Would you begrudge a man a living?

[Alexey86]

This is from Westworld s03e02 (14.39 - 14.55):

Maeve: They shot you.
Lee: Half a dozen times. Just happy they missed my heart.
Maeve: Cunning of you to make it so compact a target. How can you still work here after everything they've done?
Lee: Would you begrudge a man a living? And great benefits, much needed for all the surgeries?

I understand the meaning, but the pattern a noun + a participle as the verb complement is not familiar to me, or maybe I just can't remember it. Would you please explain to me the usage of the pattern?

P.S.: I've thought a bit about it, and now I'm not sure what the whole sentence means, since "begrudge" can provide two different meanings.

 

[Alexey86]

Lee speaks in the third person. Shouldn't it be "Would you begrudge a man his living?"

 

[jutfrank]

Lee speaks in the third person. Shouldn't it be "Would you begrudge a man his living?"

No, but that would work well too.

The pattern used here is begrudge somebody something. The verb 'begrudge' follows sense 1 in this dictionary entry:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/begrudge

 

[Alexey86]

No, but that would work well too.

But why does "a" work here at all? If we already have "a man", there can be only one specific living, his living.

 

[jutfrank]

But why does "a" work here at all? If we already have "a man", there can be only one specific living, his living.

Using a is less specific. With the indefinite article, it could be any living, not necessarily his specific living, whatever that may be.

Think of a living as similar to a job.

 

[Alexey86]

With the indefinite article, it could be any living, not necessarily his specific living

But it's not any living. Maeve mentions his work in the previous line. Suppose Lee makes a shift from his living to a living in general. I still don't get it. Let's take "the action of a verb" or "the roof of a building." We use "the" because any verb conveys only one action, and any building has one roof. "A" would be wrong here. Why isn't this true for "a man a living"? "Living" includes all the ways "a man" earns money. How can it be "a living"? I would have understood it if "living" had stood apart as in "What do you do for a living?" But we have "a man a living."

 

[jutfrank]

I can't follow your thinking this time, I'm afraid. I can't see how or why you're trying to connect 'the roof of a building' with 'a man a living'.

Remember that the verb pattern is begrudge someone something. There's no need to connect a man with a living outside of the context of this verb pattern.

 

[Alexey86]

Would you please reword the sentence using "envy" or another suitable verb, and only the indefinite article?

 

[jutfrank]

Would you please reword the sentence using "envy" or another suitable verb, and only the indefinite article?

The meaning of begrudge someone something has nothing to do with envy.

Look at the dictionary entries and examples here: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/begrudge

 

[GoesStation]

Would you please reword the sentence using "envy" or another suitable verb, and only the indefinite article?

Would you deny a man a living?

Would you prevent someone from earning his living?

 

[Alexey86]

The meaning of begrudge someone something has nothing to do with envy.

Look at the dictionary entries and examples here: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/begrudge

Thesaurus.com, Merriam-Webster and Collins Dictionary don't agree with you:

https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/begrudge
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus/begrudge
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/begrudge

I think "to feel unhappy because someone has something that you think they do not deserve" is just a slightly retouched definition of "envy."

So, would you reformulate the sentence, please? It's not the verb that bothers me, but article usage.

 

[Alexey86]

Would you deny a man a living?

I can't find such examples with two indefinite articles on the Internet. And I can't understand why it's not "his living", since we have "a man" and, therefore, "living" includes all the ways he earns money.

Would you prevent someone from earning his living?

I couldn't help but notice "his."

 

[GoesStation]

Would you prevent someone from earning his living? [/I]

I couldn't help but notice "his."

I wrote "his" because I replaced "a man" with "someone". I could just as well have written Would you prevent a man from earning a living?

 

[Alexey86]

I wrote "his" because I replaced "a man" with "someone"

Why does it matter? Would "a" wrong in this case?

 

[Tdol]

I can't find such examples with two indefinite articles on the Internet.

If you go onto a corpus site, open the [POS] dropdown box (Part of speech) and search for _at* _n* _at* _n* (article + noun + article + noun- you can simply copy and paste the text I have put in bold into the search box) you will find examples.

https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/
https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/

 

[Alexey86]

If you go onto a corpus site, open the [POS] dropdown box (Part of speech) and search for _at* _n* _at* _n* (article + noun + article + noun- you can simply copy and paste the text I have put in bold into the search box) you will find examples.

Thank you, I have no problem with other cases of a + noun + a + noun or verb + a + noun + a + noun. I can't find "begrudge/deny a noun a noun." It seems strange to me in the context given as well as "a roof" in "A hurricane can break a roof of a building."

 

[GoesStation]

I wrote "his" because I replaced "a man" with "someone". I could just as well have written Would you prevent a man from earning a living?

Why does it matter? Would "a" be wrong in this case?

No. Re-read the part I highlighted above.

 

[Alexey86]

No. Re-read the part I highlighted above.

Sorry, GS, I don't see how it can help. Let's consider two contexts:

1) Suppose some man has a car. One day he drinks too much and is going to drive somewhere. But his girlfriend prevents him from driving the/his car. I think "a" would be wrong here or at least sound strange.

2) Some man doesn't have a car and wants to buy one, but he hasn't chosen a model yet. His girlfriend prevents him from buying a car. I think only "a" would be correct here.

Referring to "living", if some man earns a living, one can try to prevent him from earning his living. But if he's just going to earn a living, one can prevent him from earning a living. In the Westworld context Lee earns a living. Does it make sense to you?

 

[Alexey86]

Living' is used in a different way from 'car' and 'roof'.

What's the difference between "to prevent one from buying a car" and "to prevent one from earning a living"?

 

[jutfrank]

I think "to feel unhappy because someone has something that you think they do not deserve" is just a slightly retouched definition of "envy."

Not really.

So, would you reformulate the sentence, please? It's not the verb that bothers me, but article usage.

I would reword the sentence as GoesStation has in post #11. As you can tell from the rewording, the feeling is one of resentment, not envy.