Predicate adjectives

Question

In the sentence 'the paint stays looking good for many years', is the participial phrase 'looking good' a predicate adjective, or is it just a regular adjective?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

It is predicative, since it is in the predicate of the sentence, i.e. it follows the verb.

BillJ · Answer

Hi

The simple answer is yes, but there’s more to it than that. The verb ‘stay’ is a linking verb (aka a copular verb). What it links here is the subject (‘the paint’) with the entire sequence ‘looking good for many years’, which although functioning as a Complement (i.e. predicate adjective) is, importantly, a nonfinite subordinate clause, not a phrase.

Some people would analyse it, like you, so that the Complement (i.e. predicative adjective) is just ‘looking good’, with the prepositional phrase ‘for many years’ functioning as a separate (Adverbial) element. But that analysis does not reflect the feeling we have that ‘looking good’ and ‘for many years’ go together. My analysis keeps these elements together.

If you want to analyse your sentence a little more, you’ll find that the nonfinite verb ‘looking’ is also a linking verb when used this way, so another predicate is evident, i.e. ‘good for many years’, but this time it is just an adjectival phrase.

To summarise, we end up with the nonfinite subordinate clause ‘looking good for many years’ being the main Complement element of the sentence and, within that clause, there is a further linking verb, the nonfinite ‘looking’, which has as its own Complement the adjectival predicate phrase ‘good for many years’. The head of this phrase is the adjective ‘good’ and the prepositional phrase ‘for many years’ acts as a sort of adverbial modifier.

Finally, the analysis chart is like this:

.......S.........|.....V....| ...........................C
....................................(subordinate nonfinite clause)
'The paint. |. stays |...[looking |.good for many years]'
........................................V.....|.............C.................|
......................................................(adj. phrase)

Note: (C = Complement)

Best Wishes
Bill

Predicate adjectives

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