Omission of be

Consider the following sentences:

(69) I consider John (to be) clever/a good doctor

(70a) I want the house (to be) clean when I return

(70b) I want the knave (to be) executed before lunch

(70c) I want Mary (to be) doing her homework when her father comes home

(71) I made Mary (be) interested in the project

(72a) John retired (when he was) happy/a contented man

(72b) Mary entered the room (when she was) angry/in tears

(73a) I ate the fish (when it was) raw

(73b) I like him (when he is) drunk

(74) He licked the plate (so that it was) clean

When the portions in parentheses are omitted, these sentences are superficially similar, in including an adjective after verb (plus object). Sentences like this have been grouped together and labelled ‘secondary predicates’, an unhelpful and misleading term. In fact (69)–(74) are reduced versions of four quite different construction types, which have little in common, save the tendency to omit copula be in a variety of circumstances.

(a) Reduction of Judgement TO complement clause. Some, but not all, verbs which take a Judgement to complement clause may drop the complementizer to plus a following copula be, as in (69). The complement clause then reduces to just its copula complement (here, clever, or a good doctor).

(b) Reduction of Modal FOR TO complement clause. To be can never be omitted from the maximal form of a Modal (FOR) to complement, e.g. not from I hoped for the house to be clean when I returned or from I asked for him to be shot. There is, however, a small set of verbs that can omit to be when for is also omitted. Whereas only the copula be may be omitted from a Judgement TO clause, here any of the three varieties of be can be omitted— copula be in (70a), passive be in (70b) and imperfective be in (70c).

Verbs make and let take a FOR to complement clause but always omit for, and omit to in an active (but retain it in a passive) clause. Example (71) shows that the copula be can also be omitted.

(c) Adverbial clauses of time. These undergo a variety of kinds of reduction, one of which is shown in (72)–(73). A when clause involving the copula be can omit the ‘when-plus-pronominal-subject-plus-be-plus-tense’. This applies in (72a/b) when the understood pronominal subject of the time clause is identical to the subject (S) in the intransitive main clause, and in (73a/b) when it is identical to the object (O) in the transitive main clause. Other typical transitive main clause verbs include drink (it undiluted), cook (it alive), and find (him in agony).

There are a number of variants on this basic pattern. For example, He started reading the letter (when he was) happy and finished it (when he was) sad, where the unstated pronoun of the subordinate clause is identical to the transitive subject (A) of the main clause, the O here being inanimate.

(d) Result construction. In (74) the main clause is linked by so that to a copula clause indicating something that is the result of what is described in the main clause; so that it was may be omitted. There are many instances of this, all fairly fixed expressions; they include knock him unconscious, shoot him dead, shave it dry, squash it flat, sweep it clean, bury it deep, and paint it red.