She's miserable living on her own

Metamorfose · Post by **Metamorfose** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:18 am

Looking up the word miserable I came across the following definition on http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define. ... &dict=CALD

miserable (UNHAPPY)
adjective
1 very unhappy:
She's miserable living on her own.

Isn't it an adverb here, miserably?

Thanks as usual

José

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:48 am

"Subject is X" makes X an adjective but with an adverb

"She is miserably living on her own"

it would perhaps be OK too, though the word order is not the most natural - "living miserably" is better. This would refer to living, and mean she really is living on her own now in an unhappy or poverty-stricken manner, whereas "miserable" would mean that she does not enjoy that abstract situation, current or not (though it would tend to be current).

I read the dictionary page, which includes some adverbs, but why do you ask? Because miserable seems to describe "is" which is supposed to be a verb?

Metamorfose · Post by **Metamorfose** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:08 am

I ask because at a first glance, for me miserable was modifying living and not the copula, just that.

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:31 pm

"living on her own" is an adjectival participial phrase. It can modify the subject in several positions. "miserable" is a predicate adjective.

Living on her own, she is miserable.
Susy, living on her own, was miserable.

Bobby, who is living on his own, is miserable.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:56 am

Actually I suppose Jose is right in a way, the construction is not so straightforward if a (predicate) adjective modifies the subject, and the exact situation described by the sentence is not very clear.

In the last sentence from Ouyang the "who is" clarifies that the situation is not abstract - the relationship with abstraction seems rather complex.