Nonactive Complements

4.1   Nonactive complements

v  Up this point, we have considered clauses that consist of a subject, a verb, and various types of complements. Depending on the verb, there may be a direct object, an indirect object, or an oblique complement. In addition, there may be adjuncts, phrases that are fully optional with any verb. This description covers sentences like the following, in which the complements are bracketed:

(1)   a.  Mary saw [Harry].

       b.  John offered [a peanut] to the monkey] yesterday

       c.  The big boy ran [to town] very slowly.

       d.  Julie will come on time.

       e.  He wept.

    In the following examples, the nonactive examples are bracketed:

(2)   a.  My green pencil is [long].

       b.  The boy seemed [unusually large].

       c.  Heidi became [sick] at the circus yesterday.

(3)  a.  Maria is [a happy woman].

       b. Reagan was [the president of USA] from 1981 to 1989.

       c. She became [one of the most influential people in the world].

(4)  a.  A trapeze artist will be  [at the circus].

       b.  Joan is [here] now.

       c.  John is [on time] yesterday.

       d.  The party is [tomorrow].

       e.  That artichoke is [mine].

       f.  This spud’s [for you].

     Each clause contains a verb such as be, became, or seem, followed by some phrases such as an AP, NP, PP, or AdvP. Clearly, these extra phrases are not objects, which are always NPs. Yet, they are complements, since these verbs cannot occur without them.

(5)  a. *My green pencil is.

       b.  *She became.

       c.  *The boy seemed.

Many examples have more than one phrase after the verb, but all except the firstare optional and therefore are adjuncts.

(6)  a. Heidi became sick (at the circus) (yesterday).

       b.  Reagan was the president of the US (from 1981 to 1989).

       c. Joan is here (now).

       d.  John was on time (yesterday).

v   Nonactive complements are classified based partly on their syntactic category and partly on their meaning.

v  In (2), the complements are adjective phrases. Accordingly, they are call ADJECTIVAL COMPLEMENTS.

v  In (3), the complements are noun phrases. They are called NOMINAL COMPLEMENTS.

v  IN (4), the complements have a variety of structures and meanings, but most correspond to oblique adjuncts such as location and time. There is no standard term for them as a class, but (depending on their function) they might be called LOCATIVE COMPLEMENTS, TEMPORAL COMPLEMENTS, POSSESSIVE COMPLEMENTS, etc

4.2   Nonactive verbs

In most languages, only a small number of verbs can take nonactive complement. Let’s call them NONACTIVE VERBS. Such verbs may take only some of the affixes from the `ordinary` ACTIVE VERBS, or they may take only some of the affixes that are used with active verbs.

       Nonactive verbs often have little meaning. The least meaningful is be, which can be described simply as a `grammatical equals sign`, since it expresses a close identification of the subject with the complement. Many languages have a verb meaning `be`, and when they do, it has a special name: a COPULA. When a language has a copula, it is usually the most common nonactive verb.

4.3   Actions versus states

NONACTIVE CLAUSES (clauses with nonactive complements) generally have meanings that are different from the clauses we’ve seen so far. The difference between an action and a state is that an action refers to a situation that changes over a relevant period of time, whereas a state refers to a situation that does not change over the relevant period.

            Action:                                    The truck crashed through the store window.

            State:               The driver was drunk.

During the relevant time period (a few moments), both the truck and the window underwent significant changes, but the driver’s state of inebriation did not change.

       Normally languages use different clause structures and different verbs to express actions and states. That is, languages generally make a distinction in form between active and nonactive (sometimes called STATIVE) clauses and verbs. For example, consider become; although it expresses an action (i.e., a change of state), it takes many of the same complements as clear cases of nonactive verbs like be and seem. Hence, we classify it as a nonactive verb.

       Let’s consider such clauses in more detail, starting with different types of nonactive complements.

4.4   Adjectival complements

Adjectival complements (complements that are adjective phrases) typically express an abstract quality of the subject.

            Martha seems [pensive].

            That outhouse is [almost too repulsive].

The function of adjective phrases as complements is almost the same as their function as modifiers within a noun phrase. The difference is that, within a noun phrase, adjectives are used only to identify what the noun phrase refers to; in adjectival complement they provide new information about the subject.

       One type of clause has the meaning that we might expect with an adjectival complement, but there is no overt copula.

            The food is spoiled.

            I am sick.

            The food was spoiled.

            I was sick.

            I am getting sick

            I got sick

4.5   Nominal complements

Nominal complements express either that the subject is a member of a group or identifies the subject as a specific individual.

    a.   I am [a pacifist]

    b.   kangaroos are [some of the most fascinating creatures on earth].

    c.   That woman is [the culprit]!

    d.   Arthur is [my favorite uncle].

The different distinct structures between nominal complements which contain adjectives with adjectival complements are:

            Nominal complement containing an adjective:           My mother is [a tall woman]

            Adjectival complement:                                                          My mother is [tall]

If we look at the nominal complements, a similar pattern emerges, suggesting that we are on the right track.

            I am a teacher.

            I was a teacher.

            It’s my car.

            It was my car.

4.6   Other nonactive complements

OBLIQUES may be complements, especially those that occur with verbs of motion and placement (e.g., ‘go’ and ‘put’) to express meanings such as Source, Path, and Goal. With other verbs, obliques that express Location are usually adjuncts. Many languages have one or more nonactive verbs like ‘be’ that are used to express where some object is located. The verbs which require obliques of location can be called LOCATIVE COMPLEMENTS.

Let’s see the difference between Location as an adjunct or a nonactive complement.

                                    Locative adjunct          Locative complement

PP                    I saw her at the concert.            Three hundred people were at the

                                                                                concert.

Unmodifiable   He was reading a book here      he is not here.

Single-word.   

Idiomatic NP   She bought a dress downtown.   My wife is downtown

Typically, any phrase that can express location as an adjunct in an active clause can also express it as a complement in a nonactive clause. Locative complements are usually PPs, NPs, AdvPs, single-word obliques, or idioms depending on the specific possibilities in the language.

4.7   Existence and possession

There are two other meanings, EXISTANCE and POSSESSION, that are often expressed with structure that resemble nonactive clauses containing locative complements. Languages have different ways to express EXISTANCE in the simple cases a language may have a special EXISTANCE VERB meaning ‘exist’.

       However, many languages have special clause structures to express existence, which may be called EXISTANTIAL CLAUSES. Often, existential clauses are very similar in form to clauses with  locative complements. Consider the following English, examples:

            Existential clause                    ordinary clause with locative complement

            There’s a fly in my soup               The fly is in my soup

            There is a Santa Claus.               Santa Claus is in the chimney.

There are some differences between the two clause types, however. The existential clauses have a dummy (meaningless) subject there, and the ‘logical’ subject occurs after the copula. In terms of meaning, an existential verb or clause asserts that the subject exists, often (but not always) specifying a location in which the existence is asserted. Such assertions usually occur at the first mention of an item in a discourse.

            Once upon a time, there were three bears.

A clause with a locative complement, however, presupposes that the subject’s existence has already been established and asserts its location.

            They were in the forest picking berries.

POSSESSION is similar to existence and location in many ways. Like existence, languages may have a special verb to assert possession, such as the word have in English.

            The baby bear had a wee, tiny chair.

4.8   Locative complements

Locative complements provide a bit of a surprise—there is a new verb, ‘be located’.

            Droteo is in the garden.

            Droteo was in the garden.

            The fish are in the ocean.

            The fish were in the ocean.

4.9   Existential complements

There is a separate clause structure that is used to assert existence. It uses the same verb as the clauses with locative complements.

            There are fish in the ocean.

            There were fish in the ocean.

            There is a  house here.

            There was a house here.

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