Predicatives or Predicative Complements

In descriptive grammar an adjunct of a semi-notional verb or a syntactical word-morpheme is called a predicative complement (дополнение) which may be a process predicative or a qualifying predicative. E.g. He does not know this. He must go. We are in Kirov. Tom is angry.

The predicative referring to the subject is called subjective predicative, when it refers to the object, it is called an objective predicative: We call him John.

Secondary Parts of the Sentence

Notional verbs are subdivided into objective and subjective. The common adjuncts of both groups are called adverbial complements (adverbials), those of objective verbs alone are called objective complements (objects).

Objective Complements or Objects

Objective complements are noun (or noun-equivalent) adjuncts of objective verbs denoting the object of the action or the subject. They are not attached to the verb only, but to any part of the sentence. E.g. Writing letters is a pleasure. There was no time to see her.

The objects are divided into prepositional and postpositionless, the latter into direct and indirect (as to their meaning and position in the sentence).

The direct object denotes something or somebody directly affected by the action of the verb while the indirect object (non-prepositional) denotes a person to whose benefit the action is performed or towards whom it is directed. E.g. He sent me a letter.

The indirect object is used only with a few verbs mostly conveying the idea of giving a person a thing and only in combination with the direct object, which as a rule follows the indirect object.

In the sentence “He sent me” “me” would be understood as a direct object (меня).

The prepositional objects with “to” and “for” are often grammatical synonyms of the indirect object.

In other words, the cognate object is a special kind of a non-prepositional object, which is always expressed by nouns of the same root or meaning with the governing verb. The verbs taking cognate objects are otherwise intransitive verbs. E.g. We live a happy life. She slept a sound sleep.

The cognate object occupies a place intermediate between an object and adverbial modifier expressing rather an adverbial than objective relation. E.g. He laughed a happy laugh = He laughed happily. The prepositional object is an object the relation of which to the governing word (a verb, an adjective, etc.) is expressed by means of various prepositions. E.g. You may rely on me in that matter. I don’t care for such people.

The object expressed by a complex is often called a complex object. E.g. I knew it to be nonsense.

The complex object is an object direct or prepositional consisting of two components of which the second stands in predicate relation to the first. The two components form an invisible syntactical unit, which is regarded as one part of the sentence. The complex object may be expressed only by a predicative construction (infinitive, participial, gerundial). E.g. He watched her enter the house. We are waiting for the rain to stop. Excuse John’s coming so late.

The object may be structural: I felt it (objective predicative) difficult to refuse (notional object).

Sometimes the difference between the object and the adverbial modifier is neutralized. E.g. They passed a mile in silence. She waited an hour. They appointed an hour.

Adverbial Complements (or modifiers)

Adverbial Complements are adjuncts of verbs and convey qualitative, quantitative or circumstantial characteristics of the action denoted by the verb. E.g. He said it in disgust.

The adverbials denote either external relations (of time, place, reason, purpose, etc) or inner qualities of the actions (manner, degree, etc) and are more independent of the verb than the object.

The position of the object especially that of a direct or indirect object is fixed; adverbial modifiers, especially adverbials of external relations are relatively free as to their position in the sentence. E.g. I met a friend (1) of mine on the way (2) to the university (and vise versa 2-1). It is not always easy to draw hard and fast lines between the secondary parts of the sentence, especially when they are expressed by prepositional phrases. It is noteworthy that the choice of the preposition before a prepositional object depends on the verb; the choice of the preposition before an adverbial modifier does not. E.g. Fleur went up to her room (adv. mod.) and sat in the dark (adv. mod.). Mrs. Brook pondered on the delay (object).

According to their meaning adverbial modifiers may be classified as follows:

1. Of place: Outside it was getting dark.

2. Of time: Martin talked for 15 minutes with him.

3. Of manner or attending circumstances: She walked briskly.

4. Of degree: I was completely happy.

5. Of cause: I flushed simply from being spoken to.

6. Of purpose: She stopped for a moment to ease her back.

7. Of result: Ben was too busy to hear him.

8. Of condition: In case of your absence I shall leave you a note.

9. Of concession: She laughed in spite of her…

An adverbial modifier may be expressed by an adverb, a noun with a preposition, a participle, a gerund with a preposition, an infinitive, a whole syntactical word combination.

The complex adverbial modifier is an adverbial modifier, which consists of 2 components, the second component being in predicate relation to the first one. The 2 components form an invisible syntactical unit, which is regarded as a part of the sentence.

The complex adverbial modifier may be expressed by an infinitive (very frequent), participial or gerundial constructions. E.g. It was too chilly for him to stay here. How didi you get out without his seeing you. It being now pretty late, we went home.