Eat raw (verb + adj)?

Question

Here is a sentence.Foods are difficult to eat raw.Why "eat raw"? Is it a idiom or there is a grammatical explanation? Is there any word similar to it?Thx.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Here is a sentence. Foods are difficult to eat raw. Why "eat raw"? Is it a idiom or there is a grammatical explanation? Is there any word similar to it? Thx.[/nq]
Take that as "Foods are difficult to eat while raw."

That is, "Uncooked foods are difficult to eat."

Nothing special about "eat raw" in particular. It could have been "eat uncooked" or "eat hot" or "eat frozen" or "eat stale".

You don't even need "eat". "Foods are difficult to slice frozen."

It's just a construction that has dropped an implied "while".

-- Jack Gavin

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Here is a sentence. Foods are difficult to eat raw. Why "eat raw"? Is it a idiom or there is ... would be the adverb "rawly", but actually the word "raw" refers to "food" - hence it should be an adjective.[/nq]
Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Here is a sentence. Foods are difficult to eat raw. ... a grammatical explanation? Is there any word similar to it?[/nq]
[nq:1]Jack Gavin has given a good explanation. Another way of looking at it is to consider which word "raw" refers ... would be the adverb "rawly", but actually the word "raw" refers to "food" - hence it should be an adjective.[/nq]
Or perhaps the sentence is telling us that food is difficult to eat when you are inexperienced? In "Bicycles shouldn't be ridden drunk" it isn't the bicycle which is drunk but an implied "you" or "one". "Women should be photographed naked" can be read in two ways. Ambiguity can result when adjectives are separated from their nouns because we have no inflections by which to tie them down and we're prone to abbreviated colloquial forms. Hence we may need to recast some sentences to explain more clearly where qualifiers belong.

Nor do I think the distinction between adjective and adverb is necessarily clear. Many adjectives can be used in an adverbial sense - "high" and "highly" are both commonly adverbs. "Revenge is a dish best served cold." Is it the dish or the server who should be "cold" or is it acting as an adverb - i.e to "serve cold" is a way of serving? In English we often just breeze through such imprecision because we "sort of" know what we mean. But I can see that it might perplex those used to more precise languages. -- Phil C.

Eat raw (verb + adj)?

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