"or accusative object instead of a nominative subject, e.g. Since subjects are typically marked by the nominative case in German (the fourth criterion above), one can argue that this sentence lacks a subject, for the relevant verb argument appears in the dative case, not in the nominative. The subject receives a privileged status in theories of sentence structure. In those approaches that acknowledge the binary division of the clause into a subject and a predicate (as is the case in most phrase structure grammars), the subject is usually an immediate dependent of the root node, whereby its sister is the"
"Compound verb In linguistics, a compound verb or complex predicate is a multi-word compound that functions as a single verb. One component of the compound is a ""light verb"" or ""vector"", which carries any inflections, indicating tense, mood, or aspect, but provides only fine shades of meaning. The other, ""primary"", component is a verb or noun which carries most of the semantics of the compound, and determines its arguments. It is usually in either base or [in Verb + Verb compounds] ""conjunctive participial"" form. A compound verb is also called a ""complex predicate"" because the semantics, as formally modeled by"
"sentence down into two parts (i) its subject (the object (singular or plural) of discourse) and (ii) a predicate (a verb or possibly verb-clause that asserts a quality or attribute of the object(s)). The predicate calculus then generalizes the ""subject|predicate"" form (where | symbolizes concatenation (stringing together) of symbols) into a form with the following blank-subject structure "" ___|predicate"", and the predicate in turn generalized to all things with that property. The generalization of ""this pig"" to a (potential) member of two classes ""winged things"" and ""blue things"" means that it has a truth-relationship with both of these classes. In"
"line"". This predicate can only stand in a nexus with a plural subject: Other examples of collective predicates include ""meet in the woods"", ""surround the house"", ""gather in the hallway"" and ""carry the piano together"". Note that the last one (""carry the piano together"") can be made non-collective by removing the word ""together"". Quantifiers differ with respect to whether or not they can be the subject of a collective predicate. For example, quantifiers formed with ""all the"" can, while ones formed with ""every"" or ""each"" cannot. Predicate (grammar) There are two competing notions of the predicate, generating confusion concerning the"
"Compound subject A compound subject is two or more individual noun phrases coordinated to form a single, longer noun phrase. Compound subjects cause many difficulties in the proper usage of grammatical agreement between the subject and other entities (verbs, pronouns, etc.). In reality, these issues are not specific to compound subjects as such, coming up equally as well with compound noun phrases of all sorts, but the problems are most acute with compound subjects because of the large number of types of agreement occurring with such subjects. As shown in the examples, for English compound subjects joined by ""and"", the"
"of a verbal predicate is called a complement. In fact, this use of the term is the one that currently dominates in linguistics. A main aspect of this understanding of complements is that the subject is usually not a complement of the predicate: While it is less common to do so, one sometimes extends this reasoning to subject arguments: In those examples, the subject and object arguments are taken to be complements. In this area, the terms ""complement"" and ""argument"" thus overlap in meaning and use. Note that this practice takes a subject complement to be something very different from"
"Binomial pair In linguistics, a binomial pair or binomial is a sequence of two or more words or phrases belonging to the same grammatical category, having some semantic relationship and joined by some syntactic device such as ""and"" or ""or"". Examples in English include ""through and through"", ""(without) let or hindrance"", and ""chalk and cheese"". Several legal terms are binomial pairs, often (but not necessarily) consisting of one Germanic word and one Romance word, such as ""(last) will and testament"" or ""cease and desist"". Binomials are often irreversible; that is, they occur only in one order. For example, one says"
"The predicate must contain a verb, and the verb requires or permits other elements to complete the predicate, or it precludes them from doing so. These elements are objects (direct, indirect, prepositional), predicatives, and adjuncts: The predicate provides information about the subject, such as what the subject is, what the subject is doing, or what the subject is like. The relation between a subject and its predicate is sometimes called a nexus. A ""predicative nominal"" is a noun phrase, such as in ""George III is the king of England"", ""the king of England"" being the predicative nominal. The subject and"
"subject or an object: This terminology is used in grammar books: However, this use of terminology is avoided by many modern theories of syntax, which typically view the expressions in bold as part of the clause predicate, which means they are not complements of the subject or object but rather are properties that are predicated of the subject or object. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language assigns the term ""predicative complement"" to both uses and shifts the terminological distinction to the verb: In many modern grammars (for instance in those that build on the X-bar framework), the object argument"
"Predicate (grammar) There are two competing notions of the predicate, generating confusion concerning the use of the term ""predicate"" in general. The first concerns traditional grammar, which tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other part being the subject. The purpose of the predicate is to complete an idea about the subject, such as what it does or what it is like. For instance, in a sentence such as ""Frank likes cake"", the subject is ""Frank"" and the predicate is ""likes cake"". The second notion of predicates is derived from work in"
"""girl"", and one predicate, ""ran into her bedroom"". The predicate is a verb phrase that consists of more than one word. This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, ""dog"", and one predicate, ""barked and howled at the cat"". This predicate has two verbs, known as a compound predicate: ""barked"" and ""howled"". This compound verb should not be confused with a compound sentence. ""In the backyard"" and ""at the cat"" are prepositional phrases. A compound sentence is composed of at least two independent clauses. It does not require a dependent clause. The clauses are joined by a"
"subject has or is characterized by. A predicate is therefore an expression that can be ""true of"" something. Thus, the expression ""is moving"" is true of anything that is moving. This classical understanding of predicates was adopted more or less directly into Latin and Greek grammars; and from there, it made its way into English grammars, where it is applied directly to the analysis of sentence structure. It is also the understanding of predicates as defined in English-language dictionaries. The predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence (the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies)."
"and me are coming tomorrow"" (possibly because of the lack of direct agreement between ""me"" and ""are""). Children are often taught in school that they should always order oneself after any others in a compound subject and use ""I"", saying ""Johnny and I"" instead of ""me and Johnny"". Although intended specifically for compound ""subjects"", when adopted by speakers it typically is generalized to compound ""objects"", leading to alternations such as ""between me and you"" vs. ""between you and I"". Compound subject A compound subject is two or more individual noun phrases coordinated to form a single, longer noun phrase. Compound"
"Subject complement In grammar, a subject complement or predicative of the subject is a predicative expression that follows a linking verb (copula) and that complements the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. It completes the meaning of the subject. In the former case, a renaming noun phrase such as a noun or pronoun is called a predicative nominal. An adjective following the copula and describing the subject is called a predicative adjective. In either case the predicative complement in effect mirrors the subject. Subject complements are used with a small class of verbs"
"action. In sentences with imperative mood, the subject may not be expressed. The predicate of a sentence may have many parts, but the only required element is a finite verb. In addition to the verb, the predicate may contain one or more objects, a subject complement, object complements, adpositional phrases (in English, these are prepositional phrases), or adverbial elements. Some verbs (called transitive verbs) take direct objects; some also take indirect objects. A direct object names the person or thing directly affected by the action of an active sentence. An indirect object names the entity indirectly affected. In a sentence"
"state about its argument ""Sally"". Some verbs such as ""curse"" can take two arguments, e.g. ""Sally cursed John"". A predicate that can only take a single argument is called ""intransitive"", while a predicate that can take two arguments is called ""transitive"". Many other word classes exist in different languages, such as conjunctions like ""and"" that serve to join two sentences, articles that introduce a noun, interjections such as ""wow!"", or ideophones like ""splash"" that mimic the sound of some event. Some languages have positionals that describe the spatial position of an event or entity. Many languages have classifiers that identify"
"are expressions that contain a subject and a predicate. (Sohn, Woleaian Reference Grammar, 1975). Within a major sentence it can be broken up into two types, simple and complex sentences. Simple major sentences have a subject associated with a predicate. In a simple major sentence, the subject and predicates are interchangeable—so sometimes the subject comes first, and sometimes the predicate comes first. Simple major sentences can then be broken up into either equational or predicative. In an equational sentence the subject always follows the predicate, whether a question or statement. In predicative sentences, a subject or noun phrase usually follows"
"predicate calculus (predicate logic, first order logic) and is prominent in modern theories of syntax and grammar. The predicate is a semantic unit that takes one or more arguments and relates these arguments to each other. On this approach, the predicate in the example sentence ""Frank likes cake"" is the verb ""likes"", and the nouns ""Frank"" and ""cake"" are its arguments. Both of these predicate concepts are considered in this article. The predicate in traditional grammar is inspired by propositional logic of antiquity (as opposed to the more modern predicate logic). A predicate is seen as a property that a"
"""arc"": Compounds are made up of two base words: the first is the prefix, the latter is the suffix. A compound can be ""subordinative"": the prefix is in logical connection with the suffix. If the prefix is the subject of the suffix, the compound is generally classified as a subjective one. There are objective, determinative, and adjunctive compounds as well. Some examples are given below: According to current orthographic rules, a subordinative compound word has to be written as a single word, without spaces; however, if the length of a compound of three or more words (not counting one-syllable verbal"
"auxiliaries and contractions. A verb together with its dependents, excluding its subject, may be identified as a verb phrase (although this concept is not acknowledged in all theories of grammar). A verb phrase headed by a finite verb may also be called a predicate. The dependents may be objects, complements, and modifiers (adverbs or adverbial phrases). In English, objects and complements nearly always come after the verb; a direct object precedes other complements such as prepositional phrases, but if there is an indirect object as well, expressed without a preposition, then that precedes the direct object: ""give me the book"","
"Object (grammar) Traditional grammar defines the object in a sentence as the entity that is acted upon by the subject. There is thus a primary distinction between subjects and objects that is understood in terms of the action expressed by the verb, e.g. ""Tom studies grammar""—""Tom"" is the subject and ""grammar"" is the object. Traditional theories of sentence structure divide the simple sentence into a subject and a predicate, whereby the object is taken to be part of the predicate. Many modern theories of grammar (e.g. dependency grammars), in contrast, take the object to be a verb argument like the"
"group of words that prototypically denotes things and concepts and a group of words that prototypically denotes actions and events. The first group, which includes English words such as ""dog"" and ""song"", are usually called nouns. The second, which includes ""run"" and ""sing"", are called verbs. Another common category is the adjective: words that describe properties or qualities of nouns, such as ""red"" or ""big"". Word classes can be ""open"" if new words can continuously be added to the class, or relatively ""closed"" if there is a fixed number of words in a class. In English, the class of pronouns"
"The verbal predicate of a simple sentence of the final clause of a complex sentence carries the temporal and modal marking in relation to the speech act. Verbs of non-final clauses are marked in relation to the following clause. A complex sentence may contain an unlimited number of clauses. Simple sentences may include a subject or no subject. The predicate may be a verb with no complement, a predicate noun with a copula, or a verb with a preceding direct object in the absolutive case and/or an oblique term or local complement. The number of arguments may be increased or"
"""The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"", C. S. Lewis writes, ""'Come out, Mrs. Beaver. Come out, Sons and Daughters of Adam. It's all right! It isn't Her!' This was bad grammar of course, but that is how beavers talk when they are excited."" Subject complement In grammar, a subject complement or predicative of the subject is a predicative expression that follows a linking verb (copula) and that complements the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. It completes the meaning of the subject. In the former case, a renaming noun phrase such as"
"the clause ""There were two."" Typically a sentence contains a subject and predicate. A sentence can also be defined purely in orthographic terms, as a group of words starting with a capital letter and ending in a full stop. In the teaching of writing skills (composition skills), students are generally required to express (rather than imply) the elements of a sentence, leading to the schoolbook definition of a sentence as one that must [explicitly] include a subject and a verb. For example, in second-language acquisition, teachers often reject one-word answers that only imply a clause, commanding the student to ""give"
"predicate. Within computational linguistics the term is used to refer to the formal analysis by a computer of a sentence or other string of words into its constituents, resulting in a parse tree showing their syntactic relation to each other, which may also contain semantic and other information. The term is also used in psycholinguistics when describing language comprehension. In this context, parsing refers to the way that human beings analyze a sentence or phrase (in spoken language or text) ""in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc."" This term is especially common when discussing"
"composition or structure, thus anything that can be either the subject or the predicate of a proposition. The text begins with an explication of what is meant by ""synonymous,"" or words, what is meant by ""homonymous,"" or words, and what is meant by ""paronymous,"" or (sometimes translated ""derivative"") words. It then divides forms of speech as being: Only composite forms of speech can be true or false. Next, he distinguishes between what is said ""of"" a subject and what is ""in"" a subject. What is said ""of"" a subject describes the kind of thing that it is as a whole,"
"Complement (linguistics) In grammar, a complement is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression. Complements are often also arguments (expressions that help complete the meaning of a predicate). There are indicative as well as non-indicative complements in languages. Non-indicative complements follow the appropriate complementizers. Indicative complements do not follow complementizers but instead are included with special markers and clauses. In many non-theoretical grammars, the terms ""subject complement"" and ""object complement"" are employed to denote the predicative expressions (such as predicative adjectives and nominals) that serve to assign a property to a"
"""bow and arrow"" but not ""*arrow and bow""; one says ""here and there"" and ""that's neither here nor there"", but not ""*there and here"" or ""*that's neither there nor here"". Binomial pair In linguistics, a binomial pair or binomial is a sequence of two or more words or phrases belonging to the same grammatical category, having some semantic relationship and joined by some syntactic device such as ""and"" or ""or"". Examples in English include ""through and through"", ""(without) let or hindrance"", and ""chalk and cheese"". Several legal terms are binomial pairs, often (but not necessarily) consisting of one Germanic word"
"the adposition. Preposition and postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in English, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (""in"", ""under"", ""towards"", ""before"") or mark various semantic roles (""of"", ""for""). A preposition or postposition typically combines with a noun or pronoun, or more generally a noun phrase, this being called its complement, or sometimes object. A preposition comes before its complement; a postposition comes after its complement. English generally has prepositions rather than postpositions – words such as ""in"", ""under"" and ""of"" precede their objects, such as ""in England"", ""under"
"Preposition and postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in English, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (""in"", ""under"", ""towards"", ""before"") or mark various semantic roles (""of"", ""for""). A preposition or postposition typically combines with a noun or pronoun, or more generally a noun phrase, this being called its complement, or sometimes object. A preposition comes before its complement; a postposition comes after its complement. English generally has prepositions rather than postpositions – words such as ""in"", ""under"" and ""of"" precede their objects, such as ""in England"", ""under the table"","
"constituent being the predicate, whereby the predicate says something about the subject. According to a tradition associated with predicate logic and dependency grammars, the subject is the most prominent overt argument of the predicate. By this position all languages with arguments have subjects, though there is no way to define this consistently for all languages. From a functional perspective, a subject is a phrase that conflates nominative case with the topic. Many languages (such as those with ergative or Austronesian alignment) do not do this, and by this definition would not have subjects. All of these positions see the subject"
"auxiliary verb (e.g. the English verb ""be"", as in ""I am eating"", or ""had"" in ""they had finished""), or, after sound change, even a clitic (a shortened verb, as in ""I'm""). In particular, some verb inflections (e.g. Latin future tense inflections) are thought to have arisen in this manner. Sanford Steever has shown the same phenomenon has a role in the emergence of the ditransitive paradigm in Dravidian. Compound verb In linguistics, a compound verb or complex predicate is a multi-word compound that functions as a single verb. One component of the compound is a ""light verb"" or ""vector"", which"