Complement (exam)

Question

An example of error in popular views a)about the mind appears in the idea of a facultyof observation.One often hear it said that we should train the observation b)of our students;...(deleted). We have no reason to suppose that a botanist, trained in the observation c)of flowers, will be more observant than us d)of the faces of the people he meets. People are more likely to have their attention diverted e)by the onjects of their special interests. So training in the careful observation of the varied endings f)of Latin words,Choose all the complement PPs from the underlined parts.Answer is a), c), d).Q) It is difficult for me to make sure the different between b),f) and c),d).

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

What do you mean by 'complement'?

a, b, c and f are adjectival

d and e are adverbial

Moon7296 · Answer

Ah.. sorry, I thought native speakers just know the term complement.

The question actually includes an extra information as follows:

A phrase consists of a head and non-head elements. Some non-head elements complete the meaning of the head. These elements are referred to as a complement. It is a general term to denote any element whose presence is required by the head. Although the presence of a complement is normally obligatory, that of an N can be omitted. There are also elements in a phrase which describe the head rather than complete it. These elements are modifiers (or adjuncts.) They can be omitted without affecting grammaticality.

CalifJim · Answer

moon7296Choose all the complement PPs from the underlined parts.
Answer is a), c), d).
Q) It is difficult for me to make sure the different between b),f) and c),d).

Let me know if you ever figure out how to tell the difference between a complement and an adjunct, especially in a noun phrase, because I'd like to know how to do this myself. I have read instructional material on this several times before but never with complete success. I can see the distinction in some cases, but others leave me mystified.

Consider this, from Radford's Transformational Grammar:

... Complements are attached at the N-level, and Adjuncts at the N-bar level. More precisely, ...

(i) Complements expand N into N-bar.

(ii) Adjuncts recursively expand N-bar into N-bar.

Thus, Complements and Adjuncts are similar in that they are both daughters of N-bar; but they differ in that Complements are sisters of (i.e., modify) N, whereas Adjuncts are sisters of (i.e., modify) N-bar.

Clear?

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

moon7296sorry, I thought native speakers just know the term complement.

Not exactly. Only people who have studied transformational grammar know the term complement in the sense you are using it. There is also the term complement in traditional grammar, but this is not the same as complement as used in transformational grammar.

moon7296These elements are modifiers (or adjuncts.) They can be omitted without affecting grammaticality.

The problem is that sometimes complements can also be omitted without affecting grammaticality.

CJ

Moon7296 · Answer

Hi,

I don't feel frustrated because you said " I have read instructional material on this several times before but never with complete success."

I studied like you and I thought I understood it quite a lot(N and N-bar are the key terms to complement and adjunct I think). But when applying the knowledge into specific examples like the question above, I was not successful completing them clearly!

So let me see the question again.

An example of error in popular views a)about the mindappears in the idea of a facultyof observation.

One often hear it said that we should train the observation b)of our students;

...(deleted).

We have no reason to suppose that a botanist, trained in the observation c)of flowers, will be more observant than us d)of the faces of the people he meets. People are more likely to have their attention diverted e)by the onjects of their special interests. So training in the careful observation of the varied endings f)of Latin words,

a),c),d) is the answer which means those underlines must be included while others not; then without b) and f) sentences are still OK while without a),c) and d) the sentences are not OK according to the complement and adjunct explanation in my second post. I interpreted this question like this but it does not help to understand why the answer is a),c),d).

I think I've got to leave it unsolved expecting no more question like above comes in this year's exam.

CalifJim · Answer

moon7296I think I've got to leave it unsolved

This may be true for now.

The only light I can shed on this is the difference between b) and c). Let's start with c).

When talking about a botanist trained in the observation of flowers, we're talking about the action of observing flowers. We can express it as a verb and its direct object: to observe flowers. A direct object is a complement of its verb. So in this case the relationship of the PP of flowers to the noun observation is the same as the relationship of the direct object flowers to the verb observe. If you can see that observation of flowers is like to observe flowers, you can see that of flowers is a complement.

Now let's contrast that with b). Here we have the idea of training the observation of our students. In this case we do not intend to say that we will be observing students, so this is not related to the phrase to observe students. In fact, it's the reverse. We train the students to observe something else. Nobody observes the students. Because students can't be considered the direct object of observe, the PP of our students is not a complement.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to explain the other examples in this way. In fact, I'm inclined to see the PP of Latin words (f) as a complement (related to to end the word), so I don't know why your source book says it's not a complement.

CJ

Moon7296 · Answer

Hi,

Thank you for your insight about this complicated question.

I found that an online lecturer for this question explained f) just like you did for b) and c).

Since 'Latin words' is not the objective of the verb end(which means finishing something[finishing Latin words(x)]), f) is not a complement.

Complement (exam)

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