Draft September 2012

Chapter ##

SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE COMPLEMENTS

verb phrase may include words or phrases that are complements of other nouns in the sentence rather than complements of the verb, e.g. he looks sick, she became a lawyer, where sick and a lawyer are complements of the subjects, and I painted the chair red, we elected Bill president, where red and president are complements to the objects chair and Bill respectively. We use the traditional terms subjective complement for the former and objective complement for the latter. 1. Subjective Complements Setting aside sentences in which the predicate itself is a noun or adjective (##), we can distinguish at least two sentence types with subjective complements: (1) sentences with verbs that express a transformation in the state of the subject and (2) sentences with a verb followed by an expression that describes the subject. Verbs of transformation typically have non-transformative base meanings. Below is a list of the most common Bole transformative verbs, followed by some examples containing these verbs.1 The base meaning is first. The transformative meaning follows the semicolon: bngru owu m nguru turn around; turn into sit, stay; become return; turn into remain, be left behind; become make, do, be done; become, be too...

As the examples below show, the subjective complement may be a noun or an adjective, though for verbs with the sense turn into, metamorphose into, only a noun would be pragmatically appropriate. There are several variants with verbs and subjective complements. The simplest form is VERB+COMPLEMENT. Verbs of transformation are all intransitive and hence allow use of the Intransitive Copy Pronoun (ICP##), comprising j-+pronoun. For most verbs of transformation, the word b in the guise of, as can optionally introduce a subjective complement. There is a tendency to use either the ICP or b, though it is not ungrammatical to use both. The verb become, be too... cannot use b. Not all possible variants are given for all the verbs.

See the chapters on adjectives (##), ideophonic adjectives (##), and statives (##) for further examples.

Subjective and Objective Complements mm m znge = mm m b znge = mm m jn znge

person return hyena

= mm m
person

return ICP as hyena

jn b znge

person return as hyena

person

return ICP hyena

the man has turned into a hyena (znge) shi bngraj jto mm = shi bngrab b mm2
goat transform ICP person goat transform as person

the goat (shi) turned into a human (mm) wa mbkm = wa jn mbkm = wa b mbkm he will become blind (mbkm blind person) b ka umblin, ngra jn kr if you throw it down, it will become a snake jn sma (* b sma) he became deaf (sma deaf person) mma jn njrl lai (*... b...) the water has become very cold (njrl lai) tti jn nm smsm the gruel has fermented, i.e. the gruel has become sour indeed (nm smsm) Even though subjective complements directly follow the verb, as do direct objects, verbs with subjective complements are intransitive and thus bear a different syntactic relationship to the complement than the relationship between verb and direct object.. The most obvious evidence that the verb is intransitive is that transformative verbs can use an ICP. By definition, ICPs occur only with intransitive verbs. The verb become seems to require the ICP in affirmative sentences when a subjective complement follows.3 For other verbs, the ICP is not grammatically required, and its use would be ungrammatical in all the following negative sentences (##). mm bngr (b) znge sa a person cannot turn into a hyena ka wa (b) mbkm sa ~ ka ngura mbkm sa you will not become a blind person mma njlr sa the water has not become cold (kob) tti i nm sa4 dont let the kunu go sour Tonal evidence also shows that the syntactic constituency of verb + subjective complement differs from that of verb + direct object, even though both constructions directly juxtapose a verb and a noun phrase. Low Tone Raising (LTR##) DOES apply between a verb and a direct object, but not between a verb and a subjective complement. In the first two examples below, where the verb can only be used intransitively, application of LTR is unacceptable. In the third example, the verb bngru used
Because the verb has a transitive meaning turn, rotate, ?*shi bngram mm, with no overt mark of intransitivity or subjective complement status, is marginal because it sounds like the goat turned a person. 3 Without the ICP, the tendency would be to interpret the verb in its transitive sense make, do, i.e. sma would be interpreted he made a deaf person, not he became deaf. Subjective complements after must be distinguished from transitive followed by a quality word. Thus, in ts em kumbe this bowl is too small (bowl this does [] constrictedness [kumbe]), the word kumbe constrictedness is not a subjective complement because it is a noun, not an adjective describing a quality of the bowl or a noun stating something that the bowl has become. 4 Kob is a prohibitive operator rather than a negator. Thus, (kob) tti i jn nm dont let the kunu go sour, with the prohibitive and without the negator sa is grammatical with the ICP . See ##.
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Subjective and Objective Complements

intransitively with a subjective complement and no LTR is in contrast with the verb used transitively with LTR. wa mbkm * wa mbukm he will become blind (mbkm blind person) sw ka owi pkra *sw ka owi pukra you should become a student (pkra) mm bongiro shi the man turns into a goat (subjective comp.) cf. mm bongiro shi the man turns the goat around (DO) (This contrast would not be available for a construction with overt ICP, which could not take a grammatical direct object.) Some constructions optionally allow a subjective complement to be part of a phrase introduced by b in the guise of, in the capacity of (cf. use of this word below with OBJECTIVE complements). This does not seem to be possible for the verb become, and it is not required with any verb. mm m jn b znge = mm m b znge the man has turned into a hyena bngr jn (b) znge = bngr (b) znge he turned into a hyena The second type of subjective complement construction mentioned at the beginning of this section comprises a verbal expression including a complement to the subject. The verbal expression is typically an unergative intranstive verb, but transitive verbal constructions are also possible. The complements are typically statives (##), but adjectives (##) and ideophonic adjectives (##) are also possible. Such sentences differ from sentences with transformative verbs in that the subjective complement is syntactically optional., i.e. ??bngr jn he transformed would not be felicitous5 whereas j rw he is wandering about (see first example below) is a complete sentence. j rw snkaln bu pt slwain kr ye pten zengile an br ta wshi dn nka otto wat kari ye wan ptl pok lw rkk njll nonti ywi aj jo zngl wo kw r he is wandering about irresponsibly Abu went out naked the snake emerged (looking) long and thin the warrior continued fighting (while) stabbed she cooked the food (while) seated the clothes became (washed) snow white the boy lost weight (becoming) very lean the ostrich ran (looking) tall the stomach swelled (looking) protruding and round

We draw attention here also to a construction akin to sentences with subjective complements, viz. sentences with change of state verbs containing an ideophone (##) or ideophonic adjective (##) that seems to comment on the state of the subject. kul
grass calabash be-pierced ideophone burn ICP

tu

porot

the calabash has a hole in it the grass burned to a crisp

sr bkk jn murus

ideophone

This sentence would be acceptable in the sense he turned around.

Subjective and Objective Complements mbormi p jn kkkk

ebony

the ebony fruit dried up and became hard his clothes are greasy and dirty

karin

dry

clothes-his spoiled ICP

jtt jn ndkkm

ICP

ideophonic adj. ideophonic adj.

Such sentences are on the borderline between sentences with unequivocal subjective complements and sentences with manner adverbs (##). In examples like those above, the ideophone seems to apply both to the event expressed by the verb and to the state of the subject. In those where the complement word is labeled ideophone, analysis as a subject complement seems untenable because the ideophone alone could not serve as a predicate, e.g. one could not say *kul porot the calabash is pierced, but for words labeled ideophonic adjectives (##), this is possible, e.g. mbormi (ye) kkkk the ebony fruit is hard. Bole does not have direct counterparts to many expressions using subjective complements in English. For example, English expressions using verbs that relate a subject to its complement through the senses, such as feel (good), look (sick), sound (silly), smell (bad), taste (salty) would generally take one of the following forms: km feel + nominal OBJECT expressing the sensation that one feels: Unitary verb: Equational sentence with a sense noun as subject and a descriptive word as predicate: An idiom: km zi he felt good (zi pleasure) ita j km kwa she is feeling shy (kwa modesty, shyness) msku feel nauseous klwu feel better (after illness) bjin otto zi the food smells good (the odor of the food is pleasant) duwt din he doesnt look happy (he beat his eyes)

The sense verb km feel differs from its English counterpart in that the Bole verb is transitive, whereas Bole verbs that require subjective complements are all intransitve. The words that express the counterparts of English adjectival complements like good or shy are nominal direct objects in Bole. Aside from the fact that they would be anomalous as predicates (??Leng kwa would mean ??Lengi is shyness), they undergo LTR, as do all nominal objects of verbs. sw shi kume kawa sa you shouldnt feel shy

2. Objective Complements (Small Clauses) Verbs that take objective complements are transitive verbs that can be roughly grouped into three categories, listed with exemplifying verbs from Bole: (1) Verbs that change the state of an object into the form expressed by the complement lu install, turban (a chief) make (into) (cf. intransitive use of this verb to mean become)

Subjective and Objective Complements mtu change to, turn into (cf. intransitive m turn into, become)

In addition to these specific verbs, there is a fairly open-ended class of verbs of transformation, such as paint (X red), grind (X smooth), cook (X mushy), dig (X deep) see examples below (2) Verbs that state a relationship between an object and its complement6 su ndolu call (someone something) want (object in the capacity of complement)

(3) Verbs of discovery or perception of a relationship between an object and its complement bolu find, come across deyu leave nn see Most verbs of types (1) and (2) can (at least optionally) use a phrase headed by b in the capacity of, in the guise of as the objective complement. For verbs of type (3), it is possible that there are actually two syntactic constructions, viz. those with a direct object and an objective complement and those where the apparent object is actually the SUBJECT of a complement clause like I saw [that] THE GOAT [was] tied up, where the bracketed items would not have overt expression in Bole in any case. Note, however, that for ALL verbs of type (3), a pronominal object is a clitic on the verb, not a free pronoun, showing that even if object + complement is an underlying clause, the complement subject has been coppied as the grammatical object of the complementizing verb when it is a pronoun (see ## for discussion of copying semantic subjects of embedded propositions as objects of matrix verbs). (1) Verbs changing the state of an object lan br b Moi lan-n-n b wokkl moi mtantn bno ye (b) ptl ll gbn ye (b) ptl an gwa kskr ye (*b) gra ppan bz (b) gra pp wyo (*b) zrklk mtat tagrda b kmb rt gr b blou they have installed Abari as Moi they made him (n) the chiefs representative they painted (turned) the house white he painted the room white the blacksmith made the sword long they dug the hole deep (gra adj.) he dug the hole deep (zrklk id. adj.) she made the paper into a fan he divided the kola in two

An important subcategory of type (2) verbs comprises the verbs of comparison y exceed, l be equal to, be up to, be the equal of, mn be equal to, be as...as..., ksu be less than, all of which can be used with a complement that expresses a standard to which the object is measured, i.e. ....exceed OBJECT (with respect to) STANDARD. Chapter ## covers expressions using these verbs and hence they are omitted from the present chapter.
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Subjective and Objective Complements (2) Verbs stating a relationship between an object and its complement j s Bamoi (*b) an shiri n ndol Bamoi b sb ndol-k b sb Bamoi ndol Leng b mnd Bamoi ndolsh b mnd they are calling Bamoi a thief (an shiri) I want Bamoi as a friend he wants you as a friend Bamoi wants Lengi as a wife Bamoi wants you as a wife

(3) Verbs of perceiving a relationship between and object and its complement dewu shi ye ngrat he left the goat tied up dei-k ka ngrak he left you (k) tied up n nn gam ngran I saw the ram tied up n nn kr ye gndn mblili I saw the snake lying (gndn) stretched out (mblili) mu innankun m gndku we saw you (pl.) lying down wal lw ye kwn they found the child well-fed wannan n kwno they found me well-fed wankan ka rukkko they found you emaciated blanna n njll she came upon me teeny-weeny bolsh shi owash he came upon you seated Akin to objective complements with verbs of type (2) are constructions involving ideophones and ideophonic adjectives such as the following, parallel to those with nominal complements (see end of 1). As with constructions such sentences differ from sentences with straightforward objective complements, first, because the ideophone seems to describe the action or state of the entire verb + object, and second, because, unlike words that appear as objective complements, the ideophone could not be the predicate of an equational sentence (##), directly equating the noun which appears as grammatical and the predicate. ka zm-t kok-ko alal
you shave-tot tie-tot

you shaved your head bald he tied the load securely he ground the flour to a soft consistency he shaved his head smooth

ngor-t wula taitai ss

load ground flour

head-your ideophone ideophone

biki ndalar

zm konn sulsul

ideophone