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martyr

jalaluddin

Senior Member
India - Hindi & English
Can we use martyr word for policeman ? I suppose it can be used for religious activist and army people.

If we want to make a headline, that two policemen became martyr by the attacked of killers.

became martyr (noun) ?
became martyred (martyred - adjective) ?

became martyred ?
were martyred (martyr - verb) ?

martyrdom (noun). how can we make sentence with this noun ?

what would be the best sentence by using them ? As a noun - As a verb -
As an adjective ?

Here for this word two noun are exisisting - martyr - martyrdom
"jalauddin", you appear to be loading the death of the policemen with additional political innuendo. On the basis of what you have shown here it is difficult to say whether it is appropriate or not. Perhaps it would be easier to advise if you supplied the actual sentence you wish to write.
A martyr is a person who suffers death rather than renounce his/her religious beliefs,
or a person who suffers greatly or dies for a cause.

It derives from a Greek word meaning "witness".

A policeman who is killed in the line of duty is not a martyr.
Actually, I want to know, If somebody (for religious movement) and died,

so we can say, He got martyred.

He was martyred.

He became martyred.

Got, Was,Became ? what use with word "martyr" to make complete sense
Anyone can be a martyr if they die for their beliefs - whether a policeman, a king or a swineherd. However, one is not a martyr merely because one dies when performing one'd duty. Moreover, at the moment the word is closely associated in the mind with suicide bombers, and is therefore very difficult to use in a positive sense. Were this not the case, you could perhaps say he died a martyr's death.
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Jalaluddin - it's difficult to answer your question without more context and a complete sentence as an example

Also, I associate the word 'martyr' with someone who willingly dies rather than renounce a belief. I wouldn't consider the death of a police officer an example of martyrdom. Given the choice of getting shot or not getting shot, a police officer would choose the latter.

We shouldn't let the crazy fanatics co-opt a perfectly legitimate word. There have been plenty of honourable people that have martyred themselves over the years.

-Greg
He became martyred.

(you have indicated as a wrong sentence, but martyred is both verb and adjective. so can't we use adjective with linking verb become ?)
Hello jalaluddin

You're right that martyred can be an adjective. But when it's an adjective, it's used attributively (directly modifying a noun) rather than predicatively (after a verb). Compare the adjective main: we say 👁 Tick :tick:
the main problem, but we don't say 👁 Cross :cross:
the problem is main.

So we can talk about 👁 Tick :tick:
a martyred man but we can't say 👁 Cross :cross:
the man became martyred.
I am almost convinced but I have little confusion. There are still lots of adjective which come after linking verbs such as, become, seem,appear

And when used after become, They sound very natural. Like,

(1) Loob has become bored with my stupidity.

(2) Forero became tired and gave up answering.

(3) Other seems not much excited.

(4) John will become interested to help you when you tell him your problem.


Here adjectives are used predicatively still they appearing as if they are

directly modifying nouns.


.


The way you have convinced me is perfectly alright. Just little query occuerd
that I have mentioned. in red. Please, help me........
I see what you mean in your red comment, jalaluddin: when adjectives are used after linking/copular verbs they do, indeed, refer back to the subject of the sentence.

What I meant by "directly modifying a noun" was "forming part of a noun phrase". In The book is big, big doesn't form part of the noun phrase {the book} which acts as the subject of the sentence. In The big book is on the table, big does form part of the noun phrase {the big book} which acts as the subject of the sentence.

In my earlier post, I thought of saying that an attributive adjective was an adjective that goes before a noun. But that isn't 100% true: sometimes an attributive adjective can come after the noun or pronoun eg something useful.

Keep asking if it's still unclear👁 Smile :)
Thanks Loob,

Could you give some more examples of both to learn and understand them better.

I shall ask you, If I got any confusion related with this topic.
jalaluddin: You're very close. The thing is, from the -ed ending in 'a martyr man' we can't tell whether the word is adjective or verb. Both kinds of -ed words can go there.

Also, after 'is': both adjectives and verbs can go there: He is bored (adjective). He is chased (verb). So that doesn't help to decide either.

The test is this: can they go after 'become' or 'seem'? If they can, they're adjectives. If they can't, they're verbs. So we can say he became tired/excited, he seemed interested/bored. That means the words 'tired/excited/interested/bored' are adjectives. (Likewise with obvious adjectives: He became/seemed hungry/dirty/intelligent/etc. But with verbs we can't say *he became chased, or *he seemed chased.)

We can't say 'he became martyred'. Therefore 'martyred' isn't an adjective.
We can't say 'he became martyred'. Therefore 'martyred' isn't an adjective.
I'd have argued just like you, ET!👁 Smile :)


Then I found martyred as an adjective in the OED....
Not good enough. John was more martyred than Mary? John was not martyred enough? John was too martyred to survive? Mary was very martyred? The OED unfortunately was begun in the 1880s and its continuous updating means it hasn't been able to make a break and change its grammatical labelling: so they use 'adj.' when they mean anything that appears in front of a noun.
Yes but, no but, yes but 👁 Stick Out Tongue :p


Your tests work perfectly for "archetypal" adjectives, ET. But try them with (for example) 'main' and they fail horribly....
No, not all adjectives are gradable. So why do we say 'main' is an adjective? Because it matches archetypal adjectives in some of their remaining properties. In fact, 'main' is an adjective only by failing to be anything else. About the only place 'main' can occur is in front of a noun. But so can pretty much anything else: noun, verb, preposition. It isn't a noun ('this is a main') and it doesn't satisfy tests for verb or preposition either, so we're stuck with classifying something that only occurs in this one ambivalent environment: 'the main thing'.

No word class has a single, simple, unequivocal test. But there are characteristic tests for archetypal examples. Archetypally, an adjective can be modified by very/too/enough/more. Archetypally, a preposition can be modified by right/straight. Not all can, and we then have to decide the more difficult cases by which archetypal cases they most resemble. In marginal cases, classification might be very difficult or even undecidable.
It's worth pointing out that many of the OED examples of martyred (adjective) are "in extended use". I don't think there is any doubt that martyred is an adjective in:
1897 ‘H. S. MERRIMAN’ In Kedar's Tents xiv. 154 ‘You are always kinder to her than you are to me’, went on the lady in her most martyred manner.
1936 P. G. WODEHOUSE Young Men in Spats ix. 238 You wouldn't know a martyred proletariat if they brought it to you on a skewer with Béarnaise sauce.
1954 P. FRANKAU Wreath for Enemy III. i. 140 Francis..stood beside the car with the martyred air of one kept waiting.
1981 D. POTTER Pennies from Heaven xxvii. 166 Joan was watching and listening with a martyred satisfaction.
Not at all, that's the whole point. The position '__ Noun' doesn't tell you anything about what word class the word is. You need to test it in other positions.
Not at all, that's the whole point. The position '__ Noun' doesn't tell you anything about what word class the word is. You need to test it in other positions.
Surely not.
The word is an adjective where it's function is that of an adjective.

In the examples I quoted from the OED, isn't "martyred" an adjective?
How it behaves in other positions doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Similarly, "main" can be a noun when appropriate.
The final test for correct usage, in modern English, is that it sounds OK to most native speakers.

By this test, I think he became a martyr is preferable to he became martyred.
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