[Grammar] He spent that break hunkered in the shade.

[kadioguy]

(In the video Shawshank Redemption Explained: Andy's Inner Life)

Red: "He spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange smile on his face, watching us drink his beer."
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Shouldn't the structure be "spend something doing something"?

What do you think?

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(Source)(At 7:37-7:44)

 

[probus]

Not necessarily. You can spend your time simply being, not actively doing anything. In this case his state of being was hunkered down in the shade.

 

[Tarheel]

Have you seen the movie The Shawshank Redemption?

 

[tedmc]

Shouldn't there be a "with" before "a strange smile"?

 

[Tdol]

Shouldn't the structure be "spend something doing something"?


What do you think?

That's what a literalist view does to usage patterns. Hunkered gives a sense of completion that hunkering does not. It is talking about what happened in the past on one special occasion, which means it might depart from a pattern used in less specific occasions in the past.

 

[GoesStation]

Shouldn't there be a "with" before "a strange smile"?

There could be, but the sentence is fine — and more concise — without it.

 

[kadioguy]

Have you seen the movie The Shawshank Redemption?

Yes, this movie is very impressive. I like it as well as Forrest Gump. ;-)

Not necessarily. You can spend your time simply being, not actively doing anything. In this case his state of being was hunkered down in the shade.

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, this movie is very impressive. I like it as well as Forrest Gump. ;-)

I want you to watch a movie some time without worrying about grammar. Then you will be more like me, and don't you want to be more like me?
;-)

I realize you don't learn a second language the same way you learn your first one, but I don't think about grammar much except when I'm on this site. It might be an accomplishment of sort if you get to that point. (Just some thoughts.)

 

[tedmc]

There could be, but the sentence is fine — and more concise — without it.

The second part isn't linked to the first though.

 

[emsr2d2]

Slightly off-topic: To anyone who liked the film, I can wholeheartedly recommend the novella on which it is based: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King.

 

[kadioguy]

I want you to watch a movie some time without worrying about grammar. Then you will be more like me, and don't you want to be more like me?
;-)

Yes, I would love to. I would hate to think about grammar when watching a movie. Often, I do that after it.

I realize you don't learn a second language the same way you learn your first one, but I don't think about grammar much except when I'm on this site. It might be an accomplishment of sort if you get to that point. (Just some thoughts.)

I think you mean of a sort or of sorts.

 

[GoesStation]

"He spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange smile on his face, watching us drink his beer."

Shouldn't there be a "with" before "a strange smile"?

There could be, but the sentence is fine — and more concise — without it.

The second part isn't linked to the first though.

I don't know how to explain this structure, but it's valid and effective. The commas link the last three clauses to the first.

Hopefully a more knowledgeable grammarian will jump in here to elucidate this.

 

[kadioguy]

I don't know how to explain this structure, but it's valid and effective. The commas link the last three clauses to the first.

Did you mean the last two clauses?

"He spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange smile on his face, watching us drink his beer."

 

[GoesStation]

Do you mean the last two clauses?

"He spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange smile on his face, watching us drink his beer."

Yes.

 

[dunchee]

The second part isn't linked to the first though.

absolute phrase (or absolute construction)
http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/phrases.htm#absolute

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, I would love to. I would hate to think about grammar when watching a movie. Often, I do that after it.



I think you mean of a sort or of sorts.

I was thinking of "some," but that word didn't make into that post for some reason.

Kadioguy, it's my job to correct people's English.
;-)

 

[Phaedrus]

(In the video Shawshank Redemption Explained: Andy's Inner Life)

Red: "He spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange smile on his face, watching us drink his beer."
-----

Shouldn't the structure be "spend something doing something"?

Arguably, "He spent that break hunkered in the shade" is a reduced formulation of "He spent that break being hunkered in the shade," which is itself arguably a reduced formulation of "He spent that break in being hunkered in the shade."

 

[kadioguy]

Thank you all.

Plus, I have another question.

The video's title is called "Shawshank Redemption Explained: Andy's Inner Life".

I assume this structure is similar to these:

All rights reserved.
Thread closed.
Word Power Made Easy. (A book's title)

Am I right?

 

[jutfrank]

Yes.

 

[jutfrank]

There are two patterns to notice. I might write them like this:

1) spend [time] -ing ...
2) spend [time] -ed ...

The -ing represents a present participle form and the -ed represents a past participle form. The bracketed part which says [time] signifies either a duration or an extended event. The past participle form signifies a state rather than a continuous action.

Your sentence here belongs to pattern 2.

Instead of using present/past participles, you may also use other adjectival phrases (which are often in the form of preposition phrases). Here are some examples, where the blue adjectival phrases signify states:

She spends her nights alone.
I spent the whole day on the beach.
Are you going to spend the rest of the journey in a mood?

Furthermore, I think it's more useful to analyse a smile on his face simply as a reduced preposition phrase, with with removed but implied. I'd say that the purposeful lack of the preposition is meant to help give the speaker's speech a characteristic style.

He spent that break [...] (with) a smile on his face ...