THE PREDICATIVE COMPLEXES
THE PREDICATIVE COMPLEXES
Predicative complexes (or constructions) are structures intermediate between a phrase and a clause. Unlike phrases they contain two words I which semantically are in subject-predicate relations to one another, as one (the nominal part) denotes the doer of the action or the bearer of the state or quality, while the other (the predicated part) may be either verbal (an infinitive, a participle, a gerund) or non-verbal (an adjective, a stative, an adverb, a noun).
But in most cases the dependent status of the construction is manifested by special structural devices of linking:
1. It may be overlapping (наложение) when the embedding sentence and the complex share a common element, as in the case of objective predicative complexes:
I saw him enter this door.
where him has a double role, referring formally to the predicate of the embedding sentence (I saw him) and referring semantically to the complex, as it denotes the doer of the action ( he entered this door); in such cases the construction functions as one part of the sentence (a complex object).
In some cases overlapping is possible with verbs taking a preposition, then the latter is retained between the verb and predicative comples:
We listened to him talking to his neighbour.
2. It may be blending (слияние), when elements of two structures blend into one syntactical part, usually into а соmpound predicate of double orientation when two elements refer to different doers of the action, as in the subjective predicative construction:
He is supposed to have arrived already —> It is supposed (they suppose) that he has arrived already.
The first part of the predicate refers to an implied doer not expressed in the sentence, though formally it agrees with the subject he. The second part to have arrived refers to the doer expressed by the subject, though grammatically the reference is not expressed. The elements of the complex structurally make two parts of the sentence - the subject
Predicative complexes (or constructions) are structures intermediate between a phrase and a clause. Unlike phrases they contain two words I which semantically are in subject-predicate relations to one another, as one (the nominal part) denotes the doer of the action or the bearer of the state or quality, while the other (the predicated part) may be either verbal (an infinitive, a participle, a gerund) or non-verbal (an adjective, a stative, an adverb, a noun).
But in most cases the dependent status of the construction is manifested by special structural devices of linking:
1. It may be overlapping (наложение) when the embedding sentence and the complex share a common element, as in the case of objective predicative complexes:
I saw him enter this door.
where him has a double role, referring formally to the predicate of the embedding sentence (I saw him) and referring semantically to the complex, as it denotes the doer of the action ( he entered this door); in such cases the construction functions as one part of the sentence (a complex object).
In some cases overlapping is possible with verbs taking a preposition, then the latter is retained between the verb and predicative comples:
We listened to him talking to his neighbour.
2. It may be blending (слияние), when elements of two structures blend into one syntactical part, usually into а соmpound predicate of double orientation when two elements refer to different doers of the action, as in the subjective predicative construction:
He is supposed to have arrived already —> It is supposed (they suppose) that he has arrived already.
The first part of the predicate refers to an implied doer not expressed in the sentence, though formally it agrees with the subject he. The second part to have arrived refers to the doer expressed by the subject, though grammatically the reference is not expressed. The elements of the complex structurally make two parts of the sentence - the subject