The Compound Nominal Predicate

It denotes the state or quality of the person/thing expressed by the subject, or the class of persons/things to which the person/thing belongs. The compound nominal predicate consists of a link verb + a predicative (the nominal part of the predicate).Most link verbs, except be, to some extent preserve their meanings: to appear, to get, to grow, to continue, to feel, to keep, to look, to turn, to prove. to remain, to fall, to go, to seem, to smell.

· He grew more cheerful.

There are some verbs which, though fully preserving their concrete meaning, perform the function of a link verb: to lie, to sit, to die, to marry, to return, to leave, to come, to stand, to fall…

· The poor woman sat amazed.

According to their meaning link verbs can be divided into 2 large groups:

1) link verbs of being and remaining (to remain, to keep, to continue, to smell, etc.)

· The door remained wide open.

2) link verbs of becoming (to become, to get, to leave, to run, to turn, to make, etc.)

· this becomes uninteresting, however, after a time.

The predicative can be expressed by:

1) N in the common case

· She’s a pretty child.

2) adjective

· He’s awfully selfish.

· It tastes delicious.

3) ProN

· It’s me.

4) word of category of state

· But I’m afraid I can’t keep the man.

5) numeral

· He was the first to break the silence.

· I’m only 18.

6) prepositional phrase

· The things were outside her experience.

7) infinitive, inf. phrase/construction

· Her 1^st thought was to go away.

8) gerund, gerundial phrase/construction

· My favorite sport is swimming.

9) Participle II

· He was surprised at the sound of his own voice.

10) Adverb

The Compound Verbal Predicate

Дата добавления: 2015-07-10