The compound verbal predicate.

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§ 13. 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 prettychild. (Galsworthy)

 The book is mysister'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 awfullydear andunselfish. (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 fob lowing verbs as they are very often used in everyday English: to look, to feel, to sound, to smell, to taste.

The dinner smellsdelicious. — Обед пахнетвосхитительно

When she got angry, her voice soundedshrill. — Когда она сердилась, ее голос звучалпронзительно.

She looksbad. — Она выглядитплохо.

Не feelsbad. — Он чувствует себяплохо.

This orange tastesbitter. — Этот апельсингорький.

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 washe.

The guns werehis. (London)

You arenobody. (London)

Why?What is he? (Galsworthy)

But she washerself again, 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.

It'sme, Matt. (Lindsay)

Someone said, "That'shim!"

4. By a word of the category of state.

He wasaware all the time of the stringy tie beneath the mackin­tosh, and the frayed sleeves... (Greene)

But I'mafraid I can't keep the man. (Galsworthy)

5.By a numeral, cardinal or ordinal.

I'm only46. (Shaw)

Mr. Snodgrass wasthe first to break the astonished silence. (Dickens)

6.By a prepositional phrase.

The things wereoutside her experience. (Wells)

 After all, the little chap wason the side of the Capital. (Galswor­thy)

7.By an infinitive, infinitive phrase, or an infinitive construction.

June's first thought wasto go away. (Galsworthy)

His first act wasto bolt the door on the inside. (Dickens)

The best thing isfor you to move in with me. (Abrahams)

8.By a gerund, gerundial phrase, or gerundial construction.

My favourite sport isswimming.

The great secret, Eliza, is nothaving bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, buthaving the same manners for all human souls. (Shaw)

The point of their disagreement wasJane's going on holiday in July.

9.By Participle II or very seldom Participle I; the latter is generally adjectivized.

He wassurprised at the sound of his own voice. (London)

Here was change, indeed! I fell backastounded in my chair. (Buck)

It is verydistressing to me, sir, to give this information. (Dick­ens)

The moment wassoothing to 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 wasenough the way she said it. (Sanborn)

§14. The Objective Predicative.

Besides the predicative referring to the subject, another type of predicative referring to the object can be found in English. It is generally called the Objective Predicative. It expresses the state or quality of the person or thing denoted by the object and is generally expressed by a noun, an adjective, a word denoting state, or a prepo­sitional phrase.

He appointed Bushsecretary in his stead. (Swift)

Lord and Lady Masham... left himalone with them. (Swift)

In a few minutes I came to myself and he carried mesafe to my little nurse. (Swift)

They painted the doorgreen.

The Objective Predicative does not form part of the predicate, in this case the predicate is simple.

The compound verbal predicate can be divided into two types ac­cording to the meaning of the finite verb:

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