SPOILER ALERT: This question asks about the last line of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. If you are reading the novel, you may want to skip this question.
The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky – seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.
Should an adverb (i.e. sombrely) have been used to describe 'flowed'?
Are there any formal terms describing this issue? I question my doubt given Conrad's renown.
Obiter dictum: I lighted upon this while reading The Guardian's 'The 10 best… closing lines of books'.
Answer
I've just been reading on "depictive constructions" and it seems to be the term used by some lingusts to describe such constructions.
The waterway flowed sombre.
The construction depicts the state of the waterway, not the manner of its flowing. Compare:
- John shouted at them angrily. (describes the manner of his shouting)
- John angrily read the review. (an intermediate case: describes John's state of mind too)
- John left the party angry. (Depictive construction: John might have left the party in a civilized way, perhaps even smiling, but he was angry inside)
This thing called "adjective secondary predicate" seems to subdivide into depictive and resultative:
Mary ate tired. (depictive over the subject: Mary was tired)
John ate the meat raw (depictive over the object: the meat was raw)
Johh pounded the metal flat. (resultative)
We drank the teapon empty. (resultative: the teapot has been emptied)
John fried the fish dry. (resultative or depictive: either the fish was fried to a dry condition, or John was dry while frying the fish)
You might read up on this and decide if I'm right.
Linguists seem to be still in disagreement as to how to treat such constructions. Judging by a quick perusal of different PDFs, some analyse the whole thing as a "complex predicate", leading to the use of the terms "resultative/depictive", some use the terms "small clause"/"adjunct" for resultatives and depictives respectively. I haven't yet got the difference.
Reference
P.S. Note that Conrad was a non-native speaker of English, although a brilliant writer. But in your example the usage seems idiomatic to me.
P.P.S. Related questions:
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