The thieves fled empty-handed.

[Nonverbis]

empty-handed adjective - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of empty-handed adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

Welcome to Macmillan Education Customer Support

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/empty-handed

The thieves fled empty-handed.
She visited every Sunday and never arrived empty-handed.
We went to the sale expecting to buy a lot, but we came away empty-handed.

What troubles me is why all these dictionaries classify "empty-handed" as an adjective.

To my mind, it is an adverb of manner. It describes how and in what way an action, denoted by a verb, is carried out.

Let's try to substitute this compound word with some adverbs.
The thieves fled quckly.
She visited every Sunday and never arrived early.
We went to the sale expecting to buy a lot, but we came away suddenly.

Well, if my substitutions make sens, then this is a place for an adverb. How an adjective take place of an adverb is a mystery to me.

How can I understand this construction? As a linking verb and a predicative adjective?
But these are not linking verbs.

Could you help me understand this: why this word is classified as an adverb?

 

[jutfrank]

What troubles me is why all these dictionaries classify "empty-handed" as an adjective.

To my mind, it is an adverb of manner. It describes how and in what way an action, denoted by a verb, is carried out.

He came home empty-handed.

Try to think of the above sentence like this: He came home [in a state of being] empty-handed. Now you can see that empty-handed is what he is rather than about how he did what he did. We'd say that the adjective empty-handed is a subject complement in this sentence because it goes with He.

Let's try to substitute this compound word with some adverbs.
The thieves fled quckly.
She visited every Sunday and never arrived early.
We went to the sale expecting to buy a lot, but we came away suddenly.

Well, if my substitutions make sens, then this is a place for an adverb. How an adjective take place of an adverb is a mystery to me.

It's quite unusual for a single adjective to take such a position, but it does happen. Perhaps you just need to see and consider more examples.

 

[Nonverbis]

More examples from British National Corpus:

1. She seldom goes empty-handed.
2. Nigel went back home empty-handed and downhearted.
3. I liked that idea: it seemed aristocratic to me, just walking out empty-handed as if we were above all objects.
4. They were empty-handed once again.
5. others who went to her for help came away empty-handed

To detemine a part of speech I was taught to ask questions at school. Let us suppose we stick to the examples from the dictionarits.

How did the thieves flee?
How did he arrive?
How did we come away?

So, a verb is described here by the word "empty-handed", not a noun.

If it were an adjective, then you could put a question to a noun so that the answer should be "empty handed".

Why should these be adjectives is a mystery to me.

To my mind, the only example of all mentioned above is "They were empty-handed once again".

What were they like? Empty-handed. Definitely an adjective.

Maybe in this case the dictionaries should have separate articles for both an adjective and an adverb.

 

[PaulMatthews]

The thieves fled empty-handed.

"Empty-handed" is undoubtedly an adjective. It's a depictive predicative functioning as an adjunct, a modifier in clause structure.

Predicatives like this are best analysed as predicative adjuncts, where the predicative/non-predicative contrast cuts across that between complements and adjuncts.

"Empty-handed" is not licensed by "fled" so it can't be a complement. It is nevertheless predicative in that it is related to a predicand, i.e. "the thieves".

Manner adjuncts, by contrast, are semantically associated very clearly with the verb and describe how, in what way, the process in the verb phrase is performed, for example Ed walked slowly away / She departed very hastily / He drove quite recklessly

In very simple terms, "empty-handed" describes "the thieves", not the manner in which they left.

Importantly, manner adjuncts are not related to a predicand, and hence cannot be predicative, like "empty-handed" is in your example.