We had a strange woman come to the door selling pictures

[shootingstar]

Examples:
1) We had a strange woman come to the door selling pictures.
2) I had my friends turn against me.
3) He had the bouncers throw them out of the club.

All these sentences are of one and the same structure have + object + infinitive without to. Although they are of the same structure they seem to have different meanings.

Does this structure have + object + infinitive without to really have different meanings? If so, please give your own examples.
Is there a general meaning of have + object + infinitive without to? What meanings does this structure have? I'm not sure of its meanings.

 

[jutfrank]

I'd count 1 and 2 as the same meaning and 3 as different.

The main difference is that sentences 1 and 2 present their subjects (We and I) as experiencers whereas sentence 3 presents its subject as an agent. That is to say that sentence 3 means that he actively ordered the bouncers to eject them from the club. In 1 and 2, there's no action being done by the subjects.

The use in 3 is generally called 'causative', since the subject has an indirect causal effect on the action. It is not 'He' who throws the people out of the club physically himself, but rather that he asks other people to do it for him. You can say that 'He' is behind the action in a way, but only indirectly. It may be of certain utility to further classify instances of this causative usage by degree of the strength of causation, but in general it's the same basic meaning.

You say that you can sense a difference between 1 and 2. What difference do you sense?

 

[shootingstar]

Thank you very much.

You say that you can sense a difference between 1 and 2. What difference do you sense?

No. It only seems to me there is a difference actually - I'm not sure of that. I surmise that an event or a mere incident is expressed in the first sentence, whereas in the second sentence something of a suffering is sensible - but it's only a guess. But, maybe, you can both subsume under the term 'experience'.

 

[jutfrank]

I surmise that an event or a mere incident is expressed in the first sentence, whereas in the second sentence something of a suffering is sensible - but it's only a guess.

That's certainly true but it isn't related to the grammatical structure per se but to the overall sentence meaning.