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Hi all,

I have been teaching ESL for many years, but have never been that great on the technicalities of grammar, but really want to improve, so I am doing a Masters in Applied Linguistics AND looking for guidance! I hope I might also be able to offer some assistance to others too, because there are things I DO know .

Here's a question to start with:

The phrase "make [noun] look" - eg "That dress 'makes her look' fat".....

A student asks - "Why don't we say "looks"? Please help me explain this to a student who has a good grasp of grammatical terms!

Thanks!

If "her look fat" were a finite clause, then you would say "looks". The agent of the "looking", "her" is in the third person singular. Consider, "I don't think she looks fat." However, the verb "look" is non-finite. It's a verbal, like "to look" and "looking".

The verb "make" is being used as a causitive verb in this sentence. Other examples of causitives are "have her look at this" and "get her to look at it" In the clauses, "They make her happy" and "They made her the captain" the verb "make" is called a factitive because its object takes a complement.

The key grammatical term that you want to use is "noun phrase". "her happy", "her the captain", and "her look fat" are all noun phrases with "her" as the head. You won't see a verbal phrase like "look fat" classified as a complement in many grammars, but that is what it is. You will see "her look fat" called a non-finite clause, but that classification doesn't tell your student anything other than the object of "make" is all the words "her look fat" and not just "her".

Other verbs which cause their objects to take complements refer to perception and mental and verbal processes.
I saw her look at him.
I want her to look like a princess.
I told her to look interested.

Traditionally, English grammar has viewed the relationships between "her" and "look" or "her" and "to look" in the previous examples as being different from each other. It's not useful to do so IMO, and that's why many grammars now seem to avoid these constructions.

You could also tell your student that while full verb (1) is usually followed by another full verb (2) in either the "to+ verb" or the "verb-ing" form,

"I want (1) (her) to look (2) like a princess"

"I enjoy 1 (him) rubbing (2) my back"

there are very few verbs followed by verb (2) in the bare infinitive (no "to" or "---ing"), including "make" and "let" as prime examples.


"They made (1) me talk (2)"

"Let (1) me think (2)"

You could point out that verbs connected with the senses can be followed by bare infinitives

"I saw/watched/ heard/felt/etc him take the money"

"I saw/etc him taking the money"

but that there is a difference.

If your student wants to know why these verbs aren't followed by an infinitive or a gerund, tell her/him that the bare infinitive is often if not always associated with semi-modality.

Ouyang, which is the head and which the complement in "I want her to look like a princess"?

Ouyang, which is the head and which the complement in "I want her to look like a princess"?

I would say there are three complements in the sentence. The phrase (or non-finite clause) "her to look like a princess" is the object of "want". So, it's a verb complement.
Head = "want" / Complement = "her to look like a princess"

The phrase "to look like a princess" is a verbal complement of the object "her"

Head = "her" / Complement = "to look like a princess"

The phrase "like a princess" is a predicate adjective of a linking verb phrase, but I wouldn't call it a subject complement because "her" is not in the subjective (nominative) case. Perhaps it is an object complement.

Head = "her" / Complement = "like a princess" ?

It's kind of like the predicate adjective in the verbal phrase "Being completely honest is the best policy". What is the noun that the adjective "honest" is modifying? Subject complements don't complete subjects in the way that other complements complete the heads of phrases. Subject complements actually complete verb phrases. We understand the meaning of the subject perfectly well in linking clauses. It's the meaning of the verb which is completed.

Compare subject complements with a prepositional phrase complement of a subject. If I use an indefinite pronoun as a subject without an antecedent, "None make sense", I must add a complement to complete its meaning "None of his ideas make sense". So, I wouldn't disagree with classifying linking verbs as the heads of subject complements in both finite and non-finite clauses.

Head = "to look" / Complement = "like a princess"

Grammatically, how is this different from any other make someone/something do construction?
The wind made the tree fall over = The wind caused the tree to fall over
The teacher made the kids do lines = The teacher caused the kids to do lines
The dress makes her look fat = The dress causes her to look fat (actually it doesn't - she's just fat)

The manner of causation may be different in all three cases, but that's beside the point.

Wow, thanks so much everyone! very helpful!

looks like I have come to the right place!

Also, using grammarian terminology, wouldn't the verb be infinitive or buried infinitive? It caused her (to) look fat. It's the same with help. She helped him (to) do the dishes.

Google "buried infinitive"!

You're not suggesting that the "to" is optional after "caused", are you?

The lack of "to" suggests semi-modality in form as well as in meaning. It's not unlike do-support in this respect. Where do-support or "to-support" is lacking there's a definite nod in the direction of modality.

JuanTwoThree wrote:Google "buried infinitive"!
You're not suggesting that the "to" is optional after "caused", are you?

Oops, I wrote this in a hurry, as my friend suddenly called on me to view cherry blossoms. Anyhow, it is called "bare infinitives." The sentence the OP wrote is "The dress makes her look fat." That's what I was trying to say about it being a bare infinitive.

Yup, bare infinitive. That's what I've always known it as (and what I called it three times in my penultimate post ).