Saw

Question

I saw him arrested.I saw him being arrested.Is the first an adjective and the second is a verb?

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Amir OghlowI saw him arrested.

That is rather unnatural.

Amir OghlowI saw him being arrested.

[him being arrested ] could be classified as a non-finite clause, the complement of the verb "saw."

Amir Oghlow · Answer

I saw his walking.
Is "Walking" is an object complement?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Amir OghlowIs "Walking" is an object complement?

No. It is a complement of the verb "saw."
It's a pretty unnatural sentence.

The sentence implies that there was something very strange about the way he walked.

Amir Oghlow · Answer

I'm sorry
I made a mistake
"I saw him walking"
Is "walking" here an object complement?

CalifJim · Answer

[ I saw [ him walking ] ].

Here you have a non-finite clause complement of "saw". It's possible that some books say that "walking" is an object complement, but I think they are on the wrong track with that kind of analysis.

Verbs of perception (see, hear, etc.) can take that kind of clause as a complement. Either the present participle or the infinite (without "to") are possible in the non-finite clause.

I saw Susan [walk / walking] to the car.
Everyone heard the cat [meow / meowing] last night.
Jason felt the spider [crawl / crawling] up his leg.

The plain form generally indicates that the whole action is/was perceived, while the participle form indicates that at least some part of the action is/was perceived.

CJ

Cool Breeze · Answer

Amir OghlowI saw him arrested.

This sounds unnatural or odd even to my ear. I'm just wondering if there is a natural way of expressing the meaning the sentence is supposed to convey. For example, the police had just handcuffed him and he was in a police car waiting to be taken to the police station when I saw him.

In Finnish it is perfectly natural to say what the English sentence says, but the essive case would be needed for the word "arrested". This isn't the only case I am perplexed about the unnaturalness of an English sentence. Why on earth is it unnatural? What do they say instead? Is it just impossible to convey some meanings in English even though it has a very large vocabulary?

I am grateful for any comments.

CB

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Verbs of perception seem to require durative action, so only the infinitive and present participle provide the context.

I saw him arrest the suspect.
I saw him arresting the suspect.
I saw him being arrested. (passive)
I saw his arrest. (noun of action)

Cool Breeze · Answer

AlpheccaStarsI saw him arrest the suspect.I saw him arresting the suspect. I saw him being arrested. (passive)I saw his arrest. (noun of action)

Yes, I learned all this in school. However, it seems that some past participles are possible after verbs of perception: I saw him taken away. As a non-native speaker, I find it intriguing that some verbs are possible while others aren't. It seems that English needlessly imposes random restrictions on itself whereas other languages don't.

Of course, this is one of the things that make English more interesting than other languages.

CB

Anonymous · Answer

Cool BreezeOf course, this is one of the things that make English more interesting than other languages.

Indeed, my perception is that English takes more idiomatic wordings than other languages that have more developed declension and conjugation.

Saw

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