Current and Resulting Attributes
– He got his shoes wet
This three-place pattern is essentially an S-V-Od pattern with an attributive Object Complement added. As attribute the complement specifies the state or status of the Od referent in relation to the situation described by the verb. The attribute may be ‘current’, contemporaneous with the verb (He keeps the garden beautiful), or the result of the action denoted by the verb (They elected her Vice-President).
Verbs that take a current attribute after the object are stative, and include:
• verbs of causing to remain in a certain state such as hold and keep
• verbs such as believe, consider, think, find, imagine, presume, hold
• verbs such as want, like and prefer
Keep your hands steady!
I imagined him much older.
Verbs that take resulting attributes represent processes of doing, and include bake, drive (mad), get, leave, make, paint, turn, wipe as well as verbs of declaring, such as appoint, elect, call, name, declare, report and certify, which confer an official status.
With AdjG Complement:
It wipes the windscreen dry. That barking dog is driving me mad.
The heat has turned the milk sour. They presumed her dead.
With NG Complement:
They appointed him Manager.
The direct object referent in complex transitive structures can be made subject in a passive clause, which then has an S-V-Cs structure. In fact, with some verbs the passive is more common than the active, particularly when the Agent is unexpressed, as in she was presumed dead; he is reported missing; he was certified insane.
With some verbs, the attribute is not essential to make a grammatical clause (It wipes the windscreen). This is because many verbs enter into more than one structure: wipe can function in a monotransitive structure (wipe the windscreen) or in a complex transitive structure (wipe the windscreen dry). Other examples which, without the complement, also fit the monotransitive structure include You’ve cut your hair (short); we got the books (cheap).
A further type of attribute is that of respect. This is expressed by as + NG when introduced by such verbs as regard, refer to, write off, acclaim:
Churchill referred to him as an outstanding leader.
Fans acclaimed the Rolling Stones’ concert as the event of the season.
As a consequence of the multi-functionality of many verbs, examples can be invented in which one type of unit such as a NG can realize two different types of constituent:
He called her an angel. S-V-Od-Co He called her a taxi. S-V -Oi-Od
