Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 09:56:10 EDT

From: Bruce Southard ENSOUTHA[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ECUVM1.BITNET

Subject: -"had" Constructions



One of my colleagues asked me about the function of "stolen" in the

following phrase:

"She had her purse stolen last night." I analyzed the function as

that of objective complement, but then started thinking about similar

constructions:

1. I had my house painted last year.

2. The secret police had the politician jailed until last week.



It seems to me that these sentences differ in terms of causality or

"agent" relationships, but I'm unable to pinpoint the reason for the

differences in meaning/relationships. Does anyone have an explanation?



Bruce Southard

English Department

East Carolina University

ensoutha[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ecuvm1

ensoutha[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ecuvm.cis.ecu.edu

919-757-6041

919-757-4889 (FAX)