link verb + adj.

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

In the sentence " You look well." "well" is an adjective which means 'being healthy'and "look" is a link verb. Then I can say "The food tastes good/nice/delicious". Can I say "The food tastes well"?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

[Casiopea]

Dear teachers,

In the sentence " You look well." "well" is an adjective which means 'being healthy'and "look" is a link verb. Then I can say "The food tastes good/nice/delicious". Can I say "The food tastes well"?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

The symbol * means, ungrammatical.

You look well ~ You look (to be) in good health.
You are well.

*The food tastes well ~ The food tastes (to be) in good health.
*The food is well.

The food is good/fine/delicious.

*The food is nice.
You are nice.

[jiang]

Dear Casiopea,

Thank you very much for your detailed and clear explanation. Now I see.

Have a nice weekend.

Jiang

The symbol * means, ungrammatical.

You look well ~ You look (to be) in good health.
You are well.

*The food tastes well ~ The food tastes (to be) in good health.
*The food is well.

The food is good/fine/delicious.

*The food is nice.
You are nice.

[Casiopea]

Dear Casiopea,

Thank you very much for your detailed and clear explanation. Now I see.

Have a nice weekend.

Jiang

You're welcome.

[TheMadBaron]

The symbol * means, ungrammatical.
*The food is nice.

How's that ungrammatical, then?

[Steven D]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Casiopea
The symbol * means, ungrammatical.
*The food is nice.

How's that ungrammatical, then?

It's not ungrammatical. It does, however, sound a bit strange and unusual. I don't think we would usually refer to food as being "nice".

[Steven D]

Dear teachers,

In the sentence " You look well." "well" is an adjective which means 'being healthy'and "look" is a link verb. Then I can say "The food tastes good/nice/delicious". Can I say "The food tastes well"?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

You look well. - In that sentence "well" can also be thought of as an adverb. It tells how one looks. In this case, "look" means appear. The word "well" refers to the way that one appears. In that sentence "you are doing something". You appear well. You look well. This is the action of "looking" or "appearing" and someone can do this.

If we are talking about food, we would not use "well" because the food is not doing anything. It is simply "being". The food is not doing anything if we say "The food tastes good." We can't use "well" to refer to food because it would sound like the food is doing something. Food cannot be "well". The word "good" is an adjective and, therefore, can be used to describe "food".

[Casiopea]

How's that ungrammatical, then?

In terms of syntax, it's fine:

The food (Subject, noun)
looks (Linking verb, 3rd person singular, Present)
nice (Predicate adjective)

In terms of semantics, it doesn't fit the rules of the English language. It's ungrammatical.

[Steven D]

I don't understand why "The food is nice." is ungrammatical.

How about these? 1. The food is nice and simple. 2. The food is nice and fresh.

[Casiopea]

I don't understand why "The food is nice." is ungrammatical.

How about these? 1. The food is nice and simple. 2. The food is nice and fresh.

The food is pleasant.
The food is satisfactory.

But niether are synonymous with The food is nice. Here 'nice' expesses has a pleasant taste or an appetizing look. The food is nice is meant to express: The food tastes good or The food looks appetizing.

The process whereby speakers adopt e.g., 'nice' to refer to food is called a semantic extension.