Nouns & Adjectives As Attribute Complements

	Lesson 29 (pp. 49–52) Lesson 30 (pp. 52, 53)	The Attribute Complement of a Sentence completes the predicate and belongs to the subject.15
1.	Slang is vulgar.	Explanation.— The line standing for the attribute complement is, like the object line, a continuation of the predicate line; but notice that the line which separates the incomplete predicate from the complement slants toward the subject to show that the complement is an attribute of it. Analysis.— Vulgar is the attribute complement, completing the predicate and expressing a quality of slang; is vulgar is the entire predicate.
Exercises (Lesson 29: nouns & adjectives as attribute complements) Diagram the following:
2. The sea is fascinating and treacherous. 3. The mountains are grand, tranquil, and lovable. 4. The Anglo-Saxon words in English are simple, homely, and substantial. 5. The French and the Latin words in English are in the main elegant, dignified, and artificial. 6. The ear is the ever-open gateway of the soul. 7. The verb is the life of the sentence. 8. Good breeding is surface Christianity.
Answers
9.	A dainty plant is the ivy green. —Charles Dickens	Explanation.— The subject names that of which the speaker says something. The terms in which he says it, — the predicate, — he, of course, assumes that the hearer already understands. Settle, then, which — plant or ivy — Dickens supposed the reader to know least about, and which, therfore, Dickens was telling him about; and you settle which word — plant or ivy — is the subject. (Is it not the writer’s poetical conception of “the green ivy” that the reader is supposed not to possess?)
		This sentence is strikingly similar to the pithy response characteristic of a verbless sentence: “A dainty plant, the green ivy.” The order of the main parts is identical, but the fact that the adjective follows the noun in the subject does mark it as poetic.
Exercises (Lesson 29: nouns & adjectives as attribute complements) Diagram the following:
10. The highest outcome of culture is simplicity. 11. Stillness of person and steadiness of features are signal marks of good breeding. 12. The north wind is full of courage, and puts the stamina of endurance into a man. 13. The west wind is hopeful, and has promise and adventure in it. 14. The east wind is peevishness and mental rheumatism and grumbling, and curls one up in the chimney corner. 15. The south wind is full of longing and unrest and effeminate suggestions of luxurious ease.
Answers
1.	He went out as mate and came back captain.	Explanation.— Mate, like captain, is an attribute complement. Some would say that the conjunction as connects mate to he; but we think this connection is made through the verb went and that as is simply introductory. This is indicated in the diagram.
		The force of the parallel structure may have affected this analysis. It is convenient to have a place to put a preposition as a lone connecting term, but may deny the facts of a thorough analysis. I believe that the opposite parallelism could be justified as the omission of a preposition (convenient for the indirect object and nouns of measure in Lesson 35): “He went out as mate and came back (as) captain.” This would make both phrases diagrammed as adverbial modifiers. In the end they will probably best be analyzed as complements to the verb as suggested for “hold rank with” in Lesson 20.
Exercises (Lesson 30: nouns & adjectives as attribute complements) Diagram the following:
2. The sun shines bright and hot at midday. 3. Velvet feels smooth, and looks rich and glossy. 4. She grew tall, queenly, and beautiful. 5. Plato and Aristotle are called the two headsprings of all philosophy. 6. Under the Roman law, every son was regarded as a slave. 7. He came a foe and returned a friend.
Answers
8.	I am here. I am present.	Explanation.— The office of an adverb sometimes seems to fade into that of an adjective attribute and is not easily distinguished from it. Here, like an adjective, seems to complete am, and, like an adverb, to modify it. From their form and usual function, here, in this example, should be called an adverb, and present an adjective.
		Examples may be multiplied when the use of nouns as attribute complements are considered. “I am (at) home” suggests a clear analysis as an adverb. But what about “I am (a) captain”? The presence of the article makes captain clearly a noun — an attribute complement — but, if the article is omitted, we may be inclined to ask about its possible adverbial (or adjectival) nature. It may be of interest that ancient Egyptian used a preposition “like” to mark every attribute complement and treated the sentence syntactically like other adverbial sentences.
Exercises (Lesson 30: nouns & adjectives as attribute complements) Diagram the following:
9. This book is presented to you as a token of esteem and gratitude. 10. The warrior fell back upon the bed a lifeless corpse. 11. The apple tastes and smells delicious. 12. Lord Darnley turned out a dissolute and insolent husband. 13. In the fable of the Discontented Pendulum, the weights hung speechless. 14. The brightness and freedom of the New Learning seemed incarnate in the young and scholarly Sir Thomas More. 15. Sir Philip Sidney lived and died the darling of the Court, and the gentleman and idol of the time.
Answers