12-10-03 03:39, Ray wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
>>
>> Consider the following examples:
>>
>> (1) My wife wants to have me killed.
>> (2) He had his head cut off.
>> (3) We had the fire extinguished before the firemen arrived.
>>
>> Piotr
>
>
> I think the above sentences have a causative meaning.
Sentence (1) is causative; (2) is not causative but experiential
(assuming that the poor devil didn't arrange his own decapitation, in
which case it would be causative-reflexive); (3) may be causative ("we
caused those present to extinguish the fire") or what should perhaps be
termed completive (a thorough job: "we managed to extinguish the fire
completely").
> But what is the purpose for which the sentences are shown here?
They are examples of non-auxiliary <have> + pp. constructions that are
grammatical in Modern English although they describe situations in which
one "has" something that no longer exists. OE <habban> had a range of
abstract meanings similar to those of ModE <have> or <get>. My point is
that an OE construction like <hi:e hæfdon hiora mete genotudne> (with an
inflected participle) could be analysed similarly to the examples above.
Here are a couple of authentic modern example:
Many of us did pick lots of berries last summer and fall but we
already had them eaten.
We prepared breakfast and had it eaten before daylight.
Piotr