Re: deeply embedded VSO nightmare

> From: "Matthew Pearson"
> > However, there are no idioms in English--at least, none that I
> > can think of--which consist of a verb and its subject, the object
> > having a literal interpretation and varying from context to context.
> > For example, we could imagine a hypothetical idiom of the form "The
> > toaster burned X" meaning "X went bankrupt":
> >
> >   The toaster burned Pat  (= Pat went bankrupt)
> >   The toaster burned my brother  (= My brother went bankrupt)
Using your financial ruin examples, I thought of:

The roof fell in on... OR

The floor fell out from the bottom of...(Polaroid,say)

Not great (or as terse) examples, I admit, but do these count, or do they
point us in the right direction?

Kou