A question about the personal "a"

Question

The following is the headline of one of the articles that appeared on my Yahoo! home page today: "Hallada muerta a la madre del niño que falleció atropellado en la cabalgata de Reyes de Málaga."

My question is: why is the "a" there? I can understand the logic behind its inclusion, but that would mean virtually all Spanish materials intended for English speakers are not exactly correct, as they so often teach us that the personal "a," when required, precedes exclusively a direct object, and "la madre" in the headline is not a direct object (if I'm not mistaken). So, what gives?

Answer 1

This one's an impersonal construction, the personal "a" is not needed here; besides, it is not even well written, it should read:

"Fue Hallada muerta la madre del niño que falleció atropellado en la cabalgata de Reyes de Málaga."

you know what, i think youre right. maybe it was just badly written... - jerryshizzle123, May 1, 2013

Answer 2

The personal a is needed in this case. Hallar a alguien, but Hallar algo.

Hallé a una profesora de inglés para mi niño.

Hallé un documento que tenía perdido.

Answer 3

Actually I agree with Diagonx - I would expect this sentence to be either be a passive statement - using 'ser' - fue hallada muerte la madre ... (por).

... or the other option could be an impersonal one in which case the personal 'a' would be used.

As you may know the personal 'a' is important in this kind of construction because it shows that the person mentioned after the verb is not the one doing the action but instead is the one being acted upon, the direct object as you mentioned.

If an animate being is involved, use the personal a for this object and use the verb in the singular.

Se ve a mi hermana en la clase.
My sister can be seen in the class.

Se ve a mis hermanas en la clase.
My sisters can be seen in the class.

[Without the personal a, the first sentence above would mean “My sister sees herself in class”, and the second would be grammatically incorrect.]

You may find this article on the uses of the Spanish 'a' to be interesting.

Thanks Kiwi. - rogspax, May 1, 2013

:) - Kiwi-Girl, May 1, 2013

Answer 4

often teach us that the personal "a," when required, precedes exclusively a direct object, and "la madre" in the headline is not a direct object

In general, it is more often used for IN-direct objects.

As for this instance, the natives already have it covered far better than I ever could.

And in any event, like in English, headlines seem to have a bit of form and syntax of their own. It can be a bit unusual, or often, technically incorrect. Tough to differentiate for non-natives sometimes, methinks.

but thats not a personal "a". that would simply an indirect complement, which occurs far more frequently. but i agree with everything else. - jerryshizzle123, May 1, 2013

Interesting, and thanks. I went back and looked at our text, which presents them both at the same time, as did our prof. I´d never really properly differentiated. Thanks for setting me straight, as I bumble along here. Always more to learn! - rogspax, May 1, 2013