Understanding Predicates, Agreement, and Objects in English Grammar
The Predicate & The Predicative
The predicate is the second main part of the sentence, and it denotes an action, a state, or a quality of the thing expressed by the subject. In certain cases, it agrees with the subject in person, number, and tense.
According to the structure of the predicates, we distinguish two types: simple and compound. According to their morphological realization, they are verbal and nominal. Depending on these two criteria, there are the following types of predicates:
- Simple verbal predicate: consists of only one verb form, which can be in any of the tenses and in active and passive voice. E.g., He reads a book every evening; The window was broken.
- Simple nominal predicate: contains only a nominal phrase, which is a noun or adjective. It is used without any verb. E.g., A lovely day!
- Simple phraseological predicate: contains a verb of high frequency, which has lost its original meaning. After this verb, we always have an indefinite noun, which is also called a verbal noun. This noun is not an object of the verb. This type of predicate expresses a momentary action. Such examples are: give a smile!, take a look!, pay attention!, etc.
Compound verbal predicate is a combination of two separate verb forms. The first has a more general meaning, either modal or aspective, and the second carries the lexical meaning of the predicate. Due to these criteria, we divide compound verbal predicates into compound verbal modal predicates and compound verbal aspective predicates.
- Compound verbal modal predicate: the first verb carries the grammatical categories of person, number, and tense, and the second carries the lexical meaning; it specifies the action. This type of combination is between a modal verb and an infinitive (can go, must come); ‘to be’ as a modal and infinitive (they are to come); ‘have’ as a modal and infinitive (we’ve to go); a full lexical verb with modal meaning and infinitive or gerund (want to go, can’t help doing).
- Compound verbal aspective predicate: the first verb is with a general meaning. It denotes the beginning, the duration, or the end of the action. The second verb is a full one in infinitive or gerund. For instance, he began to work; she started laughing.
The next type of predicate is the compound nominal predicate that consists of a link verb and a subject complement. The subject complement is used to characterize or identify the subject. We distinguish some different link verbs:
- Of being: be, sound, seem – he is a student, that sounds nice.
- Of passing into a new state: become, grow, turn – he became a student.
- Of remaining: remain, stay, keep – she stayed calm.
- Of seeming or appearing: seem, appear, look – he seemed tired.
Some of the link verbs lost their lexical meaning when they became link verbs, but sometimes this doesn’t happen, and in these cases, we have a double predicate – she married young, he died young.
Summarizing all the predicate types mentioned above, we can say that there are also mixed types of predicates: compound modal nominal predicate, compound aspective nominal predicate, compound aspective modal predicate.
The predicative is an element of the predicate of a sentence which supplements the subject or object by means of the verb.
We distinguish three types of predicative according to their degree of connection to the link verb: true, supplementary, and extrapositional. The strongest connection between the link verb and the predicative is with the true predicatives. They cannot be dropped without destroying the grammaticality of the sentence or changing the meaning of the link verb. Such verbs are ‘be’ and ‘fall’. For instance, he is a teacher. Supplementary predicatives are double ones. They don’t have a really strong connection with the link verbs. Due to this, if we drop the predicative, the meaning of the sentence doesn’t change. For example, he died young & he died – the result is the same. Extrapositional predicatives have a really weak connection with the link verb. They are detached from the link verb by another part of a sentence or by a comma. For instance, she reached her goal, exhausted but happy.
According to the meaning of the predicatives, they are divided into predicatives of being and of becoming. The first group indicates a permanent quality of the subject – he is a father. The second group indicates a new quality of the subject – Mary became a doctor.
Subject-Predicate Agreement
Agreement or concord is a relationship between two grammatical elements. If one of these elements has a certain feature, then the other must have it too. The most significant kind of agreement in English is the concord in number between the subject and verb. Due to this, we differ three types of concord: grammatical, notional, and proximity.
The grammatical concord is the most important one. The rule stipulates that a singular subject requires a singular verb. For example, The dog is barking; The windows were open. In this case, the plurality is based on the grammatical marker “s”.
The notional concord is based on our idea, not on the basis of the grammatical marker for number. This subject may formally be in plural, but the verb will be in singular. The opposite is also possible. For instance, Linguistics is hard; Measles is a disease. In these cases, “s” is no longer a marker for plurality. Notional concord is also applied with collective nouns such as family, government, crowd, etc. These nouns can be used either in singular or plural. However, it will have a slight difference in the meaning. When we use a collective noun with a verb in plural, we mean all its members. On the other hand, when this collective noun is used with a verb in singular, we consider it as one whole entity – as a single thing. For example, The public was enormous and The public were enormous. Both are possible, but they have different meanings.
The last type of concord is proximity. It refers to agreement between the verb and the noun or pronoun, which is closest to it, and not between the subject noun, when we have a phrasal subject. For example, No one but his friends supports him. This type of agreement is used mostly in everyday English.
Part of the subjects arises some difficulties. When the subject is coordinate – it consists of two or more nouns, which are connected with a conjunction – we have appositional and non-appositional coordination.
The appositional one is used when the first and the second noun refer to the same entity or person, and we have a verb in singular. The non-appositional – the two nouns refer to separate entities, and the verb in this case is in plural. For instance, Jim and Tom are coming – here we have non-appositional coordination. However, in the sentence The headmaster and my very best friend are/is coming – there is ambiguity because we cannot be sure whether the person is one or they are two separate people.
There are also some troubles with the disjunctive coordination either/or. The number of the verb depends on the number of the nouns. If both nouns are in singular, then the verb is also in singular – e.g., Either the woman or her husband is coming. If both nouns are in plural, then the verb is in plural, too – e.g., Either the children or the dogs broke the vase. However, if one of the nouns is in singular and the other is in plural, then we apply the proximity – whichever noun is closest, it determines the number of the verb. For instance, Either my friends or I am going out tonight; Either I or my friends are going out tonight.
We can use both singular and plural with coordinated abstract nouns – e.g., Your fairness and kindness are/is amazing. The usage of some, any, and none depends on the type of the noun. When we have a countable noun, we have a plural verb. For example, Some books were lost. However, with an uncountable noun, we use a verb in singular – e.g., Some coffee is spilled on the table. When we use either and neither without coordination, the verb is in singular. For instance, The relatives have come and either is welcome.
The Secondary Parts of the Sentence: The Object
Objects are secondary parts of the sentence. They refer to a finite verb, which is the main predicate in the sentence. Objects complete, restrict, or modify in any other way the meaning of the verb. However, they can also refer to a non-finite verb – infinitive, gerund, or participle – in any of their function in the sentence.
Morphologically, the object is realized in seven different ways:
- Proper or common noun – Tom bought a new house.
- Pronoun – He met her at school.
- Numerals – They found the three at the airport.
- Substantive adjectives – She hates the rich.
- Infinitives and infinitive phrases – She promised to come to the party.
- Gerund and gerundial phrases – She started laughing.
- Objective clause – I want to know what you are doing here.
Syntactically, objects are divided into two main groups: direct and indirect objects. Which one we should use depends on the type of the verb. However, ditransitive verbs receive two objects. If there is an indirect object in the sentence, there must also have a direct one. The prepositional and complex objects are neither direct nor indirect.
Direct object expresses something directly involved in the verbal action. It falls into the following semantic types:
- Affected direct object: indicates a participant in the action that is affected by it. It can denote both an animate and inanimate entity – e.g., He criticized his son; Tom broke the glass.
- Effected direct object: is the result of the verbal action. It shows something which exists because of the verbal action. For instance, He painted a picture.
- Locative direct objects: are realized by nouns that denote places – e.g., She cleaned the room.
- Cognate direct objects: are connected with the verb. Both have one and the same root – She is singing a song; He died a heroic death.
- Direct objects of existence and measure: are realized by phrases which express some kind of measure. They are not typical objects. For examples, The dress cost 25 pounds; He ran a mile.
Indirect object denotes the person towards whom the action of the verb is perspectivized. This person has the semantic role of the recipient in the sentence. For instance, She gave him a book. If the indirect object is inanimate, it is one of the types mentioned above, but as an indirect one, not a direct. For example, She gave the table a strong push. In this case, in contrast to the previous example, the table is also an indirect object, but an affected one.
Prepositional objects are morphologically realized by a prepositional phrase. Indirect objects can easily become a prepositional one – e.g., She gave a book to him. Nevertheless, some verbs always require a prepositional object. Such verbs are look at, listen to, etc. These prepositional objects can be confused with adverbial modifiers. For instance, I finished the task with my friend – prepositional object, but I finished the task with great enthusiasm – adverbial modifier.
The complex object consists of two parts: the first is a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun as an object, and the second is an infinitive (both bare and “to”), a gerund, or a present or past participle. For example, I saw her coming; I hate him asking so many questions.