Re: Fishing for Complements?

On Mon, 2 Aug 1999, Jim Grossmann wrote:

<...>
>
> I thought about just calling it a "complement."
>
> I'm reluctant to use the term "complement," because it has too many other
> uses already.
>
> What should I call my extra argument?    (I'll keep working on that, but any
> suggestions will be welcome.)
>
> Jim
>
I've thought a bit about it, and after weighing things like
pre-subjectal argument, pre-subject slot filler, non-subject,
I think that something like complement or verbal complement
would actually be rather good. Or perhaps complemental argument...
It's a very interesting structure - of the top of my head
I can't think of anything like that, except for the ease with
which the subject can be deleted, which, according to Li
and Thompson's _Mandarin Chinese_ is also true for the subject
of a Mandarin Chinese sentence.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt