Hi,

Here's a sentence my class in American English Grammar has been kicking
about:

   Sally has a migraine in her foot.

The questions have swirled around the function of "has", the role of the
noun phrase "a migraine" and the role of "in her foot" in the sentence.
Complications have invoked the indefinite article and the possessive
pronoun.

1.  Is "in her foot" functioning as an adverbial modifying has? or as an
adjective modifying migraine?
Initial arguments opted for adverb because the phrase clearly answers where
the "having" is.
However, we've also considered the following:
    Sally has a migraine.
    The migraine is in her foot.
    Sally has a migraine THAT is in her foot.
    Sally has a migraine in her foot.
This suggests the prepositional phrase is functioning as an adjective.
One student has (albeit cautiously) suggested that the phrase 'in her foot'
is close to 'of her foot' or 'of the foot' -- i.e. that we have a genetive
construction: Sally has a foot migraine.

2. Is "has" in this case functioning as a linking or as a transitive verb?
Those arguing for transitive make a powerful case for 'a migraine' as a
direct object.
However, the counter-argument suggests that a migraine is an attribute of
Sally, in a way that a shoe is not.  So 'Sally has a shoe on her foot'
would be a transitive (with 'on her foot' functioning as an adverb....)

We were on our way to complicating the matter with the addition of the
clause: 'which is all in her mind.'
    Sally has a migraine in her foot which is all in her mind.

Thanks,

Rick Henry
SUNY Potsdam