Can we analyze “to protect his country's southern border” as the object complement of “the military”?

Question

? Trump announced yesterday that he intended to deploy the military to protect his country's southern border

I want to know whether the bold part can be analyzed as the object complement of "the military".

I guess it can be in the same way as in "I want him to lend me some money"

(Here, "to lend me some money" is modifying "him" as an object complement)

So, I think the sentence can mean, according to my analyzing, "Trump announced yesterday that he intended to deploy the military so that the military can protect his country's southern border".

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

fire1Trump announced yesterday that he intended to deploy the military to protect his country's southern border.
I want to know whether the bold part can be analyzed as the object complement of "the military".

No. That's called an infinitive of purpose.

An object complement is a noun or adjective which tells us what the object BECOMES or IS.

They elected him chairman. (He becomes the chairman. At the end of this event he is the chairman. — You can't say this about 'the military' and 'to protect his country's southern border'.)

fire1I guess it can be in the same way as in "I want him to lend me some money" (Here, "to lend me some money" is modifying "him" as an object complement)

No. There are no modifiers of 'him' in this sentence. (There almost never are modifiers for pronouns like 'he', 'him', 'I', 'you', 'we', 'us', etc.)

What you have here is a non-finite clause (actually an infinitival clause) that is a complement of the verb 'want'.

I want ... / What do you want? ( asking for the complement of 'want')

Finite version: He lends me some money.
Non-finite version: him to lend me some money.

Only the non-finite version is permitted with the verb 'want':

I want him to lend me some money.

fire1So, I think the sentence can mean, according to my analyzing, "Trump announced yesterday that he intended to deploy the military so that the military can protect his country's southern border".

Yes. That's the paraphrase of an infinitive of purpose. Here's three more.

Companies need to have quality standards in place to compete globally.
~ Companies need to have quality standards in place so that they can compete globally.

When green fronds are removed, the plant has to produce more to survive.
~ When green fronds are removed, the plant has to produce more so that it can survive.

Nowadays a lot of people take quotes out of context to make their argument.
~ Nowadays a lot of people take quotes out of context so that they can make their argument.

CJ

Can we analyze “to protect his country's southern border” as the object complement of “the military”?

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