Last week, as I was departing from work, a co-worker said, "Stay warm!" It was very cold that day. My question is how is the word warm functioning in this sentence? What part of speech is it? It appears to be modifying the word stay, but stay is a verb and warm is an adjective. My understanding is that adjectives cannot modify verbs. Please explain?
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It's an ordinary adjective acting as a subject-oriented complement of the verb stay predicated of the implicit subject you.– StoneyB on hiatusCommented Feb 15, 2015 at 15:43
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1It's no different to other imperatives such as "Be quiet!" or "Get real!". It would take some serious creative interpretation to parse those commands if they used explicitly adverbial forms, but there are some constructions where both work. You can certainly use "Come quickly!" and "Come quick!" more or less interchangeably.– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 15, 2015 at 15:48
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... as opposed to humorous creative interpretation?– Edwin AshworthCommented Feb 15, 2015 at 16:51
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A separate issue is why there is no infinitive complementizer to be required with stay warm, like there is in continue/want/desire/intend/remember/try to be warm, or a gerund be, like stop/finish/remember/try being warm. Stay seems unusual in this property.– John LawlerCommented Feb 15, 2015 at 18:52
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@JohnLawler No more unusual than any other linking verb, surely? Stay/remain/keep/be/get/appear warm …– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Feb 17, 2015 at 9:35
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1 Answer
The subject of the sentence Stay warm is an implied you. The adjective warm modifies the implied pronoun you. The verb stay serves as a linking verb connecting the subject with its modifier.
A similar construction is Be safe. The adjective safe modifies you (implied), linked by be.
