Intensive complements

Kuiper and Allan Chapter 7.2.4

Intensive complements

• Data– a. The car appeared a wreck.– b. The jury seemed a disgruntled group.– c. A whole town became a disturbed

community.• The underlined NPs are not objects

but intensive complements.

Properties of intensive complements

• Complements are not new entities but refer back to a previous NP.

• They can be NP, AP, or PP.• They follow only certain kinds of

verbs like seem, be, appear and become which do not take direct objects.

Intensive complements after direct objects

• Some verbs take both a direct object and a complement.– elect NP president– name NP Sophie– appoint NP secretary– find NP boring

Exercise

Find the DO, IOs and ICs in the following data:a. Jean sold Freda a bicycle.b. Tom owned a new camera.c. Sylvia likes her breakfast hot.d. Jonty appeared very shy.e. The captain judged Harriet the most

valuable player.