Subject complement

In grammatical terminology, a subject complement is a predicative expression that follows a linking verb (copula) and that complements the subject of a clause by either renaming or describing it. It completes the meaning of the subject. In the former case, a renaming noun phrase such as a noun or pronoun is called a predicative nominal. An adjective 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 arguments nor adjuncts. A predicative complement can be either a subject complement or an object complement. A subject complement does not determine the verb. When there is a difference between the number, the verb agrees with the subject. 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 subject complement phrase a tranquil pool, with the head 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 Some languages do not use predicative adjectives with a linking verb; instead, adjectives can become stative verbs that replace the copula. Eighteenth-century grammarians such as Joseph Priestley justified the colloquial usage of it is me (and it is him, he is taller than him, etc.

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Related concepts (7)

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 verb, e.g. call, make, name, etc. The most frequently acknowledged types of predicative expressions are predicative adjectives (also predicate adjectives) and predicative nominals (also predicate nominals).

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 in the sentence "It was not being co-operative." The word copula derives from the Latin noun for a "link" or "tie" that connects two different things. A copula is often a verb or a verb-like word, though this is not universally the case. A verb that is a copula is sometimes called a copulative or copular verb.

Subject complement