"we only have 67 percent of the population vaccinated"
I am wondering what construction is this? Is this To have sb done or what?
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1The text is ambiguous. You could parse it as [Our policy is that] we require / cause / implement a 67% vaccination rate, OR a simple assertion that The vaccination rate [which we have] is 67%– FumbleFingersCommented Sep 28, 2022 at 12:39
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Can anyone give the name of this structure? I've never noted it before– gotube ♦Commented Sep 28, 2022 at 21:07
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2 Answers
The structure is [ "have" + object + modifier ]. It roughly means, "We have a situation where X is Y", and it usually has a negative meaning. The modifier can be just about anything that modifies X.
Here's some examples of the structure with different modifiers:
We have two of our three children angry at us. (plain adjective)
We have two of our three children living in our basement. (present participle)
We have two of our three children not talking to us. (negated present participle)
We have two of our three children in prison. (prepositional phrase)
In all cases, the sentence means, "Two of our three children are [bold part]." There's no causation or passive or anything else like that.
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2It has been argued that this construction is actually the origin of the perfect construction in English and other languages: I have the book written, exactly like gotube's examples -> I have written the book, with my explicit agency. Commented Sep 28, 2022 at 16:39
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1Indeed. It meant "I have (=possess) the book, which I have written." The construction was later generalized to allow, e.g., "I have lost the book", in which "have" doesn't indicate posession.– dan04Commented Sep 28, 2022 at 20:19
(we only have 67 percent of the population vaccinated=We only have vaccinated 67 percent of the population.)
Both are same in meaning, vaccinate is a transitive verb, so it require direct object(67 percent of the population)
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This doesn't answer the question of what the structure is– gotube ♦Commented Sep 28, 2022 at 14:37