_{Syntactic Theory}

The Complement

Properties of complements:

• semantic: entities or locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.
• obligatoriness: complements are usually obligatory.
• iterability: every type of complement can occur only once.
• constancy of semantic contribution: the relation between the head and the complement is determined by the head (semantic role).
• morphological marking: the head determines the syntactic realization of the complements (i.e. how many complements are there? which form do they have?)
• word order: complements are closer to the head than modifiers in English
• word order: in English, complements follow the head
• pronominalization:
  • verb: the pro-VP forms do so/do the same thing can combine with a modifier, but not with a complement.
  • noun: the pro-N' form one can combine with a modifier, but not with a complement.

Related pages:

• other grammatical functions: head, modifier, specifier
• complements in the clause: direct object, indirect object, predicative complement, oblique complement

Categories: Glossary