. Has anyone else seen this before?
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- Lexiterian
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Yes. He was a buddy of Churchill's and he was quite notorious for fooling around with women. Not altogether a bad thing, in my book.caddish?
mark more-interested-in-Ferrus'-definition-than-the-dictionary's Bailey
You certainly have to admire him for having the strength of character to resign in protest from the British Cabinet during the Chamberlain-Hitler appeasement initiative in Munich.
-- PW
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"
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I thought her pretty.
There are several verbs that accept direct objects with 'predicate' adjectives, most have to do with mental processing. It is parallel to consider, as in "I consider that she is pretty" or, shortened, "I consider her pretty," "I imagined her pretty;" "I imagined that she would be pretty" or "I imagined her pretty."
It is a peculiar prerogative of English which allows predicates of nouns in the objective case. In languages like German and Russian, where the objectives (accusative) case is used only for direct objects and direct objects cannot be the subject of a phrase, such constructions are impossible. Notice that in the shortened sentences above her is the direct object of the main sentence and subject of the dependent clause "her (=she is) pretty".
We do this elsewhere, too, usually using the infinitive construction. In the sentence "I asked her to do it," her is the direct object of asked and the subject of do it at the same time. In languages with real case systems, this is impossible. It is possible in English because the case system has vanished except for the pronouns I, we, he, she and our comfort level with constructions like between you and I show that it is on the way out even for these pronouns.
It is a peculiar prerogative of English which allows predicates of nouns in the objective case. In languages like German and Russian, where the objectives (accusative) case is used only for direct objects and direct objects cannot be the subject of a phrase, such constructions are impossible. Notice that in the shortened sentences above her is the direct object of the main sentence and subject of the dependent clause "her (=she is) pretty".
We do this elsewhere, too, usually using the infinitive construction. In the sentence "I asked her to do it," her is the direct object of asked and the subject of do it at the same time. In languages with real case systems, this is impossible. It is possible in English because the case system has vanished except for the pronouns I, we, he, she and our comfort level with constructions like between you and I show that it is on the way out even for these pronouns.
• The Good Dr. Goodword
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Not to be confused with Kaddish ...caddish?...
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
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"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
Re: I thought her pretty.
May I offer a different interpretation:In the sentence "I asked her to do it," her is the direct object of asked and the subject of do it at the same time. In languages with real case systems, this is impossible.
An infinitive (to do) doesn't have a subject. In the sentence, "to do it" is a second object of "asked". Thus it is no problem in for example German: "Ich habe sie gebeten, es zu tun." (sie in accusative).
Irren ist männlich
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