[Grammar] Passed Out

[ShirleyLing]

PLUS - PRO FOOTBALL -- CINCINNATI - PLUS - PRO FOOTBALL -- CINCINNATI - Bengals' Mack Draws Jail Term - NYTimes.com

"Mack was arrested in October after police found him passed out at the wheel of his car on Interstate 75 near downtown."

Shouldn't there be a "having" before "passed out", since "passed out" is in a passive function position in the sentence, but "pass out" is an intransitive verb phrase?

 

[ShirleyLing]

.

 

[Rover_KE]

In this context, passed out is an adjectival phrase meaning unconscious.

Rover

 

[ShirleyLing]

I understand the ability to make particle forms by attaching "ed" to an TRANSITIVE verb/verb-phrase. But "pass out", in the sense of "lose consciousness" is INTRANSITIVE. So, a person couldn't simply "pass out" another person. A person would "pass out" on his own.

 

[5jj]

While most past participles used adjectivally are have a passive sense, the past participles of a few intransitive verbs do not:

They found him slumped over the wheel.
He waited, crouched behind the desk.
The escaped prisoner hid for three weeks in the cellar.
She looked dowdy in her faded clothes.

 

[ShirleyLing]

So that means that the following could be correct:

They found him slumped over the wheel.

"He was slumped over the wheel."

He waited, crouched behind the desk.

"He was crouched behind the desk."

The escaped prisoner hid for three weeks in the cellar.

"The prisoner was escaped for three weeks."

She looked dowdy in her faded clothes.

"Her clothes was faded."

 

[5jj]

So that means that the following could be correct:


"He was slumped over the wheel." Yes
"He was crouched behind the desk." Yes
"The prisoner was escaped for three weeks." No
"Her clothes [STRIKE]was[/STRIKE]were faded." Yes, with my correction.

Also:
The retired doctor:tick: - The doctor was retired. :tick:
My dear departed father :tick: - My father was departed. No.

Don't ask why. We just have to accept that some participles can be used in this way and some cannot.