Predicate Nominative

B. Ward Powers bwpowers at optusnet.com.au
Sun Apr 7 03:07:56 EDT 2002


Here are alternative grammatical descriptions:

At 10:05 PM 020406 -0500, Clwinbery at aol.com wrote:

>In a message dated 4/6/02 7:58:48 PM, glensmail at juno.com writes:
>
> >Hello all,
> >
> >Can anyone provide me with information regarding "predicate nominatives"?
> > How does the predicate nominative function and how do we identify it?
> > I
> >would appreciate as much information on this as I can get because the few
> >grammars that I have are pretty sparse.
> >
>Glen, the predicate nominative is a substantive in the nominative case used
>with a verb to be (in Greek EIMI, GINOMAI, or hUPARCW some also count
>nominatives used with KALEW). The predicate nominative modifies (some say
>renames) the subject even though it is a noun or noun substitute. eg.hO QEOS
>AGAPH ESTIN, "God is love." God is the subject and love is the pred. nom.
>
>Carlton Winbery
>Louisiana College


This is one possible and completely valid grammatical description. An 
alternative term for this, instead of "predicative nominative", is 
"complement".  After these verbs as listed above there is a sense of 
incompleteness - something more is needed to complete the thought. If you 
just say "God is ..." (unless you are using ESTIN here to assert the sense 
"God exists") then it is incomplete, and there is an expectation that you 
will continue and complete the statement: "light", "love", "holy", 
"eternal", whatever. This completement can be called by a slightly 
abbreviated term: the complement. This complement can be an adjective (as 
above) or a noun (as in "Matthew became the treasurer"). Because it refers 
to the same person as the subject, it takes the same case (nominative). 
(Contrast "Matthew saw the treasurer".)

Thus this grammatical term "complement" is an alternative to "predicative 
nominative". Some grammars will describe this grammatical feature under the 
term "complement".

Regards,

Ward


                                http://www.netspace.net.au/~bwpowers
Rev Dr B. Ward Powers        Phone (International): 61-2-8714-7255
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