The compound nominal predicate.

The compound nominal predicate denotes the state or quality of the person or thing expressed by the subject (e. g. He is tired, The book is interesting), or the class of persons or things to which this person or thing belongs (e. g. She is a student).

The compound nominal predicate consists of a link verb and a predicative (the latter is also called the nominal part of the predicate).

The link verb (or a verb of incomplete predication) expresses the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect, mood, sometimes ^voice. All link verbs, as the result of a long development, have partly lost their original concrete meaning. One link verb has lost its con­crete meaning altogether: this is the verb to be, which can be called a pure link verb as it performs only a grammatical function and can be linked with a predicative expressed by any part of speech used in this function.

This is a picture of London.¹

¹ In Russian the link verb быть is generally not used in the Present tense: Его сестра учительница.

Most link verbs to some extent preserve their meaning. The following are the most common of these link verbs: to appear; to get, to grow to continue, to feel, to keep, to look, to turn, to hold, to prove, to turn out to loom, to rank, to remain, to run, to seem, to smell, to taste, to fall_, to stand, to go, to work.

His wife sighed and remained silent. (London)

Harris grew more cheerful. (Jerome)

At my age I get nervous. (Galsworthy)

He soon fell fast asleep in my arms, sobbing at longer intervals. (Dickens)

The boat seemed stuffy. (Jerome)

She, for her part, felt recessive and thence evasive. (Dreiser)

Many of these verbs can be used both as verbs of complete predica­tion fully preserving their concrete meaning and as link verbs.

Link Verbs	Verbs of Complete Predication
to be
The sun was full of promise. (Du Maurier)	No one was there to meet him. (Lind­say)
to grow
But she had grown too proud or too passive. (Wescott)	Perhaps I should grow a beard. I look too young to have been publishing for five years. (Wilson)
to look
He looked stupid and good-natured and happy. (Greene)	He blushed violently and looked away. (Wilson)
to feel
And yet at moments he felt very close to her. (Lindsay)	He felt great awe and admiration. (Wilson)
to come
The nightmare of my life had come true. (Buck)	Giles and Beatrice were coming for the night but nobody else. (Du Maurier)
to go
Philip Baring stiffened in his chair. His face went tense. (Wilson)	Of a misty January morning Soames had gone there once more. (Gals­worthy)

 

There are some verbs which, though fully preserving their con­crete meaning, perform the function of link verbs: they are used with _a predicative and form a compound nominal predicate. Here belong: to lie, to sit, to die, to marry, to return, to leave, to come, to stand, to fall, to go, etc.

After many adventures I and a little girl lay senseless in the Bad Lands. (Haggard)

The poor woman sat amazed. (Trollope)

I stood transfixed with awe and joy. (Haggard)

Here the important thing is not that the speaker stood but that he stood transfixed with awe and joy.

Happily, too, the greater part of the boys came back low- spirited. (Dickens)

Sometimes the predicative does not immediately follow these verbs but is separated from them by an adverbial.

One evening she came home elated. (O. Henry)

Thus the same verb when used as a link verb may either lose its meaning or fully preserve it.

Irene's hair was going gray. (Galsworthy) (link verb)

Tom went home miserable. (Twain) (notional verb performing the function of a link verb)

According to their meaning link verbs can be divided into two large groups:

(1) link verbs of being and remaining;

(2) link verbs of becoming.

The first group comprises such verbs as to be, to remain, to keep, to continue, to look, to smell, to stand, to sit, to lie, to shine, to seem, to prove, to appear, etc. The latter three verbs have some modal colouring.

Cotman was a nice-looking fellow, of thirty perhaps... (Maugham)

Do not delay, there is no time. Teacher Williams lies dead, al­ready. (Buck)

The Western powers stood aloof. (Buck)

Idris. aged five, at a litte desk all by himself near the fire, was looking extraordinarily pleased with life. (Cronin)

He felt exhausted not with physical fatigue, but with the weight of vague burdens. (Lindsay)

Either course seemed unthinkable, without any connection with himself. (Lindsay)

The door remained wide open; the voices inside were louder than ever. (Priestley)

... the dancing continues fast and furious. (Douglas) That sounds not unsatisfactory. (Wilde)

The second group comprises such verbs as to become, to get, to grow, to come, to go, to leave, to run, to turn, to make, etc.

Oh, Adolphus Cusins will make a very good husband. (Shaw)

This becomes uninteresting, however, after a time. (Jerome)

How can I get married without my best man? (Lindsay)

And every month of his life he grew handsomer and more interest­ing. (Burnett)

The great day dawned misty and overcast. (Du Maurier)

The predicative.

The predicative is the significant part of the compound nominal predicate. It can be expressed in different ways:

1. By a noun in the common case, occasionally by a noun in the possessive case.

She is a pretty child. (Galsworthy)

The book is my sister's.

In Russian the predicative is expressed either by a noun in the nominative case or by a noun in the instrumental case.

Он учитель.

Он был учителем.

2.By an adjective.

He's awfully dear and unselfish. (Galsworthy)

Very often the predicative expressed by an adjective in English does not correspond to an adjective in Russian. It often corresponds to an adverb, serving as an adverbial modifier.

In this connection particular attention should be paid to the fob lowing verbs as they are very often used in everyday English: to look, to feel, to sound, to smell, to taste.

The dinner smells delicious. — Обед пахнет восхитительно

When she got angry, her voice sounded shrill. — Когда она сердилась, ее голос звучал пронзительно.

She looks bad. — Она выглядит плохо.

Не feels bad. — Он чувствует себя плохо.

This orange tastes bitter. — Этот апельсин горький.

As is seen from the examples given above all these predicative ad­jectives (with the exception of the one that follows the verb to taste) are rendered by adverbs in Russian.

3.By a pronoun — personal, possessive, negative, interrogative, reflexive, indefinite, defining.

It was he.

The guns were his. (London)

You are nobody. (London)

Why? What is he? (Galsworthy)

But she was herself again, brushing her tears away. (Lindsay)

As a rule the pronoun in the function of a predicative is in the nominative case, but in Modern English there is a marked tendency to use personal pronouns in the objective case, especially the personal pronoun.

It's me, Matt. (Lindsay)

Someone said, "That's him!"

4. By a word of the category of state.

He was aware all the time of the stringy tie beneath the mackin­tosh, and the frayed sleeves... (Greene)

But I'm afraid I can't keep the man. (Galsworthy)

5.By a numeral, cardinal or ordinal.

I'm only 46. (Shaw)

Mr. Snodgrass was the first to break the astonished silence. (Dickens)

6.By a prepositional phrase.

The things were outside her experience. (Wells)

After all, the little chap was on the side of the Capital. (Galswor­thy)

7.By an infinitive, infinitive phrase, or an infinitive construction.

June's first thought was to go away. (Galsworthy)

His first act was to bolt the door on the inside. (Dickens)

The best thing is for you to move in with me. (Abrahams)

8.By a gerund, gerundial phrase, or gerundial construction.

My favourite sport is swimming.

The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manners for all human souls. (Shaw)

The point of their disagreement was Jane's going on holiday in July.

9.By Participle II or very seldom Participle I; the latter is generally adjectivized.

He was surprised at the sound of his own voice. (London)

Here was change, indeed! I fell back astounded in my chair. (Buck)

It is very distressing to me, sir, to give this information. (Dick­ens)

The moment was soothing to his sore spirit. (Sanborn)

(A detailed treatment of the difference between a compound nomi­nal predicate with a predicative expressed by Participle II and a simple predicate expressed by a verb in the Passive Voice is given in Chapter VII, Passive Voice, § 6.)

10.By an adverb.

That was all. It was enough the way she said it. (Sanborn)

 

The Objective Predicative.

Besides the predicative referring to the subject, another type of predicative referring to the object can be found in English. It is generally called the Objective Predicative. It expresses the state or quality of the person or thing denoted by the object and is generally expressed by a noun, an adjective, a word denoting state, or a prepo­sitional phrase.

He appointed Bush secretary in his stead. (Swift)

Lord and Lady Masham... left him alone with them. (Swift)

In a few minutes I came to myself and he carried me safe to my little nurse. (Swift)

They painted the door green.

The Objective Predicative does not form part of the predicate, in this case the predicate is simple.