Cognate object: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:32, 9 October 2016

Revision as of 07:33, 9 October 2016

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==Examples==

In English, the construction can occur with a number of intransitive verbs, (which then become transitive in this case):

*''He dreamedslept a strangetroubled dreamsleep.'' (i.e., He dreamedslept, and his dreamsleep was strangetroubled.)

===English===

*''He laughed a bitter laugh.'' (i.e., He laughed bitterly.)

*''He died a painful death.'' (i.e., He died painfully.)

In English, the construction can occur with a number of intransitive verbs (which become transitive in this case):

*''He sleptdreamed a troubledstrange sleepdream.'' (i.e., He sleptdreamed, and his sleepdream was troubledstrange.)

*''He laughed a bitter laugh.'' (i.e., He laughed bitterly.)

*''He died a painful death.'' (i.e., He died painfully.)

*''He dreamed a strange dream.'' (i.e., He dreamed, and his dream was strange.)

(That seems to be the only example that has a more natural-sounding sentence that would be used in everyday conversation: ''"He had a strange dream."'')

*''He walked their walk and talked their talk.'' (i.e., He walked and talked as they did.)

*''He smiled a charming smile.'' (i.e., He smiled, and his smile was charming.)

*''He danced a cheerful dance.'' (i.e., He danced, and his dance was cheerful.)

In some of these cases, the cognate object allows for a simpler construction. In others, it may be chosen for [[idiom]]atic or [[rhetoric]]al reasons. In general, the cognate object's modifiers are in some sense modifying the verb: for example, ''He slept a troubled sleep'' tells how he slept. Semantically, many of these verbs denote modes of nonverbal expression (laugh, smile) and bodily actions or motions (dance, walk, sleep), specifically including what Levin calls "waltz verbs," those that are [[conversion (word formation)#Verbification|zero-related]] (identical) to the names of dances. <ref>{{cite book