Difference between predicative complement and nominal predicate

[delirious]

Hi! I’m a university student, studying English. I’m hoping you can help me with a grammar problem, since examinations are ahead and I’m starting to panic.
I can’t see the difference between nominal predicates and predicative complements.

For example, in the sentence She is a good speaker., the underlined part is supposedly a predicative complement. It doesn’t make sense to me since in the sentence I am a woman., the underlined word is a nominal predicate! Huddleston and Pullum give no particular explanation about the matter, while they thoroughly explain the difference between predicative complements and objects, with which I have no problems…

I know both forms are used after verbs of incomplete predication like to be, to seem, to appear, to taste… Right?

Help, please…

[Marius Hancu]

Have a look at these links:

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A Predicate Nominal is a noun phrase (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_phrase) that functions as the main predicate of a sentence, such as "George III is the king of England", the king of England being the Predicate Nominal. The subject and predicate nominal must be connected by a linking verb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linking_verb), also called a copula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copula).

http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1885.php
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Predicate Adjectives. The most common subject complement of be and other linking verbs is an adjective or adjective phrase. Just as noun phrases (or pronouns) which occur as subject complements are called predicate nominatives, so we call adjectives in this position predicate adjectives. As usual, the adjective's main function is to modify a noun--in this case, the subject: (1) The professor is very hard.http://uwp.edu/~canary/grammar_text/47-subcomp.html (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/47-subcomp.html)
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and others here:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=nominal+predicate+and+predicate+adjective&vc=&fr=yfp-t-501-s&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fp_ip=CA

[Marius Hancu]

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Predicative complements are (optional) adjuncts that have two semantic dependency relations, i.e. they simultaneously modify a noun and a verb (which can be nominalized).

Representing predicative complements in tectogrammatical trees. Nodes representing predicative complements always have the COMPL functor (see Section 11, “Functor for the predicative complement (COMPL)” (http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/%7Etoman/pedt_manual/ch06s11.html)). The two dependency relations of the predicative complement (functor = COMPL) are represented by the following means:
the dependency on the verb is represented by an edge,
the dependency on the (semantic) noun is indicated with the help of the attribute compl.rf, the value of which is the identifier of the modified noun.Representing predicative complements in tectogrammatical trees is illustrated in Fig. 4.1 (http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/%7Etoman/pedt_manual/ch04s01s01.html#schemadoplnek1)

A predicative complement can be a noun, adjective or a non-finite verb form (participle, gerund). A predicative complement expressed by a noun (or an adjective) can be introduced by the conjunction as or it can be non-prepositional. Adverbial modifications and prepositional phrases are never considered predicative complements.

Examples:

They found their friend ill.COMPL Fig. 4.2 (http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/%7Etoman/pedt_manual/ch04s01s01.html#pic239compl7)

I say it only as a layman.COMPL .

She was leaving defeated.COMPL (Fig. 4.3 (http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/%7Etoman/pedt_manual/ch04s01s01.html#pic239compl12))

The manager approached us full.COMPL of apologies.

Full.COMPL of apologies, the manager approached us.

He left whistling.COMPL

She lay quiet.COMPL

He found her lying.COMPL on the floor.

She married young.COMPL

I like cofee black.COMPL

He was born blind.COMPL

He lives alone.COMPL

Beer is best cool.COMPL

He came running.COMPL

He went off staggering.COMPL

He died a beggar.COMPL

The door banged shut.COMPL

Julia, being.COMPL a nun, spent much of her life in prayer and meditation. (Fig. 4.5 (http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/%7Etoman/pedt_manual/ch04s01s01.html#pic239compl21))

John, knowing.COMPL that his wife was expecting a baby, started to take a course on baby care.

He stood there, {#EmpVerb.COMPL} his hands in his pockets.



http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/~toman/pedt_manual/ch04s01s01.html (http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/%7Etoman/pedt_manual/ch04s01s01.html)
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See this whole page and the examples there.

[Marius Hancu]

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Predicate Nominal See predicate nominative (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#prednom) below.

Predicate Nominative An NP (Noun Phrase) or other nominal used as a subject complement (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#subcomp). With pronouns, this in theory requires the nominative (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#nominative) case, though the result may sound excessively formal. Also known as predicate nominal or predicate noun Predicate Noun See predicate nominative (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#prednom).

http://uwp.edu/~canary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html)
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[Marius Hancu]

See the bolded here:
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Predicative (Complement)

Required complements which need not be nominals, like subject complements (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#subcomp) and object complements (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#objcomp), which can, in fact, sometimes be called subject predicatives or object predicatives. Some authorities use it for obligatory adverbial complements more or less required by certain verbs--e.g., to the store in He went to the store is generally needed to complete the meaning of the sentence. In a sentence like Fish are able to fly, the infinitive complement of the adjective is more or less required as well, though some such phrases (like is able to) can be interpreted as quasi-modal (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#quasimod) constructions. See also predicate just below.

http://uwp.edu/~canary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html)
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Also see here:
http://www.englishpage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=655

[Marius Hancu]

So in the end we're talking of various names for complements, I think, but MrP should be able to clarify you more on the matter.

[Marius Hancu]

Other useful pages. I hope you can see these snippets at Google Books:

A student's introduction to English grammar By Rodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum
http://books.google.com/books?id=qlxDqB4ldx4C&pg=PA73&dq=%22predicative+complement%22

A modern course in English syntax By Herman Wekker, Liliane M. V. Haegeman
http://books.google.com/books?id=ybMOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA71&dq=%22predicative+complement%22

A survey of modern English By Stephan Gramley, Kurt-Michael Pätzo
http://books.google.com/books?id=vEUOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA136&dq=%22predicative+complement%22&lr=

The last one clearly states:
predicative complement (sometimes termed subject complement):
She became a specialist.

I prefer subject complement, used by Quirk and many others. You may find more references by searching on subject complement.

And as shown in the above:
Predicate Nominative
An NP (Noun Phrase) or other nominal used as a subject complement. (http://uwp.edu/%7Ecanary/grammar_text/glossary_of_terms.html#subcomp)

Thus the whole discussion is about subject complements. The predicative nominative is a special class of them, the one using a NP (Noun Phrase) or other nominal. Other classes of subject complements are using AdjP (Adjective Phrases) and PP (Prepositional Phrases), as shown in the 2nd reference in this posting.

[OddThomas]

Marius has made a worthy effort, and I have no intention of challenging any of his explications.

I would like to offer my simplification:

If you define predicate as that which is true of something (that which follows a copula, such as be or seem), then there are predicative nominals and predicative adjectives depending on whether the predicate functions as a noun or adjective. This is the linguistics domain. I believe this terminology is confusing here, because it is identical to terminology I will use later, but it comes up a lot in the literature. Let's acknowledge it, but set it aside.

If you define predicate as that which qualifies or modifies the subject of a sentence and include the verb with all its objects, adjectives, adverbs, and phrases, then there are predicate nominals and predicate adjectives again depending on whether the parts of the predicate function as a noun or adjective. (These can be called nominal predicates and adjective predicates.) This is the domain of grammar. I believe this is what we want to study.

Next, a complement is an element of a sentence necessary for coherent meaning, in addition to the subject and verb, and optional direct or indirect objects. Subject and object complements (for our discussion I am ignoring adverbial complements) are each specified as predicative nominals or predicative adjectives, again based on noun or adjective. The general term for these is predicative complement.

When we look at your first sentence, we see that She is a good speaker includes a predicative complement: a good speaker. This is a predicative nominal. We note also that a good speaker is a nominal predicate. Then we look at your second sentence, we see that I am a woman is virtually the same. It includes a predicative complement: a woman, which is a predicative nominal, and is also a nominal predicate.

If your text, or your instructor, illustrated one attribute from the first sentence, and another attribute from the second sentence, it may have been confusing, but it may not have been for the purpose of contrasting the two sentences. They are not of different types.

Footnote: If your first sentence had read: She is good, then the predicative complement, good, would have been a predicative adjective, and an adjective predicate.

[MrPedantic]

My thoughts are much the same as OT's and Marius's:

1. She is a good speaker.

I would take this as subject, predicate, copula, complement.

The complement here can be classified as a subject predicative (this describes its relation to the verb), and a predicative nominal (this describes what part of speech it is).

2. She is good.

As #1, except that good is a predicative adjective.

Thus the set {complement} includes the subsets predicative nominal and predicative adjective.

Best wishes,

MrP

[Jarod]

Information Transfer and Scientific Writing are both quite difficult for average students. However, I do think that they are easier than English 1119 Summary and Directed Writing respectively. So, do you think EST is an 'Easy andSimple Test'? If your answer is 'yes', think again!