The storm left the whole town a wilderness.
What does this "leave" mean here?
It sounds like the usage of "leave him a billionaire." Am I right?
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As you know, the base sense of leave is intransitive, “depart, go away”.
It may also be used transitively, in four senses:
With a single complement—the place from which the subject departs. This is treated in traditional grammar as a Direct Object (DO) —
I left [DOSt. Louis] at seven this morning.
—but it is probably better understood as a Locative Complement (LC).
With either one or two complements of which one is obligatory and one is optional. This use is restricted to legacies, what dead people ‘leave’ to their heirs. The obligatory complement is a nominal DO, and is the legacy which remains after the departure; the optional complement is an Indirect Object (IO), the recipient of the DO.
He left [DOan estate of twenty million dollars].
He left [iOme] [DOhis collection of first editions].Like other IOs, this IO may be expressed with a preposition phrase.
He left [DOhis business] [IO to his son].
With two complements, of which the first, the DO, is a state or condition which the subject effects before departing and the second is an LC telling where the DO is effected.
Sherman left [DOdestruction and misery] [LCin his wake].
With two complements, of which the first, the DO, is an entity affected by the subject and the second is an Object Complement (OC) describing the DO or attributing to it a state effected (a) by the subject before departing or (b) by the deparature itself. That object complement may be either a nominal or an adjectival construction.
His death left [DO all of us] [OCsaddened]. ... His death caused us to be saddened after it happened.
Sherman’s March to the Sea left [DOGeorgia] [[OCa wasteland]. ... Sherman's march caused Georgia to be a wasteland after it happened.
Your sentence is of the fourth type:
The storm left [DOthe whole town] [OC a wilderness].
StoneyB on hiatus
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So, The storm left the city a destructed place is correct, isn't it? Or The storm left the city destroyed is more natural? – Maulik V Jun 18 '14 at 13:44
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@MaulikV Destructed isn't English, because destruct is not an English verb. But The storm left the city a shambles or The storm left the city a ruin or The storm left the city a mess are all fine. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 18 '14 at 13:48
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@MaulikV Check out sense 13 in the link you gave. – Damkerng T. Jun 18 '14 at 13:48
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@user8153 W e l l ... if you mean that he left you a million dollars in his will, that's not how we'd say it; we'd say He left me a million dollars or His death left me a millionaire. But if he was your financial advisor, yeah, it would be fine. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 18 '14 at 13:50
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@user8153 Basically, yes, it's the same construction. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 18 '14 at 14:06