Depictive VS Resultative

Question

Could anyone please exmplain to me the idea that stands behind Resultative and/or Depictive phrases/sentences ?

Here is the exercise taken from my classes :

"Which of the follownig phrases are / are not recultative ?

1. "Sorry for the delay?!" John asked herself furious .
2. Tom complained that she'd gotten pregnatn to "trap" him into marriage .
3. The soldier did not move; he just looked at the snake terrified .
4. Estelle quickly go herself married to a wealthy lawyer.
5. When the firecrackers popped, the birds started flying blind .

How to distinguish between Resultative and Depictive ?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

John cannot "ask herself", by the way. He can "ask her" or he can "ask himself". I'll take this to be "asked her".

I take it that you have to say whether the italicized word expresses something which is a result of something else in the sentence, or not, i.e., is resultative or depictive.

These are subtle, and in some cases there may be good arguments for either choice. That said, here are my choices:

1) furious - resultative (The delay caused his fury.)
2) into marriage - resultative (The pregnancy 'causes' the marriage. But maybe because the causing is only potential, the correct answer could be "depictive". It may be important to get very exact definitions of the terms "resultative" and "depictive" from your teacher.)
3) terrified - resultative (Being terrified is the result of seeing the snake.)
4) married - depictive (Being married is not the result of anything else mentioned.)
5) blind - depictive (The noise caused the birds to fly, but not exactly how they flew. I'd say that "flying away" is the result of the noise, but not that the manner of flying (i.e., "blind") is the result of the noise.)

Personally, I can't see the reason behind this exercise!

CJ

Depictive VS Resultative

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