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Function in Phrases
The syntactic functions which we looked at in the last section -- Subject, Object, Predicate, Adjunct, etc -- are all functions within sentences or clauses. We saw, for instance, that most sentences can be divided into two main functional constituents, the Subject and the Predicate Subject Predicate [1] The lion roared [2] He writes well [3] She enjoys going to the cinema [4] The girl in the blue dress arrived late Within the Predicate, too, constituents perform various functions -- in [3], for example, going to the cinema performs the function of Direct Object, while in [4], late performs the function of Adjunct. In each of these cases, we are referring to the roles which these constituents perform in the sentence or clause. We can also assign functions to the constituents of a phrase. Recall that we have said that all phrases have the following generalised structure: (pre-Head string) --- Head --- (post-Head string) where the parentheses denote optional elements. In this section, we will consider the functions of these parts of a phrase -- what roles do they perform in the phrase as a whole? We will begin by looking at functions within verb phrases.
Complements
Consider the bracketed verb phrase in the following sentence: David [VP plays the piano] In formal terms, we can analyse this VP using the familiar three-part structure: pre-Head string Head post-Head string -- plays the piano Let us now consider the functions of each of these three parts.
Actually, we already know the function of one of the parts -- the word plays functions as the Head of this VP. The term "Head" is a functional label, indicated by the capital (upper case) letter. Remember that we also capitalize the other functions -- Subject, Object, Predicate, etc. Turning now to the post-Head string the piano , we can see that it completes the meaning of the Head plays. In functional terms, we refer to this string as the COMPLEMENT of the Head. Here are some more examples of Complements in verb phrases: pre-Head string Head Complement never needs money -- eat vegetables not say what he is doing In each case, the Complement completes the meaning of the Head, so there is a strong syntactic link between these two strings. At this point you may be wondering why we do not simply say that these post-Head strings are Direct Objects. Why do we need the further term Complement? The string which completes the meaning of the Head is not always a Direct Object. Consider the following: She [VP told me] Here the post-Head string (the Complement) is an Indirect Object. With ditransitive verbs, two Objects appear: We [VP gave James a present] Here, the meaning of the Head gave is completed by two strings -- James and a present. Each string is a Complement of the Head gave. Finally, consider verb phrases in which the Head is a form of the verb be : David [VP is a musician] Amy [VP is clever] Our car [VP is in the carpark] The post-Head strings here are neither Direct Objects nor Indirect Objects. The verb be is known as a COPULAR verb. It takes a special type of Complement which we will refer to generally as a COPULAR COMPLEMENT. There is a small number of other copular verbs. In the following examples, we have highlighted the Head, and italicised the Complement: Our teacher [VP became angry ] Your sister [VP seems upset ]
Adverb phrases are very limited in the Complements they can take. In fact, they generally occur without any Complement. Noun phrases which take Complements generally have an abstract noun as their Head, and they often have a verbal counterpart: the pursuit of happiness ~we pursue happiness their belief in ghosts ~they believe in ghosts the realisation that nothing has changed ~they realise that nothing has changed
Adjuncts in Phrases
The term "Complement" is not simply another word for the "post-Head string" -- post-Head strings are not always Complements. This is because the post-Head string is not always required to complete the meaning of the Head. Consider: [NP My sister, who will be twenty next week,] has got a new job. Here the relative clause who will be twenty next week is certainly a post-Head string, but it is not a Complement. Notice that it contributes additional but optional information about the Head sister. In this example, the post-Head string is an ADJUNCT. Like the other Adjuncts we looked at earlier, it contributes additional, optional information. Adjuncts can occur in all the phrase types, and they may occur both before and after the Head. The following table shows examples of each type: Phrase Type Head Typical Adjuncts Examples Noun Phrase (NP) noun
PP
AP
clause the books on the shelf the old lady cocoa, which is made from cacao beans Verb Phrase (VP) verb AdvP PP she rapidly lost interest he stood on the patio Adjective Phrase (AP) adjective AdvP it was terribly difficult Prepositional Phrase (PP) preposition AdvP completely out of control
Complements and Adjuncts Compared
Complements differ from Adjuncts in two important respects:
1. Complements immediately follow the Head In most phrases, the Complement must immediately follow the Head: David [VP plays [Complement the piano] [Adjunct beautifully ]] In contrast, the reverse order is not possible: David [VP plays [Adjunct beautifully] [Complement the piano]] Similarly: fond [Complement of biscuits] [Adjunct with coffee] ~fond [Adjunct with coffee] [Complement of biscuits] Complements, then, bear a much closer relationship to the Head than Adjuncts do. 2. Adjuncts are "stackable" In theory at least, we can "stack" an indefinite number of Adjuncts, one after another, within a phrase. For example, consider the NP: Adjunct Adjunct Adjunct Adjunct the book on the shelf by Dickens with the red cover that you gave me... In contrast with this, phrases are limited in the number of Complements that they can take. In fact, they usually have only one Complement. Ditransitive verb phrases are an exception to this. Recall that they take two Complements: We [VP gave [Complement James] [Complement a present]]
Specifiers
Adjuncts can appear before the Head of a phrase, as well as after the Head. For example, in the following NP, the Adjunct sudden is part of what we have been calling the pre-Head string: ? Adjunct Head Complement the sudden realisation that nothing has changed In this section we will look at the function of the remaining part of the pre-Head string. In this example, what is the function of the in the phrase as a whole?
