The Predicate

§ 430. The predicate is the member of a predication con­
taining the mood and tense (or only mood) components of
predicativity. "

E. g. This dictionary employs a pronunciation that i s easy to /earn. (Thorndike). / was thinking that.Dinny has probably had no lunch. (Galsworthy). / s h о и I d hate to make you cry. (Ib.).

§ 431. The predicate can be a word or a syntactical word-morpheme. When it is a notional word, it is not only the structural but the notional predicate as well.

E. g. A picture often shows the meaning of a word more clearly than a description. (Witty).

When the predicate is a semi-notional verb or a syntactical word-morpheme, it is only a structural predicate and is usu­ally connected with a notional word which makes the notional predicate.

E.g. He was strong enough for that. (Galsworthy). We canassist our oppressed brothers in South Africa in their struggle for freedom. (Daily Worker). Doesanyone know of that but met (Galsworthy).

Syntactically strong, assist and know are complements to the corresponding verbs.

Similarly, if we agree with A. I. Smirnitsky that haue^'m I have friends is a semi-notional verb, we may consider friends as the notional predicate. But syntactically friends is a com­plement to the verb have.

§ 432. As we have seen, predicates may be divided morpho­logically into words and word-morphemes, and semantically into notional, semi-n^ional and lexically empty (struc­tural).

§ 433. What is traditionally called a predicate is really the combination of the structural and the notional predicate. If we had a name for the combination, that would enable us to make the traditional analysis. Let us then call the combina­tion a communicative predicate. We may say then that communicative predicates are in accordance with their struc­ture divided into 'simple' (consisting of one word) and 'com­pound' (of more than one word). According to their morpho­logical composition they are divided into 'verbal' (must see, is to believe) and 'nominal' (is a sudent, became angry). As we see, the latter division depends on the complements as well as the division into process and qualifying predicates, which will be discussed in the corresponding chapter (§ 438).

§ 434. When comparing the predicates in English and in Russian, we must first of all note the absence of syntactical word-morphemes used as predicates and the scarcity of mor­phological word-morphemes in Russian. So the division into structural and notional (parts of) predicates is not so essen­tial in Russian as it is in English.

Secondly, there are many more sentences without finite verbs in Russian than in English. Он студент. Она больна. Ему холодно. Кому ехать?

Thirdly, a Russian predication contains a predicate with­out a subject much more often than in English. (See § 429).

SECONDARY PARTS Complements

§ 435. The verb in the sentence forms the greatest number of word-combinations. The adjuncts of all these combinations are united by the term complements *. But the complements of a verb are so numerous and variegated that it is feasible to subdivide them into several groups correlated with the

¹ We find a similar use of the term 'complement', though based on the idea oi completeness, in The Sentence and Its Parts by R. Long, Chicago, 1961: "In John likes noise there is no minimal completeness without the complement noise or some similarly used word or multiword unit. In John makes people angry minimal completeness, with makes meaning what it does, requires the two complements people and angry. In Harriet is in New York minimal completeness, with be meaning what it does, requires some such complement as ш New York."

subclasses of verbs. As we know, verbs divide into notion­al, semi-notional and structural ones. We shall call the abjuncts of the latter two groups predicative complements (predicatives). Notional verbs are subdivided into objective and subjective. The common abjuncts of both groups will be termed adverbial complements (adverbials), those 4)f objective verbs alone — objective complements (objects).

Predicative Complements (Predicatives)

§ 436. Predicative complements are mostly adjuncts of semi-notional verbs (both finite and non-finite) and syntactical word-morphemes. When attached to finite verbs they are at the same tirrte notional predicates. They serve to indicate some^ state, property or action characterizing the person or thing denoted by the subject (primary or secondary), or some­times presented in a general way, not attached to any def­inite person or thing.

E. g. The cheek was pink and round and smooth. (Galsworthy).

Nobody is I o know anything. (Ib.) We can't kidnap him. (Ib.). Did you wish for notes, Madam? (Ib.) He won't dare move, being a new judge. (Ib.). To be h a p p у is to be и s e f и I.

§ 437. In simple sentences either words, or combinations of words, among them complexes, may be used as predicatives. The words may belong to different parts of speech: nouns, adlinks, adjectives, pronouns, numerals, verbs (participles, gerunds, infinitives), etc.

He became a pilot. His favourite pastime is f t sh i n g. He is i n d e s p a i r. This is f о г you to decide. You must leave at once.

§ 438. In accordance with their semantics predicatives fall into a) process predicatives and b) qualifying predi­catives.

a) Dinny, you must come to us. (Galsworthy). He does not know this. He ought to have apologized.

b) Tom is a n g г у (afraid, at Mary has become a teacher. He turned pale.

a loss).

§ 439. Sometimes the two types may be combined in cases like You ought to look serious.

§ 440. As already noted (§ 195), one of the characteristic features of English is the ever increasing number of notional link'-verbs alongside of semi-notional ones. Their complements are much alike and are all called predicative complements.

The sun rose red. (Cf. The sun was r e d.) He lay awake. (Cf. He was awake.)

§ 441. There is a point where predicatives and attributes cross. It is in sentences like Make your mind easy. (Gals­worthy). The adjective easy is connected with the verb make (which makes it a complement) and with the noun mind (which makes it an attribute). Thus it might be called an 'attributive complement'. But most grammarians regard it of primary importance that the noun mind is the object of the verb make and that the sentence above is correlated with a sentence like Your mind is easy. They call easy a predicative in both sentences. In the first case it is named 'objective' predicative, in the second 'subjective' predica­tive. We have no objection to this analysis. Both types of predicatives may also occur with verbids, e. g. Те fancy yourself 'just' is simply to addle.

§ 442. When comparing English and Russian predicative complements one must bear in mind the following:

a) In Russian the 'present tense' link-verb есть is not,
as a rule, used. The sentence then contains a zero structural
predicate and a positive notional predicate, as in Он с т y-
д е н т (высокий, весел, влюблен, в вос­
торге, etc.)

The problem arises then whether студент, высокий, etc. may be regarded as predicative complements te a zero link-verb.

b) There being no gerunds and no complexes in Russian,
they cannot, naturally, be used as predicatives.

c) In Russian the grammatical combinability of the sub­
ject and the predicative plays a much greater role than in
English.

Objective Complements (Objects)

§ 443. Objective complements (objects) may be defined as noun (or noun-equivalent) adjuncts of objective verbs, denot­ing the object of the action or its subject (the by-pbrase). Our definition does not differ essentially from that given by A. I. Smirnitsky ¹: «Дополнение — это второстепенный член предложения, обозначающий предмет, участвующий в процессе, причем это обозначение не связывается с выра­жением предикации».

From the definition given it is clear that the object is not bound with any definite part of the sentence, it is attached to the verb.

In the following examples objective complements are associated with different parts of the sentence.

Writing letters for the homesick patients was her self-imposed duty. (Randall).

The object is attached to the subject.

He carried out experiments in surgery. (Daily Worker). It is connected with the predicate.

Adrian was filled not with futile rebellion. (Galsworthy).

The object is connected with the predicative complement.

There was no time to see her. (Jerome). Her is an objective complement connected with the attri­bute.

§ 444. In English, objects are primarily divided into pre­positionaland prepositionless.The latter are, according to their meaning and position in the sentence, further divided into directand indirectobjects.

The direct object denotes something (or somebody) di­
rectly affected by the action of the verb. The indirect object
usually denotes the person for whose benefit the action is
performed or towards whom it is directed: He sent me (indi­
rect) a letter (direct). ^!

Синтаксис английского языка, р. 201.

The indirect object usually precedes the direct object and cannot be used without it. In He sent me "me" would be under­stood as a direct object.

The prepositional object with to (the so-called to-phrase) and for (the for-phrase) are often grammatical synonyms of the indirect object. Accordingly, the sentence / offered the student my book can be transformed into / offered my book to the student, I bought him a toy into / bought a toy for him.

The direct object is used with a much greater number of verbs than the indirect object, has practically no structural synonyms, and is often so closely connected with the verb that the meaning of the latter is vague without its object. The sentence / made, for instance, is not clear unless the ob­jective complement a shelf or tea or a report is added.

§ 445. Sometimes a verb may take two direct objects, e. g. They asked him questions. Though this sentence is structurally similar to They gave him books the functions of him in the two sentences are different. In the first sentence it can be used without the second object (Don't ask him), in the second it cannot. The same in the corresponding passive constructions: He was asked but not He was given. So in the first sentence him is a direct object, in the second — an indirect one.

§ 446. Besides the direct and indirect objects linguists distinguish the so-called cognate object. In the sentences She slept a sound sleep. We live a happy life the verbs to sleep and to live, usually subjective, seem to take direct objects. But these objects are of peculiar nature: they do not denote anything that is outside the action and affected by it, as is the case with most objects. The nouns sleep anf life are cog­nate with the verbs to sleep and to live, i. e. they are of com­mon origin and kindred meaning. They modify the verb rather as adverbials than as objects. Cf.: She slept a sound sleep. = — She slept soundly. We live a happy life. = We life hap­pily.

Here is one of the links between objective and adverbial complements. Another link is a case like They passed a mile in silence where a mile may be taken for a direct object to the transitive verb to pass, or, in accordance with the meaning of the noun mile, for an adverbial complement of place. Cf. They walked a mile. He passed five- years in the Far North.

§ 447. Objective complements, as defined, may be nouns 'or noun-equivalents. Among the latter we may count the gerund, and the infinitive, alone or together with their sub­ject-words, (i. e. the whole complex).

A. I. Smirnitsky is of the opinion that, unlike the gerund, the infinitive cannot function as an objective complement. ¹ The arguments are as follows.

a) Since it is never preceded by a preposition, it cannot
be a prepositional object, and prepositionless objects exist
only as contrasted with prepositional ones.

b) The infinitive is sometimes used in positions where no
noun objects are used, e. g. / am glad to see you.

c) In sentences like / want to go there the infinitive does
not denote the object of the action of wanting (as in the case

-of / want a book). It rather unfolds the content of that action.

There is no denying the fact that the infinitive differs from the noun in many respects, including the features men­tioned by A. I. Smirnitsky, but we do not think this prevents the infinitive from being an object when it is the complement of an objective verb. The infinitive is not preceded by prepo­sitions and has the verbal meaning of 'action' when discharg­ing о t h e r functions in common with nouns. Cf. a book to read, and a b&ok for Sunday, he came for a book and he came to study. But A. I. Smirnitsky does not deny the infinitive the func­tions of an attribute or an adverbial on the same grounds. Moreover, he reminds his readers ² that the infinitive is no­minal by origin, and the particle to is a preposition by origin, and that accounts for the fact that the infinitive as an attrib­ute is placed in the same position as a noun with a preposi­tion.

In a sentence like His intention was to write a book the very possibility of connecting the noun intention and the infinitive to write with the help of the link-verb to be proves the nominal character of the infinitive. The same in the sentence To write a book was his ambition. Similarly m the sentence His intention to write a book was not realized, where to write is a kind of apposition to the noun intention.

¹ Морфология английского языка, р 251 See also «Иностранные языки в школе», 1955, № 4, р 108

^: Синтаксис английского языка, р. 248.

We think that the nominal nature of the infinitive, suf­ficiently well preserved to allow its being used as a subject, an attribute, a predicative and an adverbial complement, suffices to make it an objective complement in cases like / promised him to come (cf. / promised him a fair hearing). I forgot to shave (cf. / forgot the key), etc.

§ 448. Like other parts of a simple sentence (clause), ob­jective complements may be expressed by complexes and are then called complex objects.

Analysing the sentence / hate you to go away, B. A. Ilyish shows * that the object of the verb hate is not you (which would change the meaning of the sentence) but the whole infinitival complex you to go away.

Traditionally such complexes have been called 'The Ac­cusative with the Infinitive', but some authors ² object to this term on the ground that there is no accusative case in Modern English. Another current term 'The Objective with the Infinitive' is also unsatisfactory since it seems to exclude cases like / hate my brother to go away where brother is in the common case.

L. P. Vinokurova uses the term 'The Objective Infinitive Construction' which is better in many respects, and first of all because the syntactical construction gets a syntactical name, but there exists another objective infinitive construc­tion with the preposition for (as in the sentence / am waiting for you to go) which the same author calls 'the for-to-infinitive construction'—a very inconvenient name and inconsistent too. We should prefer to call these complexes 'The prepositional (or prepositionless) objective infinitive complex' in the same way as we distinguish prepositional and prepositionless objects in general ³.

A complex object may also be an 'objective participle complex', as in / heard the key turning in the lock, an 'objective gerund complex' prepositional, as in All depends on Tom com­ing in time, or prepositionless, as in Excuse him coming so late.

¹ Op. cit, p. 53.

² See, for instance Л П. Винокурова. Грамматика англий­
ского языка, Л., 1954, р. 172.

³ Naturally, in sentences like For htm to go there is a feat, or Here
are some books for you to read the infinitive complexes may be defined
as a 'prepositional subjective infinitive complex' and a 'prepositional
attributive infinitive complex' respectively.

^x 261

§ 449. Besides the well-known features of similarity be­tween the object and the subject (e. g. their being expressed by nouns or noun-equivalents, the correspondence between objects of active constructions and subjects of passive con­structions or vice versa) we should like to point oui some minor points of resemblance between them in the use of the pronoun it.

In simple sentences it is used as an introductory structural subject or object preceding a notional subject or object ex­pressed by an infinitive (or an infinitival complex) or a gerund (a gerundial complex). Cf.:

1. It was difficult to re-

fuse.

2. It is necessary for you

to go there.

3. It was strange his h a-

v in g changed his mind all of a sudden.

1. / felt itdifficult tore-

f и s e.

2. I consider it necessary for

you to go there.

3. / thought itstrange his

having changed his mind all of a sudden.

I-

In sentences like the often quoted example from Jerome K. Jerome- We therefore decided that we would sleep out on fine nights', and hotel it, and inn it,and pub it,like respectable folks, when itwas wet, both the last it which is the subject and the preceding three it's used as objects do not indicate anything in reality, they are purely structural elements in the sentence, syntactical werrd-morptiemes.

§ 450. In Russian, where case inflexions are the most im­portant means of expressing the relations of nouns to other words in the sentence (see § 100), objective complements are primarily divided into direct(expressed by prepositionless 'accusative case' forms) and indirect(all others). Indirect objects are then divided into prepositional and preposition-less.

The number of verbs that may take a direct object is much greater in English than in Russian It is partly due to the fact that the common ease of nouns and the objective case of pronouns in English correspond to all the oblique cases of the Russian language. The Russian сообщать, завидовать, помогать соседу would be rendered by to inform, envy, help the neighbour, обменяться словами, взглядами by exchange words, glances, etc.

Adverbial Complements (Adverbials)

§451. Adverbials differ from the other complements in their combinability and semantics. They are adjuncts of various classes of verbs and convey qualitative, quantita­tive or circumstantial characteristics of the actions denoted by verbs. Since the meaning of 'action' is not pronounced in semi-notional verbs, adverbial complements are mostly adjuncts of notional verbs.

She started slightly at the announcement. (Dreiser). He said it w it h gusto. (The Worker).

§ 452. Much in the same way as the subject and the object are mostly nouns or noun-equivalents, the adverbial comple­ment is usually an adverb or some kind of adverb-equivalent. Like adverbs adverbials may be divided into qualitative, quantitative and circumstantialones.

§ 453. A. I. Smirnitsky does not recognize qualitative and quantitative adverbials *. As we know (see § 121), A. I. Smir­nitsky regards adverbs in -ly as a subclass of adjectives. Ac­cordingly, he thinks that slowly in The boy walked slowly is parallel to slow in slow walk and both are attributes.

We share the opinion of most linguists that slowly and slow fulfil different functions in the sentence. Slowly in the above sentence is a qualitative adverbial complement or, traditionally, an adverbial complement of manner. Here are some other examples of qualitative adverbials.

A dowdy middle-aged Frenchwoman... was carefully and uselessly making up her face. (Greene).

She thanked meformally, sitting on the floor. (lb.).

A variety of qualitative adverbials are the so-called ad­verbials of comparison. They do not name the quality directly but convey it by comparing it with something similar.

He smiled slightly as if to seal the agreement. (Wil­son).

¹ Vopc}.ojioiM английского языка, р 175 Синтаксис английского языка, р 227.

§ 454. Below are some specimens of quantitative adverbial complements.

/ eat but I it 11 e. (Dickens). She almost fainted.

§455. Circumstantial adverbials, or as A. I. Smirnitsky calls them, adverbials of situation, comprise:

a) Adverbial complements of time and frequency

For a moment her glance rested on me, (Greene). Before going she looked round the cafe. (Ib.) / have often seen it before. (Ib.).