How can we decide which noun complement should be used in uncountable form and which shouldn't?
Look at these sentences:
- They were held hostage.
- They were held captive.
Here, are "hostage" and "captive" working as adjectives?
If they are, then why can't we say "A hostage man"? (We can say "a captive man" because "captive" can be an adjective ... but "hostage" is only a noun).
And if they aren't adjectives, then why do some predicative noun complements take singular form even though they are countable (like "hostage" and "captive" ... both are actually countable) but others don't eg "They are teachers", "He is a student", "They consider him a good guy"(here "a good guy" is the complement of "him"), "The made him the president"?
Sometimes I ask myself: "Can I compare it to structures like "They were held in prison"? Like a noun complement working as an adverb ... but still this won't help because the countability aspect would still remain as we can say "He was held in a car", "He was held in a room".
Is there actually some rule which can help a learner like me to decide which one to choose in what situation when he is confused? Or does one just have to learn all the the verb patterns for this, there being no other way?
Top Answer/Comment:
Idiomatic usage of hold + noun, or take + noun
Meaning B2 in the Cambridge Dictionary:
to keep someone in a place so that they cannot leave:
[examples]
hold someone hostage
The terrorists held him hostage for 18 months.
be held prisoner
I was held prisoner in a tiny attic room.
Cambridge Dictionary
hold [no pronoun] hostage also works.
hold hostage, hold prisoner, hold captive
When a speaker or writer uses hold to mean "keep someone in a place they cannot leave", the noun that follows comes directly after the verb and is singular. It is the verb hold here that makes the noun following it idiomatic or not. The verb take also works like this: take or taken hostage, captive or prisoner. Even if there is more than one: They were taken hostage in November 1990. Countability is not a factor as regards idiomaticity here.
In fact, there is the idiom: take no prisoners.
BBC
Held Hostage in Syria
The Documentary Podcast
Four hostages held by Islamic State - aid worker Federico Motka, journalists Didier Francois and Daniel Rye, and blogger Pierre Torres - talk about their months of captivity
BBC
[This example is given to show idiomatic usage because the dictionary above uses a pronoun between held and hostage.]
There is also: to make president or make captain usually in the past: made president, made captain, for example.
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