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Daniel Kies Department of English College of DuPage |
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| Modern English Grammar English 2126 |
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The Subject Complement
[Subject Predicative]
Note: Labels of the clause-level functions have changed. These pages use both
- the terminology of Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartvik, J. (1985) Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Longman. (CGEL)
and
- the teminology of the most recent version of that grammar — Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., and Finegan, E. (2021) Grammar of Spoken and Written English, John Benjamins. (GSWE)
since many textbooks and school grammars currently use either one set of terminology or the other.
In these pages, I will place the GSWE labels in square brackets after the CGEL labels, as in subject complement [subject predicative] and SC [SP].
Mapping clause function labels between CGEL and GSWE
CGEL (1985)
GSWE (2021)
Subject[S] Subject[S]
Verb[V] Verb[V]
Direct object[DO] Object Direct object[DO] Indirect object[IO] Indirect object[IO] Subject complement[SC] Predicative Subject predicative[SP] Object complement[OC] Object predicative[OP] Adverbial[A] Adverbial Optional adverbial[OpA] Adverbial complement[AC] Obligatory adverbial[ObA]
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The subject complement [subject predicative] completes a reference to (and/or an implication suggested by) the subject of the clause. It shares many of the properties of the object complement [object predicative], notably form and agreement, as described above under the 'Subject' and 'Object Complement [Object Predicative]' subheadings. Yet it has a few properties unique to itself, such as position.
Position. The subject complement [subject predicative] always occurs after a copular verb in the S-V-SC [S-V-SP] clause pattern. The most common copular verb in English is the verb be used as a main verb, although other verbs that relate to perception also serve in this category, such as appear, seem, look, sound, feel, etc.
REFERENCES Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., and Finegan, E. (2021). Grammar of Spoken and Written English. John Benjamins.
Curme, G. (1931). A Grammar of the English Language, 2 volumes. D. C. Heath and Company.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd ed. Edward Arnold.
Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, and J. Svartvik. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman.
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