paco2004  +  143998 Sun, 02 Oct 05 10:52 PM Hello Teachers 1. He ran his shoes thin. Does the sentence above mean "He ran a long distance and so his shoes became thin" or "He ran to the extent as if his shoes had become thin"? I'm asking the true meaning of the phrase "his shoes thin". Is this a fact statement or a metaphoric exaggeration? How about the cases below? 2. She cried her eyes red. 3. He drove his tire flat. 4. She ate herself sick. paco paco2004 Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004 Senior Member 4,095 In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.

	CalifJim  +  144032 Mon, 03 Oct 05 02:05 AM Take "his shoes thin" to mean "until his shoes became thin", "her eyes red" to mean "until her eyes became red", "his tire flat" to mean "until his tire became flat", and "herself sick" to mean "until she became sick".  With that paraphrase you will very very seldom, if ever, go wrong. CJ (The third one has an alternate reading, not the resultative one that I think you are interested in here, however.  "his tire flat" can be taken to mean "while his tire was flat" in that case.  That is, "He drove with a flat tire".) CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,415 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

	rishonly  +  144060 Mon, 03 Oct 05 04:52 AM Hi CalifJim, "The third one has an alternate meaning, not the resultative one..". Would you please explain the meaning of "resultative one" in this sentence? My dictionary (Dictionary.com) doesn't help me on this?   rishonly Joined on Sat, Mar 5 2005 KUMBAKONAM,INDIA Contributing Member 1,782 Regards, Krishna

	paco2004  +  144438 Tue, 04 Oct 05 12:17 PM Hello CJ  CalifJim wrote: Take "his shoes thin" to mean "until his shoes became thin", "her eyes red" to mean "until her eyes became red", "his tire flat" to mean "until his tire became flat", and "herself sick" to mean "until she became sick".  With that paraphrase you will very very seldom, if ever, go wrong. Thank you for the answer.　Now I understand we can read most of the resultaive phrases as a fact statement. Maybe I should suppose such sentences like "She cried her eyes out", "She talked my ears off" and "We danced ourselves to dust" are extraordinary. paco paco2004