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In either case the predicative complement corresponds to the subject. Within the small class of copulas that preface a subject complement, the verb be, or one of its concomitant forms, is the most common. Because a copula is an intransitive verb, subject complements are not customarily construed to be the object of the verb.
In many non-theoretical grammars, the terms subject complement (also called a predicative of the subject) and object complement are employed to denote the predicative expressions (predicative complements), such as predicative adjectives and nominals (also called a predicative nominative or predicate nominative), that serve to assign a property to a subject or an object: [3]
The subject Fred performs or is the source of the action. The direct object the book is acted upon by the subject, and the indirect object Susan receives the direct object or otherwise benefits from the action. Traditional grammars often begin with these rather vague notions of the grammatical functions.
In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. [1] In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but are not limited to direct objects, [2] indirect objects, [3] and arguments of adpositions (prepositions or postpositions); the latter are more ...
Subject + Verb (transitive) + Indirect Object + Direct Object Example: She made me a pie. This clause pattern is a derivative of S+V+O, transforming the object of a preposition into an indirect object of the verb, as the example sentence in transformational grammar is actually "She made a pie for me". Subject + Verb (transitive) + Object ...
The presence of complements depends on the pattern followed by the verb (for example, whether it is a transitive verb, i.e. one taking a direct object). A given verb may allow a number of possible patterns (for example, the verb write may be either transitive, as in He writes letters , or intransitive, as in He writes often ).
Finally, they can serve as subjects, as complements of predicative adjectives in clauses with linking verbs or in small clauses or as object complements. In this latter use, they are commonly postponed to the end of their main clause, with an expletive it standing in their original place as subject: It startled me that the students were so ...
While subject complements describe or modify the subject of a linking verb, object complements describe or modify nouns in the predicate, typically direct or indirect objects, or objects of adpositions. In the following example, the phrase sun's origin is a complement of the direct object Japan. Chinese scholars called Japan "sun's origin". A ...