Basic Sentence Pattern 2 [2A & 2B]

Pattern 2: SVC [Subject + Verb + Subjective Complement]

1. The program became elaborate. 2. Our friend is a senator.

The term Complement is broadly used for referring to an element that is necessary to complete a phrase, but as we label sentence patterns we wll be using the term more specifically to refer to either a subjective or objective complement.
The complement is a subjective complement, describing or identifying the subject of the sentence. The subjective complement is joined to the subject with a linking verb.

Two main subpatterns:
1. Subpattern 2A: NP + Linking Verb + Adjective

1. The food is good. 2. The manager seems upset.

The third term must be an adjective or adjectival [adjective-like element].
The verb must be a linking verb. In addition to be [or one of its forms] the set of linking verbs includes the following verbs or their respective forms: seem, appear, become, grow, remain, taste, look, feel, smell, sound, get, continue, or go.

The tests how to recognize and distinguish subpattern 2A from other patterns containg the same verbs:
1. It involves expansion:
e.g. a. That food is good > That good food is very good. b. That food is poisonous > That poisonous food is very poisonous.

If a sentence will not undergo this expansion, it usually belongs to some pattern other than subpattern 2A. e.g. My mother is outside. If it cannot be expanded to My outside mother is very outside. <> John appeared weary. [John seemed weary]; Subject + Verb + Adverbial > John grew quickly. [John seemed quickly.]

In the examples above, the first sentence is a subpattern 2A and involves a linking verb that could replace its main verb with a form of seem, whereas the second one does not.

Linking verbs may of course be preceded by auxiliaries. e.g. The party may become lively. Your sister must have seemed friendly.



The second subpattern of 2 is

Subpattern 2B: NP + Linking Verb + NP

1. My friend is a doctor. 2. The girl remained a good student.

The superscript after the second NP indicates that this noun phrase has the same referent as the first noun phrase; that is, in the first sentence both my friend and a doctor refer to the same person, and in the second sentence both the girl and a good student refer to the same person.

The linking verbs in subpattern 2B mean "be identified or classified as." The first NP [subject] has the grammatical meaning of "that which is identified." The second NP means grammatically "that which identifies the subject" and is a subjective complement just as the adjective is in subpattern 2A.

The linking verbs that may occupy the verbal position are be, remain, become, appear, seem, continue, stay, and make.

Subpattern 2B should not be confused with those in which the noun phrase after the verb does not have the same referent as the first noun phrase.
Examples: 2B Donald continued my friend, despite our differences.
other Donald met my friend in the barber shop.
2B My brother became a doctor.
other My brother was seeking a doctor.

Pronoun can also serve as a subjective complement besides Noun as in sentence "This is she." This observation does not invalidate our structural description of subpattern 2B because, as you will probably recall, the term noun phrase does not include only nouns but can also be used to refer to pronouns.

The subjective complement essentially renames the subject of the sentence, the traditional prescriptive grammar rule requires that any pronoun being used as a subjective complement use the subject form of the pronoun.
We would not say "This is her" but rather "This is she" because her is an object form.


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