Testing for complements

Testing for Complements

adapted from a 21 Apr 1997 post by JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON

On Sun, 20 Apr 1997, Mark P. Line wrote:

MORELAND CLINTON MICHAEL wrote: Can anyone explain to me what complements are? I've never quite grasped the concept, and I need to understand, in particular, how complements differ from predicates.
1. In my usage, a complement is a clause acting as the logical subject or object of a verb. [That's an oversimplified statement of what I really think complements are, but I think it might cover most people's usual definition. The term sometimes gets applied differently to different languages.]

"Mark knows [that Newt is in trouble]."
"[To err] is human."
"It's hard [for linguists to stop drinking beer]."
"[Fishing in the park] is prohibited on Sundays."
"I give [rolling in the hay with Kirstie Alley] ten points."
In English, different kinds of complements have to be marked different ways. Other natlangs tend to get very different mileage.

This is very VERY different from my use of the word "complement", although some of the examples which Mark gives would count as complements under my definition. According to my usage, a complement is something which is 'selected by' (or combines with) a predicate head - viz. a verb, noun, adjective, preposition, etc. - to form a complete predicate. (Actually, that's an oversimplification, but it'll do.) The term "complement" is thus similar to the term "object", except that "object" is commonly applied only to noun phrases which are complements of verbs.

When I say that the predicate head selects a complement to form a complete predicate, here's an example of what I mean: "invite" is a predicate head which cannot stand alone as a complete predicate: i.e. "John invited" is not a complete sentence. Instead, "invite" must take a noun phrase complement (which in English occurs to the right of the head) in order to form a complete predicate, as in "John invited Mary." Here, "Mary" is the complement of "invite."

Here are some more examples of complements (certain of these examples may be disputed by some linguists, but the general point remains):

Complements of verbs:

        HEAD            COMPLEMENT

        invite          Mary
        see             the boy
        know            that Oslo is the capital of Norway
        try             to be more polite
        consider        Bill an idiot
        put             the money on the table
        give            John a book
        present         a letter to the embassador
        allow           for Bill

Complements of nouns:

        HEAD            COMPLEMENT

        pictures        of my nephew
        destruction     of Rome
        answer          to the question
        belief          that Carl is a spy
        attempt         to be more polite

Complements of adjectives:

        HEAD            COMPLEMENT

        angry           at Susan
        happy           to be here
        likely          that John will leave soon

Complements of prepositions:

        HEAD            COMPLEMENT

        under           the bookcase
        beside          my house
        after           John returns from work
        with            a book in his hand
        before          we get back

And so on. This is the way the term "complement" is used by linguists - or at least by the linguists I've studied. What Mark calls complements I would call "embedded clauses" or "complementiser phrases", or better yet, "clausal arguments" (a theory neutral term).

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