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Does this sentence contain a postpositive adjective?

It leaves no one indifferent

I thought "indifferent" here is a postpositive adjective. Am I right?

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  • Note that there's a double negative involved here, and leave is a metaphor. This is not a garden-variety sentence.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 22:07
  • So you mean it has an exception and it doesn't position as "predictive","attributive" or "postpositive"
    – ceren aksengur
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 22:11
  • I mean using this sentence as an example of anything is unlikely to improve anyone's understanding. And who says those are the only options?
    – John Lawler
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 22:15
  • I am just a curious learner. I only saw these three structure on the Internet. It can be more...
    – ceren aksengur
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 22:18
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    It's an object complement and a predicate adjective. Like this: He painted the barn red. barn = red due to the verb action.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 15:38

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The adjective “indifferent” in that sentence just happens to come after “no one”, but is not attached to it. So it is not a postpositive adjective (which would be attached to the preceding material to form a phrase).

You can see this if you look at a related passive sentence: we would say “No one is left indifferent (by it)”, not *“No one indifferent is left (by it)”.

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  • So what kind of an adjective is that ? It is not a predictative nor attributive..
    – ceren aksengur
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 21:57
  • 2
    @cerenaksengur: my memory of this kind of terminology is rusty, but I think it would be a predicative adjective used along with an object
    – herisson
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 22:00
  • @cerenaksengur It's a verbal argument, sometimes called a complement. It's not an adjunct. You can leave someone money and you get leave them excited. The only super-tiny problem is that when the final argument is an adjective it is very slightly ambiguous whether it applies to the subject argument or to the (first) "object" argument. But common sense normally applies.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 22:59
  • @herisson: Yes, also called an object complement.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 23:53
  • @Cerberus_Reinstate_Monica thank you!
    – ceren aksengur
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 10:26

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