The compound nominal predicate
The compound nominal predicate denotes the state or quality of the person or thing expressed by the subject (e. g. He is tired, The book is interesting), or the class of persons or things to which this person or thing belongs (e. g. She is a student).
The compound nominal predicate consists of a link verb and a predicative (the latter is also called the nominal part of the predicate).
The link verb (or a verb of incomplete predication) expresses the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect, mood, sometimes voice. All link verbs, as the result of a long development, have partly lost their original concrete meaning. One link verb has lost its concrete meaning altogether: this is the verb to be, which can be called a pure link verb as it performs only a grammatical function and can be linked with a predicative expressed by any part of speech used in this function.
This is a picture of Leningrad.1
1 In Russian the link verb быть is generally not used in the Present tense: Его сестра учительница.
Most link verbs to some extent preserve their meaning. The following are the most common of these link verbs: to appear, to get, to grow, to continue, to feel, to keep, to look, to turn, to hold, to prove, to turn out, to loom, to rank, to remain, to run, to seem, to smell, to taste, to fall, to stand, to go, to work.
His wife sighed and remained silent. (London)
Harris grew more cheerful. (Jerome)
At my age I get nervous. (Galsworthy)
He soon fell fast asleep in my arms, sobbing at longer intervals. (Dickens)
The boat seemed stuffy. (Jerome)
She, for her part, felt recessive and thence evasive. (Dreiser)
Many of these verbs can be used both as verbs of complete predication fully preserving their concrete meaning and as link verbs.
| LINK VERBS | VERBS OF COMPLETE PREDICATION |
| to be | |
| The sun was full of promise. (Du Maurier) | No one was there to meet him. (Lindsay) |
| to grow | |
| But she had grown too proud or too passive. (Wescott) | Perhaps I should grow a beard. I look too young to have been publishing for five years. (Wilson) |
| to look | |
| He looked stupid and good-natured and happy. (Greene) | He blushed violently and looked away. (Wilson) |
| to feel | |
| And yet at moments he felt very close to her. (Lindsay) | He felt great awe and admiration. (Wilson) |
| to come | |
| The nightmare of my life had come true. (Buck) | Giles and Beatrice were comingfor the night but nobody else. (Du Maurier) |
| to go | |
| Philip Baring stiffened in his chair. His face went tense. (Wilson) | Of a misty January morning Soames had gone there oncemore. (Galsworthy) |
There are some verbs which, though fully preserving their concrete meaning, perform the function of link verbs: they are used with a predicative and form a compound nominal predicate. Here belong: to lie, to sit, to die, to marry, to return to leave, to come, to stand, to fall, to go, etc.
After many adventures I and a little girl lay senseless in the Bad Lands.
(Haggard)
The poor woman sat amazed. (Trollope)
I stood transfixed with awe and joy. (Haggard)
Here the important thing is not that the speaker stood but that he stood transfixed with awe and joy.
Happily, too, the greater part of the boys came back low-spirited. (Dickens)
Sometimes the predicative does not immediately follow these verbs but is separated from them by an adverbial.
One evening she came home elated. (0. Henry)
Thus the same verb when used as a link verb may either lose its meaning or fully preserve it.
Irene’s hair was going gray.(Galsworthy) (link verb)
Tom wenthome miserable.(Twain) (notional verb performing the function of
a link verb)
According to their meaning link verbs can be divided into two large groups: (1) link verbs of being and remaining; (2) link verbs of becoming.
The first group comprises such verbs as to be, to remain, to keep, to continue, to look, to smell, to stand, to sit, to lie, to shine, to seem, to prove, to appear, etc. The latter three verbs have some modal colouring.
Cotman wasa nice-looking fellow, of thirty perhaps... (Maugham)
Do not delay, there is no time. Teacher Williams liesdead, already. (Buck)
The Western powers stoodaloof. (Buck)
Idris, aged five, at a litte desk all by himself near the fire, was looking
extraordinarily pleased with life. (Cronin)
He feltexhausted not with physical fatigue, but with the weight of vague
burdens. (Lindsay)
Either course seemedunthinkable, without any connection with himself.
(Lindsay)
The door remainedwide open; the voices inside werelouder than ever.
(Priestley)
...the dancing continuesfast and furious. (Douglas)
That soundsnot unsatisfactory. (Wilde)
The second group comprises such verbs as to become, to get, to grow, to come, to go, to leave, to run, to turn, to make, etc.
Oh, Adolphus Cusins will makea very good husband. (Shaw)
This becomes uninteresting, however, after a time. (Jerome)
How can I getmarried without my best man? (Lindsay)
And every month of his life he grewhandsomer and more interesting.
(Burnett)
The great day dawnedmisty and overcast. (Du Maurier)
The predicative.
The predicative is the significant part of the compound nominal predicate. It can be expressed in different ways:
1. By a noun in the common case, occasionally by a noun in the possessive case.
She is a pretty child.(Galsworthy)
The book is my sister’s.
In Russian the predicative is expressed either by a noun in the nominative case or by a noun in the instrumental case.
Он учитель.
Он был учителем.
2. By an adjective.
He’s awfully dear and unselfish. (Galsworthy)
Very often the predicative expressed by an adjective in English does not correspond to an adjective in Russian. It often corresponds to an adverb, serving as an adverbial modifier.
In this connection particular attention should be paid to the following verbs as they are very often used in everyday English: to look, to feel, to sound, to smell, to taste.
| The dinner smells delicious. | Обед пахнет восхитительно. |
| When she got angry, her voice sounded shrill. | Когда она сердилась, ее голос звучал пронзительно. |
| She looks bad. | Она выглядит плохо. |
| He feels bad. | Он чувствует себя плохо. |
| This orange tastes bitter. | Этот апельсин горький. |
As is seen from the examples given above all these predicative adjectives (with the exception of the one that follows the verb to taste) are rendered by adverbs in Russian.
3. By a pronoun — personal, possessive, negative, interrogative, reflexive, indefinite, defining.
It was he.
The guns were his.(London)
You are nobody.(London)
Why? Whatis he? (Galsworthy)
But she was herselfagain, brushing her tears away. (Lindsay)
As a rule the pronoun in the function of a predicative is in the nominative case, but in Modern English there is a marked tendency to use personal pronouns in the objective case, especially the personal pronoun I.
It’s me,Matt. (Lindsay)
Someone said, “That’s him!”
4. By a word of the category of state.
He was aware all the time of the stringy tie beneath the mackintosh, and the
frayed sleeves... (Greene)
But I’m afraidI can’t keep the man. (Galsworthy)
5. By a numeral, cardinal or ordinal.
I’m only 46. (Shaw)
Mr. Snodgrass was the firstto break the astonished silence. (Dickens)
6. By a prepositional phrase.
The things were outside her experience. (Wells)
After all, the little chap was on the side of the Capital.(Galsworthy)
7. By an infinitive, infinitive phrase, or an infinitive construction.
June’s first thought was to go away. (Galsworthy)
His first act was to bolt the door on the inside. (Dickens)
The best thing is for you to move in with me. (Abrahams)
8. By a gerund, gerundial phrase, or gerundial construction.
My favourite sport is swimming.
The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners,but having the same manners for all human souls. (Shaw)
The topic of their conversation was their going on an expedition.
9. By Participle IIor very seldom Participle I; the latter is generally adjectivized.
He was surprisedat the sound of his own voice. (London)
Here was change, indeed! I fell back astoundedin my chair. (Buck)
It is very distressingto me, sir, to give this information. (Dickens)
The moment was soothingto his sore spirit. (Sanborn)
(A detailed treatment of the difference between a compound nominal predicate with a predicative expressed by Participle II and a simple predicate expressed by a verb in the Passive Voice is given in Chapter VII, Passive Voice, § 6.)
10. By an adverb.
That was all. It was enoughthe way she said it.(Sanborn)