The Semantic Roles of Complement

1. The Semantic Roles of Complement BY DR. BUSHRA NI’MA

2. The Semantic Roles of Complement • The role of subject complement is that of attribute of the subject, whether a current or existing attribute (with stative verbs) or on resulting from the event described by the verb (with dynamic verbs).

3. 1-A Current attribute ~My father was a teacher. ~ Sidney is now the Dean. ~ Kevin is my brother. 2-Resulting attribute ~ He became restless. ~ She became a teacher in 1965. ~ They turned traitors.

4. The role of object complement is that of attribute of the object, again either a currentor resulting attribute. Current: I ate the meat cold. I prefer coffee black Resulting attribute: They elected him President. He painted the wall blue. The heat turned the milk sour. Her new dress made her attractive.

5. 7.8 Concord • Subject-verb concord:The most important type of concord in English, as it is the case in Arabic and some other languages is concord of 3rd person number between the subject and the verb, a singular S requires a singular V; and the plural S requires a plural V: ▪ She goes home. ▪ He sends me a letter. ▪ Theyelect him chairman. ▪ Ali buys a new car. ▪ My daughter watches TV after supper.

6. * The S-V concord is clearly shownwhen the tense of the Vis present. In the past tense the concord is not clearly noticedbecause in the past tense the V takes the same forms with any type of S. The following sentences are ungrammatical because they lack concord: ▪They goes home. ×▪ They sends me a letter. ×▪She elect him chairman. ×▪We buys a new car. ×

7. A subject can be more than one word such as a clause or a phrase. 1 –When a clause takes the position of a S, it is treated as singular for the purposes of number concord just as we have noticed above when the S is singular. Consider the following ex. : ▪ Being lateis a big problem. Clause S V sing.

8. ▪Their arrival earlyis not an issue. Clause S V sing 2 ─ The same can be said about clauses with phrasal heads in that they take single verbs: ▪ How you got theredoesn't concern me. نلاحظ برغم وجود you و cigarettes إلا إننا نتعامل مع الجملة كفاعل مفرد فتأخذ فعل مفرد ▪ Smokingcigarettes is dangerous to your health.

9. 3─ The same rules to a prepositional phrase and adverbial phrase that take the place of a Sand function as aS. Consider the following ex.: ▪ Before breakfast is good to exercise. A.time/or pre.ph. V.sing. ▪ By sunsetis a nice scene. pre.ph. V.sing. اي اننا يجب ان نتعامل مع شبه الجملة او الجملة الظرفية ومثل قانونclause

10. التي تكون بمكان الفاعل, لذلك يجب ان ← يكون الفعل مفرد. 4─Nominal relative clausesbehave differently from clauses and phrases when they take the place of the S.; they occur with a phrasal V.as well as with a sing. V. in terms of number concord. This is because they are similar to noun phrases NPs. أي أننا يجب أن نتعامل مع الجملة الاسمية مثل تعاملنا مع العبارة الاسمية, إذا كان رأس الجملة مفرد فيأخذ فعل مفرد, أما إذا كان رأس الجملة جمع فيأخذ فعل جمع. لاحظ الأمثلة : ←← ←

11. Consider the following ex. : ▪ What was a palaceis now a pile of rubble. nominal relative clause as a S.V.sing. ▪ What ideas he hasare his wife's. nominal relative clause as a S.V.pl. ▪ Whoever the winnerwasshe|he has already received the prize. nominal relative clause as a S. V. sing.

12. General rule: It is possible to generalize the rule of concord to a subjectwhich is not already semantically plural requires a sing. V; that is, to treat sing. as the unmarked form, to be used in neutral circumstances, where no positive indication of plurality is present. This would explain, in addition to clausal S., the tendency in informal speech for is|was to follow the pseudo-subjectthere in existential sentences. The number concord in this case can be either pl. or sing. as in :

13. نلاحظ في حالة وجود there(فاعل زائف) مكان الفاعل فأن الفعل الذي بعدها سيكون إما مفرد او جمع وكلاهما صحيح: ▪ Thereare hundreds of names in this list. Pseudo S. V.pl ▪ There's a huge crowed outside. Pseudo S. V.sing. ▪ There's hundred of people on the waiting list. Pseudo S. V. pl.

14. However, there are some exceptions regarding number concord. Some nouns end with the inflectional S. are treated as sing. Sin terms of number concord such as : (mathematics, linguistics, phonetics, brilliant, measels) as well as some proper nouns such as (Algiers, Athens, Brussels, Flanders, Wales, etc. . Consider the following ex. :

15. ─ Mathematics is an important science. Linguistics Phonetics ─ Billiards is an interesting game. ─ Measles is a dangerous disease. ─ Algiers is the capital of Algeria. ─ Athens is the capital of Greece. ─ Brussels is the capital of Belgium. ─ Flanders is the former name of Belgium province of England and Wales. ─ Wales is a district in England.

16. 7.9 Conjoined coordinated subject and reduced clause When a S of a sentence has more than noun ph. (NP) and these NPsare joined by the coordinator and, the V. with this kind of S. takes (should be in) the plural. This is because it is classified under an implied reductionof clauses in terms of number concord.

17. عندما يكون الفاعل عبارة عن عبارة اسمية او اكثر من عبارة اسمية مرتبطة باداة الربطand فان الفعل الذي سيأتي مع هذا النوع يكون جمعاً , لانه يصنف تحت العبارات التي تم تقليصها وتقليلها وذلك من اجل التطابق. امثلـــــة: Consider the following ex. : 1─ Ali andHassan have already finished writing their new books. 2 ─ Your idea andmine are obviously similar. 3 ─ Your interest and hers arecommon. 4 ─ MuhsinandMahmoodare different.

18. Each of sentences above has two clauses which have been reduced into the above sentences. They are syntactically and semantically as follows: 5─ Ali has already finished writing his book and Hassan has already finished his too. 6 ─ Your idea is similar to my idea andmy idea is similar to yours. 7─ Your interest is common to her interest and her interest is common to yours. 8 ─ Muhsin is different from MahmoodandMahmood is different from Muhsin too.

19. Unlike conjoined Subjects with the coordinator (and), coordinator subjects which form a single entityare used with a sing. V.for the purposes of number concord. This is applicable to names of (companies, places) and some compound nouns as in the following ex. : ─Mint and Black Pepperis a famous British Company.

20. **هنا نستعمل فعل مفرد على الرغم من وجود الرابطand وذلك لان الاسمان يمثلان كيان واحد. ─ Tom and Jerry is a popular cartoon series for children. ─Masalat Hammurabi is the base stone in law. • Plural nouns lacking the inflection such as (cattle, people, clergy, etc. ) are used with pl. V. : ▪ Our peopleare complaining.

21. When the S.has more than one word coordinate structures referring to the same reference, no reductionis applied and a sing. V.is used: ▪ This book of Syntax and Semanticsis extremely useful. ▪ This book of AL Khwarizmi and his ideasis a huge edition to science. لانه اسم لكتاب واحد

22. When the conjoined NPsof a S. occur in an ambiguous sentence, both a sing. or a pl. V.can be used. This is because it is not clear whether the reference is the same or it refers to two different items, people, things, etc. . Consider the following ex. : 1 ▪ His father and his advisorwas to his bedside in hospital. 2 ▪ His father and his advisorwereto his bedside in hospital.

23. The above sentences (1) is understood that his father was his advisor, so it is the same structural reference, thus a sing. V. is appropriate in this situation for the purpose of number concord. In sentence (2), his father and his advisor are two different people referring to two different structural reference, thus a pl. V.is used in terms of number concord.

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