[Grammar] ..tightly shut or what do it mean?

[Ivand]

As a non-native English speaker I've put myself in Ivand's shoes, and I'd like to share my guess about the source of his difficulty. Ivand, correct me if my guess is wrong. Maybe it has to do with the place of "screwed", and if the sentence were "Peter kept his screwed eyes tightly shut," its meaning would be clear for you. But I'm not sure if such a change would be grammatically or semantically correct.

I thought so, too. I thought you could put it on the right side.)

 

[Ivand]

This is the other forum in which you posted the same thread.

(teechar)

Well. I will insert a link to another forum. I don't understand the language very well yet.

 

[Ivand]

Tarheel
I try to answer your answers. It is possible that I do not fully understand them because I do not know the language well. I'm sorry. If it is not difficult for you, please indicate the errors in my messages.
I will focus on one problem.

in this case, each sentence means some degree of closure, doesn't it?
keep your eyes shut - just closed
keep your eyes screwed shut - a little more
keep your eyes screwed tightly shut - utterly
is it right?
this should help me figure it out

 

[Tarheel]

No. You're making it too complicated. Look at the pictures in the thread on WR. In the one you can't be sure if the person is holding his eyes shut on purpose or not. (He might be asleep.) In the other one the person is clearly holding his eyes shut on purpose. It's no more complicated than that.

(Some context might have helped, but none was provided.)

Don't take the expression apart.

We've discussed this one enough.

 

[Ivand]

Tarheel

There is no context only because the sentence is taken from the dictionary as an example of a word whose definitions I read and I did not understand its meaning and I began to study it.
Here is the example:
Source - https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/screw_1?q=screwed
screw - (transitive) to make something into a smaller shape by squeezing or twisting it
Peter kept his eyes screwed tightly shut.
this is where it all started)

 

[Alexey86]

I thought so, too. I thought you could put it on the right side.)

I'm not surprised you find "eyes screwed tightly shut" confusing because I can't remember ever coming across past participle-adverb-past participle as a noun complement. Would anyone give us some examples of using this construction in a sentence?

 

[Tarheel]

What does "eyes screwed tightly shut" mean?

Two things. One, I construct my sentences so they will say what I want them to say. Two, it might be better to state in the opening post where you found the sentence in question.

Enough said!

 

[Ivand]

Re: What does "eyes screwed tightly shut" mean?

What I really wanted to hear initially in the answer to the question is a syntactic analysis of it. On WR in the penultimate post I was answered as in principle I wanted . I must be asking questions very incomprehensibly. More precisely, I can not ask them perfectly , since English is only familiar to me for 2 months. But I hope that I will reach C2 someday)
Username: natkretep
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/eyes-screwed-tightly-shut.3669750/#post-18713820

 

[Tarheel]

Re: What does "eyes screwed tightly shut" mean?

You don't need to be learning words like syntactic and penultimate. You're still learning how to construct grammatical sentences. (And you're still learning punctuation.) Work on those things.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm not surprised you find "eyes screwed tightly shut" confusing because I can't remember ever coming across past participle-adverb-past participle as a noun complement. Would anyone give us some examples of using this construction in a sentence?

Let's try to simplify this a bit. First of all, don't think of shut as a past participle. Think of it as an adjective. The past participle verb form shut is working as the head in the adjective phrase screwed tightly shut.

A useful way of looking at the pattern is like this: keep + something + adjective phrase

 

[Ivand]

jutfrank

Let's try to simplify this a bit. First of all, don't think of shut as a past participle. Think of it as an adjective. The past participle verb form shut is working as the head in the adjective phrase screwed tightly shut.

A useful way of looking at the pattern is like this: keep + something + adjective phrase

Thank you very much ) This is the analysis that I am interested in)

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you very much.

This is the analysis that I am interested in.

Please get into the habit of ending sentences with an appropriate punctuation mark. The close bracket you used was inappropriate there and does not replace a full stop.

 

[Alexey86]

A useful way of looking at the pattern is like this: keep + something + adjective phrase

That's exactly how I look at it, but it doesn't make the adjective phrase in the sentence any less confusing. Are there any other words that can be used there instead of "screwed"?

Let's consider another example with this structure.

I keep the door closed -> I keep the door tightly closed -> I keep the door ? tightly closed.

I can't think of any past participle that could fit here.

 

[jutfrank]

That's exactly how I look at it, but it doesn't make the adjective phrase in the sentence any less confusing. Are there any other words that can be used there instead of "screwed"?

No, I doubt it. It's a pretty unique phrase.

Let's consider another example with this structure.

I keep the door closed -> I keep the door tightly closed -> I keep the door ? tightly closed.

I can't think of any past participle that could fit here.

I don't think anything can fit there.

But you could compare it to the similar phrase wide open:

I keep the door propped wide open.

 

[Alexey86]

I keep the door propped wide open.

Is this phrase also unique? Can we change "propped" to something else?

 

[Phaedrus]

A useful way of looking at the pattern is like this: keep + something + adjective phrase

I think that that analysis is a great start and works perfectly for a sentence like Peter kept the door [(tightly) shut].

In Peter kept the door screwed tightly shut, however, we do (apparently, at least) have a past participle following the "something": screwed.

It's interesting to note that, even if screwed tightly shut isn't passive here, it relates to a passive, with Peter himself as the "screwer":

Peter screwed his eyes [(tightly) shut]. (active voice)
His eyes were screwed [(tightly) shut]. (passive voice)

The thing is, the second sentence above need not be read as a passive; its be can be parsed as a copula, and screwed tightly shut as a subject complement.

In the end, it seems that in Peter kept his eyes screwed tightly shut, the basic sentence is Peter kept his eyes screwed -- cf. Peter kept his eyes screwed up.

The structure is Subject + Direct Object + Object Complement. The object complement is complex, tying in with the passive to which the state relates.

Here is a sentence that I find to be 100% grammatically parallel to Ivand's: Peter kept the papers stapled closely together.

 

[jutfrank]

In the end, it seems that in Peter kept his eyes screwed tightly shut, the basic sentence is Peter kept his eyes screwed

Hmm. I think the basic sentence is Peter kept his eyes shut. At least, from a semantic perspective. The main idea is that his eyes were not open. The tightly screwed part tells us in what way they were shut. I don't think the sentence has the focus that his eyes were screwed.

 

[Phaedrus]

Hmm. I think the basic sentence is Peter kept his eyes shut. At least, from a semantic perspective. The main idea is that his eyes were not open. The tightly screwed part tells us in what way they were shut. I don't think the sentence has the focus that his eyes were screwed.

The problem with Peter kept his eyes screwed seems to be that screwed needs a complement: screwed up, screwed shut, etc. That problem disappears with peeled. We can say Peter kept his eyes peeled just as easily as we can say Peter kept his eyes peeled open and Peter kept his eyes peeled wide open.

 

[emsr2d2]

In BrE, one doesn't keep ones eyes "peeled open/wide open". If you keep your eyes peeled, it means that you look for something/someone and you concentrate very hard on finding that thing/person.

Sergeant: We're looking for a suspect in a burglary. Have you seen a tall man with red hair, wearing a bright green hoodie?
Detective: No.
Sergeant: Well, keep your eyes peeled. He could be anywhere.
Detective: I will. Hopefully I'll spot him!

 

[Phaedrus]

In BrE, one doesn't keep ones eyes "peeled open/wide open". If you keep your eyes peeled, it means that you look for something/someone and you concentrate very hard on finding that thing/person.

What if a speaker of British English wanted to say that a person's eyes peeled open and that the person kept them that way?