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Complementation: Prepared By: Pagkalinawan, Stephanie Villasin, Jayshen Yonder, Generose

Complementation refers to constituents that are needed to complete the meaning of a verb or adjective. There are several types of complements including subject complements, object complements, and clausal complements introduced by complementizers like "that". A complementizer connects a main clause to a subordinate clause. Complementizers can be empty at times. Common complementizers in English include "that", "if", and infinitival "to".

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Marjorie Magcanta
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39 views

Complementation: Prepared By: Pagkalinawan, Stephanie Villasin, Jayshen Yonder, Generose

Complementation refers to constituents that are needed to complete the meaning of a verb or adjective. There are several types of complements including subject complements, object complements, and clausal complements introduced by complementizers like "that". A complementizer connects a main clause to a subordinate clause. Complementizers can be empty at times. Common complementizers in English include "that", "if", and infinitival "to".

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Marjorie Magcanta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COMPLEMENTATION

Prepared by:
Pagkalinawan, Stephanie
Villasin, Jayshen
Yonder, Generose
“
▹What is
Complement?
Complementation in its simplest for are
constituents needed to complete the
meaning of a verb or an adjective, are
often distinguished from adjuncts,
which are perceived not to be central to
the propositional meaning of the
sentence and which are never required
to occur with a verb or adjective.
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). In
contrast to modifiers, which are optional,
complements are required to complete the
meaning of a sentence or a part of a
sentence.
Subject
Complement
Subject 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.
A renaming noun phrase such as
a noun or pronoun is called a 
predicative nominal.
Example:
The lake was a tranquil pool.
 
Predicative nominal as subject complement
Here, was is a linking verb that equates the
predicate nominative phrase a tranquil pool,
with the head noun, pool, to the subject, the
lake (with head noun lake).
An adjective following the
copula and describing the
subject is called a 
predicative adjective.
Example:
The lake is tranquil. 

Predicative adjective as subject complement


In this example tranquil is a predicative
adjective linked through the verb is (another
inflected form of be) to the subject the lake.
Example:
The lake is tranquil. 

Predicative adjective as subject complement


In this example tranquil is a predicative
adjective linked through the verb is (another
inflected form of be) to the subject the lake.
Object
Complement
An object complement is a word
that follows a direct object to
state what it has become. An
object complement may be a
noun, pronoun, or adjective.
She named the baby Bruce.

Any word following the direct object that


renames or describes the direct object is
an object complement. She named the
baby Bruce, so Bruce is the object
complement.
“

▹As Argument
In many modern grammars (for instance in
those that build on the X-bar framework),
the object argument of a verbal predicate is
called a complement. A main aspect of this
understanding of complements is that the
subject is usually not a complement of the
predicate (Fromkin et. al., 2000).
He wiped the counter. – the counter is the object
complement of the verb wiped.
She scoured the tub. – the tub is the object
complement of the verb scoured.
While it is less common to do so, one sometimes
extends this reasoning to subject arguments:
He wiped the counter. – He is the subject
complement of the verb wiped.
She scoured the tub. – She is the subject complement
of the verb scoured.
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.
“

▹Complementizer
▹ Empty Complementizer
Complementizer can be defined as a
functional category that connects the main
or pivotal clause to the subordinate or
dependent clause. This is also referred to as
clausal complementation, where a
complementizer can be used to link the main
clause of the sentence with the complement
clause.
In some contexts the complementizer
that can be omitted—a process known
as "that complementizer deletion.
For example:

"I wish that I had duck feet"


Can also be expressed as
"I wish I had duck feet."
The result is called a null complementizer or
what we called empty complementizer.
An Empty Complementizer is considered to be
present when there is not a word, even though the
rules of grammar expect one. The complementizer
(for example, "that") is usually said to be
understood an English speaker knows it is there,
and so it does not need to be said. Its existence in
English has been proposed based on the following
type of alternation:
 
Example:
He hopes you go ahead with the speech
He hopes that you go ahead with the speech
Complementizers can be classified into three
categories mainly:
Clausal Complementizers
Infinitival Complementizers
Gerundival Complementizers
A Clausal complementizer- attaches an
entire clause to a higher matrix sentence as
its argument. The embedded clause, which
functions as an argument of the main clause,
is treated as having a noun category.
A Clausal complementizer- attaches an entire
clause to a higher matrix sentence as its
argument. The embedded clause, which
functions as an argument of the main clause,
is treated as having a noun category.
Gerundival complementizer- attaches a
gerund, i.e. a verbal particle that behaves as
a noun, to the main clause. It is important to
note that the embedded clause (argument) in
all these three cases functions as an NP.
Common Complementizers

While As soon as,


Before When
After That
Until To
As long as Since
Because Although
If
By the time that, once, and inasmuch as."
That and if have special usage as
complementizers. For that, the compliment
associated with a complement type is named
the that-clause and may or may not be
omitted and still make sense in the context
of a sentence. If can function in the exact
same manner as "that" as in "I don't know if
John will join us."
THAT-CLAUSE
That-clause is a subordinate clausethat
usually begins with the word that. Also
known as a declarative content clause or
a "that"-complement clause.
A nominal that-clause can function as a 
subject, object, complement, or appositive
 in a declarative sentence. 
Ordinary That-Complement
That-clause is one of the most frequent types of
clausal complement. It should be clear that the use
of that I is not the same as the word that in relative
clause, thus, it does not replace a full NP in the
same way as relative that:
This is the shop that I was telling you about.
(that = shop)
This is the shop that I was telling you about. (that = shop)

Nor is that in the above complement clause identical


to the demonstrative determiner; not only does it
not replace an NP, but also cannot receive emphatic
or contrastive stress in the same way that
demonstrative can:
• That is the type of bird I was telling you
about.
• We should pay attention to this sign, not
that one.
• Scientists claim that the globe is getting
warmer.
It is hard to see that sort of contrast could
possibly be intended in the last example.
Thus, in the case of complement clauses, it
seems we have a third type of that, one we
shall call a “complementizer”, a signal a
complement clause. This complementizer is
neither of the noun/pronoun category.
Example:
The professor that teaches History is the
dean.
In this sentence which is made up of two
sentences:
The professor is the dean.
The professor teaches History.
Infinitive complements
Infinitive is an insertion of the word
“to” to complete or complement a
sentence sometimes it can be use as
a subject, complement or an object
to a sentence.
There are 5 sub- types of infinitive complements;
1.Believe type: The students believe their professor to
be amazing
2. Advice type: We advice them to play baseball
outside
3. Attempt type: I attempted to avoid the ice on the
road
4. Want type: I want to clean the house
(for/to infinitive) I want for (him) to clean the house
5.let type: the teachers let the students to go home
early
Gerund Complements
 
In contrast to infinitives, the verbal
elements in the sequence-making and
doing-seems to have characteristics of
nouns. With the addition of –ing, verbs can
regularly be made into noun that can serves
as subjects and objects of sentence.
What is enjoyable for you => Hiking is the
most enjoyable for me.
 
 
The “what-ness” of these verbal nouns,
called gerund, extends to gerund clauses as
well.
What did Fred dislike  making phone
calls to John
We conclude that the gerund clause are NP
objects which happen also to have status of
clausal (S).

Example:
Fred disliked making phone calls to John.
CONCLUSION
 
Complementation poses some understanding
such as: addition of words can complete the
thought of a certain sentence without
changing the base form. The actual process
of complementation which involves the
process of addition of complementizers.
 
Reference:
Five Sentence Complements. Retrieved article from
http://blog.writeathome.com/index.php/2012/10/the-five-sentence-
complements/
Khullar, P. (2015) Retrieved from
languagelinguistics.com/2015/01/21/complementation-in-linguistics/
Murcia M. & Freeman, D. The Grammar Book. Retrieved article from
https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://flaviamcunha.files.wordpress.co
m/2013/03/the-grammar-book-an-eslefl-teachers-course-second-
editiona4.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjK4Oaf7ergAhVtEqYKHU5zBckQFjA
AegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw1s5W1q6QUZCcdYpUTpyq28
Nordquist, R. (2018) Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-
is-complementizer-1689770

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