Andrew Radford - Linguistics An Introduction [Second Edition]

nouns have two genitive forms, a weak (shorter) form used when followed by a noun expression, and a strong (longer) form used elsewhere (e.g. My car is bigger than your car, but yours is faster than mine). Of more concern to us here, however, is the nominative/accusative contrast, and the fact that subjects typically carry nominative case, whereas complements typically carry accusative case (sometimes termed objective case). This isn’t immediately obvious from (222), since nouns like John and cigars aren’t overtly inflected for the nominative/accusative case distinction. However, if we replace John by an overtly case-marked pronoun, we require the nominative form he, not the accusative form him; and conversely, if we replace cigars by an overtly case-marked pronoun, we require the accusative form them, not the nominative form they:

(224) a.

He/*Him smokes cigars

b.

John smokes them/*they

A third difference between subjects and complements is that, as we have noted on several occasions, in English verbs agree in Person and Number with their subjects. However, they don’t agree with their complements. So, if we have a third person singular subject like he or John, we require the corresponding third person singular verb form smokes; but if we have a first person singular subject like I, or a first person plural subject like we, or a second person singular or plural subject like you, or a third person plural subject like they, we require the alternative form smoke:

(225) a.

He smokes/*smoke cigars

b.

I/We/You/They smoke/*smokes cigars

If, however, we change the complement, say replacing the plural form cigars with the singular a cigar in (222), the form of the verb in English is unaffected: (226)

John smokes cigars/a cigar

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Overall, then, we can differentiate subjects from complements in terms of

whether they normally precede or follow the verb, whether they have nominative or accusative case and whether or not they agree with the verb.

Now consider the even longer clause in (227):

(227)

The president smokes a cigar after dinner

This clause comprises three constituents (i.e. structural units), the functions of which are already familiar – namely the subject the president, the predicate smokes and the complement a cigar. But what is the function of the expression after dinner, which also occurs in (227)? Since after dinner does not refer to one of the entities directly involved in the act of smoking (i.e. it isn’t consuming or being consumed), it isn’t an argument of the predicate smokes. On the contrary, it simply serves to provide additional information about the time when the smoking activity takes place. In much the same way, the italicised expression in (228) provides additional information about the location of the smoking activity:

(228)

The president smokes a cigar in his office

An expression which serves to provide (optional) additional information about the time or place (or manner, or purpose, etc.) of an activity is said to serve as an adjunct. So, after dinner in (227) and in his office in (228) are both adjuncts.

Now consider the following kind of clause (characteristic of colloquial styles of English):

(229)

Cigars, the president never smokes them in front of his wife

The functions of the constituents contained in the part of the clause following the comma are straightforward to analyse: the president is the subject, smokes is the predicate, them is the complement, and never and in front of his wife are both adjuncts. But what is the function of the expression cigars, which precedes the comma? The traditional answer is that cigars functions as the topic of the clause, in the sense that it serves to indicate that the clause tells us something about cigars; the part of the clause following the comma is said to be the comment. It is

interesting to contrast (229) with (230): (230)

Cigars, the president never smokes in front of his wife

In (229) cigars is the clause topic, and them (which refers back to cigars) is the complement of the verb smokes. By contrast, in (230), cigars seems to serve both functions and hence is the topic of the overall clause as well as being the

complement of the verb smokes.

Now consider the clause in (231):

(231)

The president was smoking a cigar for relaxation

Again, this comprises a number of constituents with familiar functions: the

president is the subject, smoking is the predicate, a cigar is the complement, and for relaxation is an adjunct. But what is the function of the auxiliary was? The

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answer is that it serves to mark Tense, indicating the time at which the activity took place (namely the past). English has a binary (i.e. two-way) tense system, so that in place of the past tense form was in (231), we could use the corresponding present tense form is. Although this distinction is traditionally said to be a past/

present one, many linguists prefer to see it as a past/non-past distinction, since the so-called present tense form can be used with future time reference (e.g. in sentences such as our guest is arriving at 3 p.m. tomorrow). However, since the term ‘present tense’ is a familiar one, we’ll continue to use it below.

Complex sentences

So far, we have looked at simple sentences – i.e. sentences which

comprise a single clause (Hence, all the clauses in 221, 222 and 224–31 above are simple sentences). However, alongside these we also find complex sentences –

i.e. sentences which contain more than one clause. In this connection, consider the structure of the following sentence:

(232)

Mary knows John smokes

If we take a clause to be a structure comprising (at least) a subject and a predicate, it follows that there are two different clauses in (232) – the smokes clause on the one hand, and the knows clause on the other. The smokes clause comprises the subject John and the predicate smokes; the knows clause comprises the subject Mary, the predicate knows and the complement John smokes. So, the complement of knows here is itself a clause. The smokes clause is a complement clause

(because it serves as the complement of knows), while the knows clause is the main clause. The overall sentence in (232) is a complex sentence because it contains more than one clause. In much the same way, (233) below is also a complex sentence:

(233)

The president may secretly fear Congress will ultimately reject his proposal Once again, it comprises two clauses – one containing the predicate fear, the other containing the predicate reject. The main clause comprises the subject the president, the auxiliary may, the adverbial adjunct secretly, the verbal predicate fear and the complement clause Congress will ultimately reject his proposal. The complement clause in turn comprises the subject Congress, the auxiliary will, the verbal predicate reject, the complement his proposal and the adjunct ultimately.

Now contrast the two different types of complex sentence illustrated below:

(234) a.

We expect [John will win the race]

b.

We expect [John to win the race]

Both sentences comprise two clauses – a main clause and a bracketed complement clause. The main clause in (234a) comprises the subject we, the verbal predicate expect and the complement clause John will win the race; the main clause in

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(234b) is identically constituted, except that the complement clause is John to win the race. The complement clause in (234a) comprises the subject John, the auxiliary will, the verbal predicate win and the complement the race; the complement clause in (234b) comprises the subject John, the infinitive particle to, the verbal predicate win and the complement the race. So, superficially, at least, the two sentences appear to have much the same structure.