Core Patterns

Subjective Complements

Some verbs do not act on anything — they connect the subject to a word that renames or describes it. The diagram marks that with a backslash, and telling it from a direct object is the skill this page is about.

What you’ll learn

Recognise a linking verb
Tell a predicate nominative from a predicate adjective
Draw the backslash that introduces a complement
Explain why the same verb can be linking in one sentence and transitive in another

Linking verbs and the predicate nominative

A linking verb joins the subject to something that describes it rather than doing anything to it. be is the main one; the others are mostly verbs of seeming and the senses: become, seem, appear, feel, look, smell, sound, taste, remain, stay.

The word on the other side is a subjective complement. If it is a noun, it is a predicate nominative; if an adjective, a predicate adjective. Both are drawn the same way.

Try replacing the verb with 'is'
Her brother became a pilot → Her brother is a pilot. Still sensible, so became is linking here.
Check the complement refers to the subject
The pilot and the brother are the same person. In a direct object they would be different: in She bought a bicycle, she is not the bicycle.
Draw a backslash, not a half vertical
The mark is the whole difference between the two analyses.

“Her brother became a pilot.”

Reed-Kellogg — the backslash leans back toward the subject

possPossession modifier
nsubjNominal subject
ROOTRoot of the sentence
detDeterminer
attrAttribute

Dependency — attr, not dobj

Comparing the two views

Reed-Kellogg encodes “refers back to the subject” in the direction the line leans: a backslash points back toward the subject, a half-vertical does not. The dependency parse encodes it as a different relation name — attr rather than dobj. Both distinguish complement from object; one does it with geometry, the other with vocabulary.

Predicate adjectives

When the complement is an adjective rather than a noun, nothing about the drawing changes — same backslash, same slot. What changes is the name, and the dependency label: acomp instead of attr.

This is the second place an adjective can live. Compare the cold corridor, where cold hangs on a slant beneath its noun (see Articles & Adjectives), with the corridor felt cold, where it arrives through the verb and sits on the base line.

“The corridor felt cold.”

Reed-Kellogg — an adjective on the base line

detDeterminer
nsubjNominal subject
ROOTRoot of the sentence
acompAdjectival complement

Dependency — acomp is a core relation

Comparing the two views

The two positions an adjective can occupy are exactly what this pair shows. Reed-Kellogg puts a predicate adjective on the base line, which is otherwise reserved for core elements — a strong claim that cold is not mere detail here but part of what the sentence asserts. The tree says the same with acomp, a core-argument relation, rather than amod.

The same verb can go either way

Most sense verbs are linking in one sentence and transitive in another, and the verb itself gives you no clue. Only the relationship between the two nouns does.

The corridor felt cold. — the corridor is cold. Linking, complement.
She felt the fabric. — she is not the fabric; she acted on it. Transitive, direct object.

This is why the classification lives on the sentence rather than on the verb, and why an editor can correct it per sentence in the Workbench.

Key terms

Linking verb: A verb connecting the subject to a description of itself rather than acting on something. be, become, seem, feel, look, smell, sound, taste, remain. The soup smells wonderful. She became a pilot.
See: Verbs & Auxiliaries
Predicate nominative: A noun completing a linking verb and renaming the subject. Relation attr. She became a pilot. My brother is an engineer.
Predicate adjective: An adjective completing a linking verb and describing the subject. Relation acomp. The soup smells wonderful. The road was icy.
See: Articles, Adjectives & Objects
Objective complement: The mirror image: a word completing the object rather than the subject. Same backslash, different anchor. They painted the fence white. We elected her captain.
See: Indirect Objects & Complements

Practice on a real sentence

A linking verb with a predicate adjective, plus a comparison clause. Look for the backslash rather than a half-vertical when you label the roles.

“This store is as large as that one.”

Parts of speech

Give every word its coarse Universal Dependencies category.

Words 0/8Attempts 0Correct 0Time 0:00

Sentence — select a part of speech below, then click the word(s) it applies to

This store is as large as that one.