Morphological characteristics. § 236. From the point of view of their morphological composition the class of statives is homogeneous

§ 236. From the point of view of their morphological composition the class of statives is homogeneous, that is all of them have a special marker, the prefix a-: asleep, alive, alone, afire, etc.

Note:

In English there are some words devoid of the marker - a-, which are semantically and functionally very similar to statives. These are:

fond, glad, ill, sorry, well.

Their grammatical status is intermediate between that of stative and adjective.

As regards their structure, statives with the marker a- fall into two groups: those that can be divided into morphemes (the prefix a- and the stem of a noun, a verb, or an adjective) a-sleep, a-fire, a-glow, and those that cannot be devived because the part following a- does not correspond to any noun, verb, or adjective stem, as in a-loof, a-ware, a-fraid.

Statives do not change their form to express concord with the word they refer to.

Note:

There are other words besides statives with the prefix a-:

across, along (adv. and prep.), amidst (prep.), anew (adv.) arise (verb), aloud (adj.), amount (noun), etc.

Syntactic function

Statives may have three functions in a sentence: thatofpredicativein a compound nominal or a double predicate (the most common function), that ofobjective predicative, or occasionally that ofattribute.

When used in the function of predicative statives describe the state of the person or non-person denoted by the subject and are connected with the subject by means of a link verb or in some cases by a notional verb.

Statives as predicatives within a compound nominal predicate:

He was terribly afraid of his father.

The house was ablaze with lights.

Soon she fell fast asleep.

He seemed afraid to go any further.

She felt alert and young.

Why do they look so frighteningly alike?

The Overlords remained aloof, hiding their faces from mankind.

Statives as predicatives within a double predicate:

He sat quite alone on that large verandah of his.

For a moment she stood aghast, looking at the door.

She was lying wide awake listening to all the sounds of the night.

She sounded very high and afraid.

When they have the function of objective predicative, statives describe the state of the person or non-person denoted by the object:

First of all have the fire alight in the drawing room.

The large dog kept him afloat until the raft came up.

Don’t keep the door ajar.

Leave me alone, you fool.

I’ll get him awake in a minute.

Although the function of attribute is not characteristic of statives, some of them may have this function (either detached or undetached attributes).

Statives as undetached attributes are always postmodifying:

No man alive could have done it.

No one aware of the consequences of his deed would have defied the fate.

When used as detached attributes, statives may be either post- or premodifying:

The microphone, already alive, was waiting for him.

He stood, alert and listening, while the noise from the reef grew steadily around him.

Aloof on her mountain-top, she considered the innumerable activities of men.

In all these cases the stative retains its predicational force.