Instead of driven

Question

I found this movie to be a weird mix and to be totally honest, I am not sure if I like this movie. This movie seems to have a weird mix of visuals from gore, psychedelia,Jidai Geki and yakuza elements. I personally found it a little off putting and there were parts of the movie, the psychedelic gore parts with the visuals and colouring, that I did not enjoy. Meiko Kaji stars as tachibana doing her soon to be trademark stoic, unspeaking character. Like her later characters Scorpion and Lady Snowblood, she does not say much nor shows much emotion. While it worked (very successfully) with these characters it does not work in this movie. Instead of driven she looked uncertain. Not the best movie but an interesting movie and a look at the development of meiko kaji as an actress.

I'd like to know whether "instead of" can take an adjective as an object.
Thank you in advance for your help.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

park sang joonI'd like to know whether "instead of" can take an adjective as an object.

I think 'driven' can be analyzed as pronomial there. In any case, the phrasing is common enough.

Park sang joon · Answer

Thank you, Mr.Micawber, for your answer.

But I was wondering why "driven" takes place of pronoun.

Fivejedjon · Answer

Mister MicawberI think 'driven' can be analyzed as pronomial there.

I think it's an adjective complement,

Mister Micawber · Answer

fivejedjonI think it's an adjective complement,

That's interesting. I can see that—or at least appositive to the adjective complement. What about the preposition that precedes it, then?

Fivejedjon · Answer

I don't know. My thought when I said 'adjective complement' came from looking at the sentence as:

Instead of (looking) driven she looked uncertain.

However, I am now not certain that that's legitimate. I can't see it as a pronominal though; it is modifying something (she), not representing it.

Mister Micawber · Answer

fivejedjonI can't see it as a pronominal though;

I did the same sort of thing you did—interpolate:

Instead of [a] driven [person] she looked uncertain.

Yours certainly has the benefit of Occam's Razor, now that I look at my effort written down, though.

Fivejedjon · Answer

The big problem with any sort of interpolation is that the analyst is putting his/her interpretation on what the full version 'ought to' be. I think my suggestion is more likely than yours, but we have no way of knowing what was in the writer's mind, particularly as s/he is probably not a native speaker (s/he comes from Thailand). His/her English is certainly not that of an educated, careful writer.

Given that we have only the words Instead of driven she looked uncertain, I suppose we could simply say that driven was a prepositional object.

Mister Micawber · Answer

fivejedjonI think my suggestion is more likely than yours,

Me, too.

fivejedjon, I suppose we could simply say that driven was a prepositional object.

That's what I was trying to rationalize with my pronominalization.

Instead of driven

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions