more words functioning together as a unit that does not constitute a clause.On
this account, the subject and predicate ofDogs barkare made up of a noun
phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP), respectively, and inThe tree was tall,the
subject,The tree,also is a noun phrase.
We generally identify a phrase on the basis of a key word at its beginning,
such as a noun or a verb. Consider these examples:
- flowersin her hair
- runningwith the bulls
In the first case, the phrase begins withflowers,which is a noun. In the sec-
ond case, the phrase begins withrunning,which is a verb. We also refer to these
words ashead wordsbecause they are at the head of the phrase and the other
words in the phrase are attached to them. (See pages 79–80 for a further discus-
sion of head words.)
Objects
As it turns out, sentences likeDogs barkare not the most common type in Eng-
lish. Far more common are sentences that have an agent, an action, and what
was acted upon, as in sentence 4:
- Fritz hit the ball.
In this sentence,the ballwas hit, so it is what Fritz acted upon. Such con-
structions are referred to asobjects.Thus,objectis our third function category.
Objects always consist of a noun phrase. Nevertheless, because of the two-part
division noted previously,objects are part of the predicate.In sentence 4,Fritz
is the subject, andhit the ballis the predicate; the predicate then can be further
analyzed as consisting of the verbhitand the noun phrase objectthe ball.
Complements
Sentence 2,The tree was tall,is different from sentences 1 and 4 in an interesting
way: The wordtall,though it follows the verbwas,is not what is acted upon. It is
not a noun and thus cannot be classified as an object. Also,wasis not an action
verb but an existential verb. Nevertheless,tallhas something in common withthe
ball,even though it is not a noun: It serves to complete the predicate. Just asFritz
hitdoes not sound complete (and isn’t),thetreewasdoes not sound complete
(and isn’t). Becausetallcompletes the predicate in sentence 2, it is referred to as a
complement.Complement is our fourth major function category.
TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR 57