Wednesday, August 10, 2016

inversion - What's "A Slave" in "12 Years A Slave"?


A grammatical analysis of the title for the movie "12 Years A Slave" has baffled me. Particularly the fact that possibly some kind of inversion (A Slave for 12 Years12 Years A Slave) has taken place.


What's the role of "A Slave" in this phrase?


Some other examples:



I know the meaning of those nineteen years a slave of the law! – Jean Valjean





All things considered, then, it came as no great surprise when Mrs. LaPointe, two years a widow, stepped out to retrieve her newspaper one morning and spotted a dead doe in the middle of Shady Dell Lane. – “Bonny Oaks,” Michael Knight, The Saturday Evening Post, July, 2012





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