[Grammar] I woke up thirsty

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joseph0928

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Hi,

I came across the sentence "I woke up thirsty".
Is this sentence grammatically correct ?
Is there anything omitted ? Such as,
1. I woke up (feeling) thirsty.
2. I woke up (being) thirsty.
3. I woke up (with feeling) thirsty.
4. I woke up (with being) thirsty.

Thank you
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Yes, it is. How did I wake up? Thirsty.

Either use the original sentence or use #1: How did I feel when I woke up? I felt thirsty.
 

Rover_KE

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I came across the sentence ...
Whenever you come across a sentence you want to ask us about, please tell us the source and author.
 

emsr2d2

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Hi.

I came across the sentence "I woke up thirsty". Is this sentence grammatically correct? [STRIKE]Is there[/STRIKE] Has anything been omitted? [STRIKE]Such as,[/STRIKE] For example:

1. I woke up (feeling) thirsty. :tick:
2. I woke up (being) thirsty. :cross:
3. I woke up (with feeling) thirsty. :cross:
4. I woke up (with being) thirsty. :cross:

[STRIKE]Thank you.[/STRIKE] Unnecessary. Thank us after we help you, by clicking on the "Thank" button.

Please note my corrections above. Don't leave a space before a question mark. Of the four sentences you proposed, only the first is grammatically correct. It means the same as your example sentence, which is also grammatically correct.
 

jutfrank

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The answer to your first question is yes.

The answer to your second question (if I understand it correctly) is no. Nothing is omitted there. If you're asking purely about meaning, then your sentences 1 and 2 both express what the original sentence means. Another way to do that is: When I woke up, I was thirsty.
 

TheParser

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I came across the sentence "I woke up thirsty".
Is this sentence grammatically correct ?

NOT A TEACHER

If I understand the reasoning of my favorite grammarian, the answer is YES.

Look at "I came home tired." Dr. George O. Curme in A Grammar of the English Language (1935, Volume I, page 43) says: "An adjective does not usually modify a verb," but points out that an adjective in this "very common construction regularly does so, for one predication can modify another."

This is only my opinion: Why say "I woke up. I was thirsty" when it's smoother to simply say "I woke up thirsty"?
 

jutfrank

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Yes, thirsty obviously describes the person (I), not the event (woke up).
 

TheParser

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Yes, thirsty obviously describes the person (I), not the event (woke up).

NOT A TEACHER

1. Of course, I am not qualified or articulate enough to defend my hero's position.

2. Here is what he says about, for example, sentences such as "He came home sick": The adjective "not only adds a remark about the subject but also has the force of an adverbial clause, thus sustaining relations to both the subject and the principal verb." (Volume II, page 30.)

3. The only reason that I contributed Dr. Curme's theory is that I am guessing that a few members (and guests) are thinking: "woke up" is not a linking verb, so how can it be said (from a grammatical point of view) that the word "thirsty" modifies (refers to) the subject?


a. It seems that some grammarians do see certain verbs as so-called quasi-copulas, such as in "They escaped unharmed." (Source: the website Quora)
 
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Phaedrus

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. . . 'thirsty' is about the state of the speaker on waking, not the manner of waking. The adjective modifies the pronoun, not the verb.

Nevertheless, Piscean, given what Charlie Bernstein pointed out in post #2 (that "thirsty" in the OP's example answers the question "How did I wake up?"), it would seem that "thirsty" may be said to relate in some manner to "woke up" (or perhaps to the whole unit "I woke up") in "I woke up thirsty," wouldn't it?

If "thirsty" related solely to the pronoun ("I"), then we would expect "I woke up thirsty" to be equivalent to "Thirsty, I woke up" or to "I woke up and was thirsty"; however, it doesn't seem equivalent to either one.

Likewise, if "thirsty" related solely to "woke up," we'd expect "I woke up thirsty" to be equivalent to ??"I woke up thirstily"; however, that doesn't seem to be the case, either. Indeed, I doubt very much that Curme had adverbials of manner in mind.
 
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