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Подумайте только, в два раза больше радости.

While I understand the meaning of this sentence, the grammatical function of the phrase "в два раза больше радости" has me puzzled.

Does the entire phrase "в два раза больше радости" serve as the direct object of the verb "подумать", albeit separated by a comma?

If so, I wonder if "в два раза больше радости" as a whole is considered to be in the accusative case, given the construction "подумать + (accusative) / think about".

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    It's pretty much equivalent to Just think about it, [there will be] twice as much joy. So, joy is not an object.
    – mustaccio
    Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 13:06
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    i think a dash instead of the comma would do more syntactical justice to the semantics of the sentence
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Commented Apr 20, 2018 at 21:02

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It is a separate clause. We do not, as far as I know, use the conception of cases with clauses. Nor plays it the role of direct object.

Technically, "только подумайте" are parenthetical words.

Compare:

Представьте себе поезд. - Imagine a train.

Представьте себе, поезд! - Believe it or not, a train!

Подумать usually requires prepositional case, so it doesn't fit to your model.

You may use думать with accusative but in some very rare phrases like думать думу - to think about something difficult for a long time.

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    Hi. So in a manner of speaking, is "в два раза больше радости" like a nominative phrase? That is, just as "поезд" in your 2nd example is in the nominative case?
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Apr 18, 2018 at 22:53
  • @Alone-zee Sort of.
    – AlexVB
    Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 2:04
  • Is it possible to rephrase the sentence in my Q with "подумать + о ..."? If so, I wonder how.
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 13:19
  • @Alone-zee, You will need to make a compound sentence (with main and dependent clause) then. This will change the meaning. In your example подумайте только is an exclamation that has no grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence. In the compound sentence it will turn into an order: "Подумайте только о том, что это [принесет] в два раза больше радости" - Just consider that it will make double fun.
    – AlexVB
    Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 15:26
  • @Alone-zee By the way, if you have a dependent clause, you may do without a preposition: Подумайте [о том], что это может значить - Think about what it may mean
    – AlexVB
    Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 15:30

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