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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Have + an object + an objective complement
Now the protagonist Philip is an obstetric clerk
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They did not envy their betters, for the life was too different, and they had an ideal of ease which made the existence of the middle-classes seem formal and stiff; moreover, they had a certain contempt for them because they were soft and did not work with their hands. The proud merely wished to be left alone, but the majority looked upon the well-to-do as people to be exploited; they knew what to say in order to get such advantages as the charitable put at their disposal, and they accepted benefits as a right which came to them from the folly of their superiors and their own astuteness.
[Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham]
I'd like to know "seem formal and stiff" is the objective complement of "had."
Thank you in advance for your help.
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They did not envy their betters, for the life was too different, and they had an ideal of ease which made the existence of the middle-classes seem formal and stiff; moreover, they had a certain contempt for them because they were soft and did not work with their hands. The proud merely wished to be left alone, but the majority looked upon the well-to-do as people to be exploited; they knew what to say in order to get such advantages as the charitable put at their disposal, and they accepted benefits as a right which came to them from the folly of their superiors and their own astuteness.
[Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham]
I'd like to know "seem formal and stiff" is the objective complement of "had."
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
" No. "had" takes the object "an ideal of ease", and this object is further modified by a relative clause beginning with 'which'. Inside this relative clause there is a causative construction with "make".
- " No.
- "had" takes the object "an ideal of ease", and this object is further modified by a relative clause beginning with 'which'.
- Inside this relative clause there is a causative construction with "make".
- make NP + non-finite VP made [the existence of the middle-classes] [seem formal and stiff] ___________________ An object complement is a noun phrase (NP) or adjective phrase ( AP) after the object NP.
- The object and the object complement may occur without any connecting word, with "as", or with the infinitive "to be".
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10 Answers
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park sang joonI'd like to know if "seem formal and stiff" is the objective complement of "had."No. "had" takes the object "an ideal of ease", and this object is further modified by a relative clause beginning with 'which'. Inside this relative clause there is a causative construction with "make".
make NP +
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Thank you, CalifJim, for you So very kind answer. 
"Have" is a causative verb too, so I think "have" can take "seem" as an objec
"Have" is a causative verb too, so I think "have" can take "seem" as an objec
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park sang joon"Have" is a causative verb too, so I think "have" can take "seem" as an objective complement.But 'have' is not used in the causative pattern here. It's a simple possessive 'have'. Besides, a causative construction can't span the boundary of a relative clause.
park sang joonAnd I can't understand why they have an ideal o
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Thank you, CalifJim, for your continuing support.
I'm so sorry but, if I may, I'd like to ask you one more question.
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I'm so sorry but, if I may, I'd like to ask you one more question.
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park sang joon1. I had my hair [to which chewing gum is stuck] cut. If I can't have the object modified by a relative clause as #1Though the sentence is awkward, the grammar is fine. You can modify the object with a relative clause. I don't know where you got the idea that this was wrong. But nothing within the relative clause is part of a causative
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Thank you, CalifJim, for your continuing to answer.
Besides, a causative construction can't span the boundary of a
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park sang joona causative construction can't span the boundary of a relative clause.You can't take "seem formal and stiff" as part of a causative construction with "had" because it's already inside the relative clause which modifies "an ideal ease". I showed this in my previous post.
CJ
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Thank you, for your continuing to answer and patience. 
I'm so sorry for my badgering you.
I'm so sorry for my badgering you.
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park sang joonHow about "ease made the existence of the middle-classes"?I can't seem to assign any meaning to that. To make something is always to bring it into existence, so "the existence" doesn't make sense there. More sensible grammatically is Ease made the middle classes; however, it's still semantically problematic. How does ease
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