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Voxxi Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies
be bothered
In the sentence, "I can't be bothered," what parts of speech are "be" and "bothered"? Anyone able to help? My hunch is that "be" is a bare infinitive direct object and that "bothered" is a participial adjective object complement ... but ... umm ...
--V
--V
Top answer
To be bothered is an idiom ( A speech form that is peculiar to itself within the usage of a given language. --- American Heritage Dictionary ) and a negative polarity item. ) Grammatically, the sentence is in the passive voice, which means it has a form of the verb be plus the past participle of the principal verb, bothered .
- To be bothered is an idiom ( A speech form that is peculiar to itself within the usage of a given language.
- --- American Heritage Dictionary ) and a negative polarity item.
- ) Grammatically, the sentence is in the passive voice, which means it has a form of the verb be plus the past participle of the principal verb, bothered .
- Can is an auxiliary verb, which modifies the meaning of be bothered .
- Similar sentences with nonidiomatic verbs: -I can not be persuaded.
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4 Answers
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To be bothered is an idiom (A speech form that is peculiar to itself within the usage of a given language. --- American Heritage Dictionary) and a negative polarity item. (See http://www.everything2.c
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Just to supplement Anon's comment:
Yes, 'be' is the bare infinitive of 'be'. 'Bothered' is the past participle of 'bother'. As Anon says, this is a passive form of the verb, with the modal verb 'can'; so there's no need to think of it as direct object + object complement.
MrP
Yes, 'be' is the bare infinitive of 'be'. 'Bothered' is the past participle of 'bother'. As Anon says, this is a passive form of the verb, with the modal verb 'can'; so there's no need to think of it as direct object + object complement.
MrP
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can't be bothered (to do sth) - not willing to make the effort (to do something).
Then can I say like this?
A: I had a loaf of bread with butter for dinner. B: You can't be bothered to cook the quality of food.
Then can I say like this?
A: I had a loaf of bread with butter for dinner. B: You can't be bothered to cook the quality of food.
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