Oblique Complements in English Grammar

Grammatical Functions

• Grammatical functions represent the grammatical role each constituent plays in a sentence, such as SUBJ (Subject), OBJ (Object), MOD (Modifier), and PRED (Predicate).
• Example: The monkey scratched a boy on Monday. [S [SUBJ The monkey] [PRED scratched [OBJ a boy] [MOD on Monday]]].

Subject (SUB)

• The NP subject performs the action denoted by the verb.
• Examples:
  • My brother wears a green overcoat.
  • This car stinks.
  • It rains.
  • The committee disliked her proposal.
  • The car chased the mouse.

Structural Properties of a Subject

• Agreement with verb:
  • Examples:
    • She never writes home.
    • These books sadden me.
    • Our neighbor takes his children to school in his car.
• Agreement in tag questions:
  • Examples:
    • The lady singing with a boy is a genius, isn't she?
    • With their teacher, the kids have arrived safely, haven't they?
• Subject-auxiliary inversion:
  • Examples:
    • Is this teacher a genius?
    • Have the kids arrived safely?
    • Could it be more detrimental?

Direct and Indirect Objects

• A direct object (DO) is an NP that undergoes the process denoted by the verb.
• Examples:
  • His girlfriend bought this computer.
  • That silly fool broke the teapot.

Structural Properties of a Direct Object

• Passivization:
  • Examples:
    • This computer was bought by his girlfriend.
    • The teapot was broken by that silly fool.
  • Note: Not all sentences can be passivized.

Oblique Complements (OC)

• Oblique complements are neither objects nor predicative complements.
• Their presence is obligatory for syntactic well-formedness.
• Examples:
  • John put books in the box.
  • John talked to Bill about the exam.
  • She reminded him of the last time they met.
  • They would inform Mary of any success they have made.

Predicative Complements (PC)

• Predicative complements describe a property of the subject or object.
• They are NPs which follow a verb but do not behave as DOs or IOs.
• Examples:
  • This is my ultimate goal.
  • Michelle became an architect.
  • They elected Graham chairman.
  • I consider Andrew the best writer.
• Note: Even though they are NPs, they do not passivize.

Modifiers (MOD)

• Modifiers are optional and specify the manner, location, time, or reason, among other properties, of the situations expressed by sentences.
• Examples:
  • The bus stopped suddenly.
  • Shakespeare wrote his plays a long time ago.
  • They went to the theater in London.
  • He failed chemistry because he can't understand it.
• Modifiers can be stacked up (i.e., can come together subsequently), whereas complements cannot.