subject complement

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subject complement

A subject complement is the information that follows a linking verb to describe, identify, or rename the subject of the clause. Whereas most verbs describe the action a subject performs, linking verbs describe something about the subject, which is completed by the subject complement.

A subject complement can either be a predicate noun, a predicate pronoun, or a predicative adjective.

sub′ject com`plement

a word or group of words, usu. functioning as an adjective or noun, that is used in the predicate following a copula and describes or is identified with the subject of the sentence, as sleepy in The travelers were sleepy.

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References in periodicals archive ?

This is how the construction is presented in Duskova (2004), where it is treated as a fairly regular and predictable example of Czech subject complement constructions.

Regular and Irregular Aspects of Grammatical Constructions

Even the subject complement is plural: 'the convention centre and the about one kilometre monorail.'

Cashing in on..

In other words, the predication of a subject adjunct is at the same level as the predication of a subject complement, except that the copulative verb is not explicit (even if it is recoverable and the result is not unacceptable).

English '-ly' adverbs: from subject orientation to conversion

(6) Half way along Crete's northern coast between Heraklion and the island's western most point is the seaside town of Rethymnon (Newtopic, Subject complement) ...

On pragmatic functions and their correlation with syntactic functions: a functionalist perspective

Those that depend on the number of the subject complement or predicate to decide the number of the verb

Nancy's wordsmithy

Furthermore, Schilk and Schaub (2016) and Chapter 4 showed that noun phrase at the subject position in a clause structure is structured simpler to noun phrase at other syntactic positions such as subject complement, preposition complement, direct object, etc.

Structural patterns of postmodifier in Nigerian English noun phrase

Subjective personal pronouns function as subject and sometimes as subject complement; objective personal pronouns as object, prepositional complement, and sometimes as subject complement ...

Pronominal usage in dialectal English

1,000,000 occurrences under three major headings: (a) as lexical verb in non-copular constructions; (b) as lexical verb linking subject and subject complement or direct object and object complement; and (c) as auxiliary verb.

Dictionary of Old English: Fascicle B

Cauteles preseruatory's subject complements that of Shepherd's other satires and its impious voice matches particularly one of Shepherd's poems, A pore helpe, especially in its catalogue of the misfortunes which can befall unconsumed communion hosts.