Subject Complement
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In
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, a subject complement or predicative of the subject is a
predicative expression A predicative expression (or just predicative) is part of a clause predicate, and is an expression that typically follows a copula (or linking verb), e.g. ''be'', ''seem'', ''appear'', or that appears as a second complement of a certain type of v ...
that follows a
linking verb In traditional grammar and guide books, a linking verb is a verb that describes the subject by connecting it to a predicate adjective or predicate noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of obj ...
( copula) and that complements the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. It completes the meaning of the subject. In the former case, a renaming
noun phrase In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...
such as a
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
or
pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
is called a predicative nominal. An
adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...
following the copula and describing the subject is called a predicative adjective. In either case the predicative complement in effect mirrors the subject. Subject complements are used with a small class of verbs called linking verbs or copulas, of which ''be'' is the most common. Since linking verbs are intransitive, subject complements are not affected by any action of the verb. Subject complements are typically neither clause
argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
s nor adjuncts. A predicative complement can be either a subject complement or an object complement. A predicate nominative does not determine the verb. When there is a difference between the
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
, the verb agrees with the subject.


Examples

The subject complement is bold in the following examples: ::*The lake was a tranquil pool. – Predicative nominal as subject complement Here, ''was'' is a linking verb (an inflected form of ''be'') that equates the predicate nominative phrase ''a tranquil pool'', with the
head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
noun, ''pool'', to the subject, ''the lake'' (with head noun ''lake''). ::*The lake is tranquil. – Predicative adjective as subject complement In this example ''tranquil'' is a predicative adjective linked through the verb ''is'' (another inflected form of ''be'') to the subject ''the lake''. An example in which the subject complement is a dependent clause is: ::*That is what my point is. – Predicative clause as subject complement


Other languages

Some languages do not use predicative adjectives with a linking verb; instead, adjectives can become
stative verb According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
s that replace the copula. For example, in
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
''It is red'' is rendered as ''tā hóng (它紅, 它红)'', which translates literally as ''It red''. However, Mandarin retains the copula when it is followed by a predicative nominal.


Disputed pronoun forms

Eighteenth-century grammarians such as
Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
justified the colloquial usage of ''it is me'' (and ''it is him'', ''he is taller than him'', etc.) on the grounds that good writers use it often: (sic)
All our grammarians say, that the nominative cases of pronouns ought to follow the verb substantive as well as precede it; yet any familiar forms of speech and the example of some of our best writers would lead us to make a contrary rule; or, at least, would leave us at liberty to adopt which we liked best.
Other grammarians, including Baker (1770), Campbell (1776), and Lindley Murray (1795), say the first person pronoun must be ''I'' rather than ''me'' because it is a nominative that is equivalent to the subject. The opinions of these three partisans of the nominative case were accepted by the schoolmasters. However, modern grammarians such as
Rodney Huddleston Rodney D. Huddleston (born 4 April 1937) is a British linguist and grammarian specializing in the study and description of English. Huddleston is the primary author of '' The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'' (), which presents a com ...
and Geoffrey K. Pullum deny that such a rule exists in English and claim that such opinions "confuse correctness with formality". This argument for ''it is I'' is based on the model of Latin, where the complement of the finite copula is always in the
nominative case In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
(and where, unlike English, nominative and accusative are distinguished morphologically in all nominal parts of speech and not just in pronouns).Peter V. Jones and Keith C. Sidwell, ''An Independent Study Guide to Reading Latin'' (
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 2000: ), p. 11.
The situation in English may, however, also be compared with that of French, where the historical accusative form ''moi'' functions as a so-called disjunctive pronoun, and appears as a subject complement (''c'est moi'', 'it is me'). Similarly, the clitic accusative form can serve as a subject complement as well as a direct object (''il l'est'' 'he is hat/it, cf. ''il l'aime'' 'he loves it'). Fiction writers have occasionally pointed out the colloquialisms of their characters in an authorial comment. In "The Curse of the Golden Cross", for example, G. K. Chesterton writes, "'He may be me,' said
Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...
, with cheerful contempt for grammar." And in '' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'',
C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
writes, "'Come out, Mrs. Beaver. Come out, Sons and Daughters of Adam. It's all right! It isn't Her!' This was bad grammar of course, but that is how beavers talk when they are excited." {{Further, Objective case#English


See also

*
Copula (linguistics) In linguistics, a copula (plural: copulas or copulae; abbreviated ) is a word or phrase that links the subject of a sentence to a subject complement, such as the word ''is'' in the sentence "The sky is blue" or the phrase ''was not being'' i ...
* Disjunctive pronoun * Disputed English grammar *
English personal pronouns The English personal pronouns are a subset of English pronouns taking various forms according to grammatical number, number, grammatical person, person, grammatical case, case and natural gender. Modern English has very little inflection of nouns ...
*
Predicate (grammar) The term predicate is used in one of two ways in linguistics and its subfields. The first defines a predicate as everything in a standard declarative sentence except the subject, and the other views it as just the main content verb or associated ...
*
Predicative expression A predicative expression (or just predicative) is part of a clause predicate, and is an expression that typically follows a copula (or linking verb), e.g. ''be'', ''seem'', ''appear'', or that appears as a second complement of a certain type of v ...


References


External links


The Case for Pronouns
English usage controversies Modern English personal pronouns nl:Gezegde (taalkunde)#Naamwoordelijk gezegde en niet-werkwoordelijke rest