Complements & Modifiers

Lecturer 1
Syntactic categories and Syntactic Functions

Difference between a category and function
A category refers to the linguistic items such as nouns or noun phrases, whereas a function is
a relational concept or the job different categories perform. For example, some students have
complained about the online teaching. ‘some students’ in this example functions as a subject
of the clause which is the function of the some students.
Some people complained about online teaching we have seen that some people is subject and
that it is an NP. These are two quite different kinds of concept. Subject is a function, while
NP is a category. Function is a relational concept: when we say that some people is subject
we are describing the relation between it and complained, or between it and the whole clause.
Consider the same Noun Phrase, some students in the next sentence. I have talked to some
students. In this sentence, ‘some students’ is the object of the sentence which means that the
same category of noun phrase can perform different syntactic functions in a sentence.
A single function may be filled by expressions belonging to different categories, and
expressions belonging to a single category may occur in different functions. We can see this
in the following examples:
I saw garbage in the street.
The category of the garbage is Noun and its function is that of an object in this sentence. The
same noun ‘garbage’ can be used for a different function. Look at the following sentence: I
saw a garbage truck in the street. The word ‘garbage’ here is used an adjective and its
functions is that of a modifier.
Syntactic categories are the words or the phrases that are used in syntactic structures. These
categories are the basic building blocks of syntactic structures. In other words, these
categories(words) make larger units (phrases) which in term make higher units (clauses).
There are two subtypes of syntactic categories: LEXICAL CATEGORIES and PHRASAL
CATEGORIES. Lexical categories are pretty similar to the word classes we have been
discussing to this point, but they are different. “Lexical category” is just a phrase commonly
used in syntactic structures; therefore, when we are talking about syntactic structures, we use
the term lexical category rather than word class.
Lexical categories are word classes (individual parts of speech) such as nouns, verbs and
adjectives that do not have internal syntactic structure. For example, a noun may have
morphological structure (prefixes, suffixes, boys, unemployment etc.) but is not made up of
other words.
Phrasal categories, the phrases such noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases etc, on the
other hand, may have internal syntactic structure that means that in the formation of a noun
phrase other words from distinct parts of speech can take part. For example, a noun phrase
must contain a noun, but may also contain a determiner and optional adjectives and many
other units such as phrases and clauses as modifiers that “clump together” with the noun. We
must not forget that a phrasal category may consist of only one unit, the head word. For
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example, a noun like Jamal can also be a noun phrase though it is a single word, the noun
without any pre or/and post modifiers.
Complement
A complement (not ‘compliment’) is a phrase following the predicate and linked very closely
to it; it is the constituent that completes the predicate. Complement is a syntactic function
filled by different syntactic categories. Any element of a phrase that is not the Head of the
phrase, yet is required in order to complete the phrase is a Complement. For example, the
phrase ‘in the quarantine’ in the following sentence is a complement because without this
phrase the sentence is both syntactically and semantically incomplete.
1. They are in the quarantine.
Some common complements

Direct Object, Indirect Object, Oblique, Subject Complement, and Object Complement
functions are all subtypes of the Complement function.
Direct and Indirect Objects are Complements of particular types of verbs (e.g., transitive and
bi/dtransitive / ditransitive)
For example,
1. We have started our class. In this sentence the verb ‘start’ needs a direct object to
receive the action.
2. The teacher has delivered the lecture. The verb in example 2 requires two objects: a
direct and an indirect to complete the sentence though it is not mentioned. The scene
evoked by the verb deliver necessarily involves three participants – an subject (agent)
(the teacher), an object (the lecture), and an direct object or recipient of the action (the
person or people who receive the money). In example 2, the RECIPIENT is not
mentioned; however, it is still understood that someone must take the lecture. Since
the recipient (the students)is necessary to complete the idea, it has the syntactic
function of the complement , and it should be mentioned. Therefore, the sentence
should: the teacher delivered the lecture to the students
Obliques are the indirect objects marked by to- preposition. In example, 2 above ‘to the
students’’ is an oblique complement.
Properties of Complements:
Complements are obligatory elements.
You cannot remove them because they complete the sentences syntactically and
semantically.
They can neither be removed nor moved from one position to another.
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Complements are tightly to lexical head.
They usually occur next to their heads.
They do not repeat themselves.
Modification
Modification is a general syntactic function that describes what a linguistic element does. A
modifier can be a single word, a phrase or a clause. The function of modification is to give
additional information about its head. Without the use of modification, linguistic
communication will be start and dreary indeed. Different syntactic categories such as
adjectives, nouns, adverbs, prepositions phrases, and clauses can been used as modifiers.
Since the modification is selected by the Head, different Heads will allow different
modifications at different levels. In
Consider the following sentence:
I met my teacher in the evening at seven o’clock.
In the given sentence, the PPs in the evening or at seven o’clock here provide further
information about the action described by the verb, but are not required as such by the verb.
These phrases (in the evening and at seven o’ clock) are optional and function as modifiers,
and they function to augment the minimal phrase (the phrase that includes minimally required
complement) ‘my teacher’ projected from the head verb ‘met’. The VP which includes this
kind of modifier (in the evening and at seven o’ clock) forms a maximal phrase the phrase
that has the obligatory element, the complement as well as the optional element, the
modifier(s).
The bold face phrases are not syntactically crucial. They can easily be removed, without
affecting the central meaning of the sentence. Also, there position can be changed; you can
move one or both of the phrases from the end to the front. For example,
In the evening I met my teacher.
Properties of Modifiers:
Modifiers are selected by the verb (it is not the part of the verb phrase).
Modifiers have loose relation with Heads.
Modifiers can be transposed or moved from one position to another
Modifiers are optional elements
They can be removed without affecting the overall meaning.
Modifiers can repeat themselves in the same sentence.
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Lecture 2
Differences between Complements and Modifiers
After introducing the terms, complements and modifiers, the question is how we can
distinguish between complements and modifiers. There are several tests to determine whether
a phrase is a complement or a modifier.
Obligatoriness: As has already been said, complements are obligatory phrases whereas
modifiers are not. For example, people are....
This is both syntactically and semantically incomplete sentence because an important part of
the sentence is missing that completes this sentence. This part is the obligatory complement
which completes the sentence. This may be completed by putting ‘worried’ or ‘in
quarantine’. If we extend the same sentence by adding another phrase, for example, ‘in
Pakistan’, then it will give additional details about the people in quarantine which can be
removed.
Iterability (repeatablility): The possibility of repeating the identical types of phrase can also
distinguish between complements and modifiers. In general two or more instances of the
same modifier type can occur with the same head, but this is impossible for complements. For
example, in the sentence ‘I met my teacher in the evening at seven o’clock’ the prepositional
phrases in blue and green belong to the same class of adjuncts, telling us about the time of the
meeting. These phrases can repeat themselves, but complements cannot.
Do-so Test: Another reliable test often used to distinguish complements from modifiers is
the do-so or do-the-same-thing test. As shown below, we can use do the same thing to avoid
repetition of an identical VP expression:
a. John deposited some money in the checking account and Mary did the same thing (too).
b. John deposited some money in the checking account on Friday and Mary did the same
thing (too).
What we can observe in (b) is that the VP did the same thing can replace either the minimal
phrase deposited some money in the checking account or the maximal phrase including the
modifier on Friday. Notice that this VP can replace only the minimal phrase, leaving out the
modifier.
Constancy of semantic contribution: An adjunct can co-occur with a relatively broad range
of heads whereas a complement is typically limited in its distribution. This means that the
semantic distribution of the adjuncts is not dependent on the head where is that of
complement is dependent on the head. We will consider the following examples to illustrate
this test.1. Ali plays in the ground/ in the street/ on the roof.
2 He is interested in cricket, but we cannot say he is interested on cricket.
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Structural Difference: We could distinguish complements and modifiers by tree structures,
too: complements combine with a lexical head (not a phrase) to form a minimal phrase
whereas modifiers combine with a phrase to form a maximal phrase. Complements are sisters
of lexical heads, whereas modifiers are sisters of a phrasal head.
For example, the teacher put his book on the table.
Ordering Difference:Another difference that follows from the structural distinction between
complements and modifiers is an ordering difference. As a complement needs to combine
with a lexical head first, modifiers follow complements. This requirement means that when
modifiers and complements come together, the complement comes first and the modifiers
come after the complement. Look at the following examples:
a. The teacher met [a student] [outside the department].
b. *The teacher met [outside the department] [a student].
A similar contrast can be observed in the following contrast:
a. the students [of MA English] [with the teacher]
b. *the students [with the teacher] [of MA English]
The PP with the teacher is a modifier whereas the ‘of MA English’ is the complement of
student. This is why ‘with the teacher’ cannot occur between the head student and its
complement of MA English.
In the above examples, follow the normal order of the complement and modifiers. However,
all modifiers in English do not follow the head word. Adjective phrases, for example, often
occur before the head they modify. For example, the Head boys, in the phrase ‘tall boys’ is
modified by a single adjective ‘tall’.

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Lecturer 1

Syntactic categories and Syntactic Functions

Some common complements

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