Hello folks!

Call me old-fashioned; call me crazy; call me whatever, but I can't remember
any instance of the verb "has" being a form of "to be." Did I miss
something? When did "have" become a linking verb?

While I'm asking questions, let me also ask: Isn't the prepositional phrase
construction, "in the ... " answering the question, "Where?" If so, doesn't
that make it adverbial? After all, the sentence in question isn't saying,
"Sally has an in-the-foot migraine."

In any case, unless this is a piece of absurdist literature or a study in
psychosis, the whole idea of having a migraine in one's limbs makes no
sense.

Help!

Paul D.

-----Original Message-----
From: Donna Winstanley <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, October 14, 1999 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: Sally has a migraine


>The basic sentence is
>        Sally         has         a migraine
>        (subject)      V          (predicate nominative or complement)
>                    (form of
>                     "to be")
>
>Forms of the verb "to be" cannot take a direct object; they always have
>a predicate nominative or adjective that describes the noun.
>
>"in her foot" is a prepositional phrase that tells the reader "where"
>the migraine is.
>
>Question:  I thought migraines had to be in the head?
>
>Donna Winstanley
>
>
>Richard Henry wrote:
>>
>> 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