Complement

“ COMPLEMENTS. +Hints for Oral Instruction+.—When we say, The sun gives, we express no complete thought. The subject sun is complete, but the predicate gives does not make a complete assertion. When we say, The sun gives light, we do utter a complete thought. The predicate gives is completed by the word light. Whatever fills out, or completes, we call a +Complement+. We will therefore call light the complement of the predicate. As light completes the predicate by naming the thing acted upon, we call it the +Object Complement+. ”

“ Such a word as river in the first sentence or red in the second is called an objective complement. A noun used in this office somewhat resembles an appositive, being a second name for an object already named; but the appositive has no relation to any word except the noun it explains, while the objective complement has a very important relation to the predicate verb. So close is this relation that we may often express the meaning of the two words, the verb and the objective complement, by one word; as, “Political freedom makes every man an individual.”—Higginson. ”

“ The noun used as base-word of a subjective complement does not necessarily agree with the subject in number; as, “Justice and Reverence are the everlasting central Law of the Universe.”—Carlyle.
Neither does the subjective complement have to succeed its verb. Sometimes the whole order of the sentence is inverted; thus, “Fair as a summer dream was Margaret.”—Lowell. “A very attractive person is that child-loving girl.”—Miss Mitford. ”

“ Complement, compliment.—A complement is a "full quantity or number" or "that which is needed to complete"; a compliment is "an expression of praise."
Conscience, consciousness.—Conscience is that within us which distinguishes right from wrong. Consciousness is the state of being aware of one's existence, thoughts, and surroundings. ”

“ What we call a complement of being should not be termed a quality, because they are actualizations of being, actualizations which proceed from the reasons and the essential potentialities. Qualities are therefore something outside of being; something which does not at times seem to be, and at other times does not seem not to be qualities; something which adds to being something that is not necessary; for example, virtues and vices, ugliness and beauty, health, and individual resemblance. ”

“ The car looks cheap.
He is in the house.
Home is where the heart is.
In these sentences, red, a house, cheap, in the house, and where the heart is, are parts of the predicate, though they characterize the subject. Such elements are called complements because they complete the assertion of the verb; if adjectives, they are called adjective [47] complements, or better, predicated adjectives; if nouns, they are called noun complements, or predicated nouns; if clauses or phrases, they are called complements, or predicated phrases or clauses. ”

“ It is direct when it is the immediate object of the action of the verb; as, The man gives alms, El hombre da limosna. It is indirect (called also complement) when it is the term, or end of the action expressed by the verb; as, The man gives alms to the poor, El hombre da limosna á los pobres. ”

“ All that stands on the complement line is regarded as the complement. Notice that the little mark before the phrase points toward the object complement. The adjective dull completes growing and belongs to book, the assumed subject of growing.
13. He owned himself defeated. 14. No one ever saw fat men heading a riot or herding together in turbulent mobs. ”

“ The Direct Complement (rekta komplemento) .—The noun or pronoun (not governed by a preposition) , which is the direct complement of a transitive verb, must have the accusative form -N in the singular, or -JN in the plural. The direct complement of a verb can be determined by asking the question "whom?" or "what?" after such verb, and the word giving the reply is the direct complement, as:—Diru al mi vian nomon = Tell me your name. (Tell what? Your name = vian nomon is the direct complement.) Johano min amas = John loves me. (Loves whom? Me = min is the direct complement.) ”

“ If comparing him with these men is perilous to his reputation, then for his sake the comparison should not be made. The sentence is an attempt to combine two ideas incompatible in a single construction, viz., “If he is compared with these men, it will be to his disadvantage,” and “He is not to be compared to these men.”—Standard Dictionary.
complected for complexioned is dialectical in the United States, and not sanctioned in general usage.
complement, compliment: Discriminate carefully between these words. Complement means “full quantity or number ”

“ This word completing a transitive verb is sometimes called a factitive object, or second object, but it is a true complement.
The fact that this is a complement can be more clearly seen when the verb is in the passive. See sentence 19, in exercise following Sec. 364.
Complement of an intransitive verb.
An intransitive verb, especially the forms of be, seem, appear, taste, feel, become, etc., must often have a word to complete the meaning: as, for instance, "Brow and head were round, and of massive weight;" "The good man, he was now getting old, above sixty;" ”

“ The following sentences may be given,—“He seems a coward,” “He seems afraid,” “He seems to tremble.” The verb in each case has a subjective complement, but in one case this complement is a noun, in another an adjective, in another an infinitive, the choice depending wholly on the special meaning to be brought out. If the use of to tremble seems to the pupil sufficiently like that of afraid to warrant his calling it a predicate adjective, let him do so. ”

“ We saw the storm approaching.
(Notice that the objective complement is here a participle.)
13. He kept his mother waiting. 14. We found him lying dead on the field. 15. We all believe him to be an honest man.
(Notice that the objective complement is here an infinitive phrase.)
16. Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain. 17. Everybody acknowledged him to be a genius.
The +indirect,+ or dative, +object+ is sometimes made the +subject+ of a verb in the passive voice, while the object complement is retained after the verb. ”

“ A transitive verb which, in the active voice, is followed by an object complement and a prepositional phrase, takes, in the passive, the principal word of the phrase for its subject, retaining the complement and the preposition to complete its meaning ”

“ Function.—Sometimes an action performed upon an object makes a different thing of that object. Our desire to tell this as briefly as possible has given rise to sentences in which a transitive verb is followed by two complements, [Pg 180] one a direct object naming the thing acted upon, and the other an attribute of the direct object telling the outcome of the activity denoted by the verb; as, “By his Sketch Book Irving has made the Hudson a classic river.”
The second complement is quite as often an adjective as a noun ”

“ Verbs of choosing, calling, naming, making, and thinking may take two objects referring to the same person or thing.
The first of these is the direct object, and the second, which completes the sense of the predicate, is called a predicate objective.
We chose Oscar president. [Oscar is the direct object of chose; president is the predicate objective.] I call John my friend. They thought the man a coward. Make my house your home. The predicate objective is often called the complementary object or the objective attribute. It is classed as a complement. ”

“ If we analyse a judgment, every word in which it is expressed, whether it is a noun or a verb or a preposition or a conjunction, conveys a distinct meaning, indicates a term or a relation, each of which can be made a distinct object to the mind, and all of which are combined in the single meaning the judgment expresses. It is in this complexity that the possibility of error lies, and the possibility increases as the complexity increases. ”

“ Again, when we use a common noun, such as man, in a universal sense, as signifying all possible men, we are fully aware of this intention on our part, and distinguish it carefully from our intention when we mean a certain group of men, or a solitary individual before us. In the chapter on Conception we shall see how important this difference of intention is. It casts its influence over the whole of the sentence, both before and after the spot in which the word man is used. ”

“ In this last case, again, we may either compose our definition of as many connotative names as there are attributes, each attribute being connoted by one, as, Man is a corporeal, organized, animated, rational being, shaped so and so; or we employ names which connote several of the attributes at once, as, Man is a rational animal, shaped so and so. ”

“ And it is remarkable that, among all the definitions of the proposition, for example, as the oratio indicativa, as the subsumption of an object under a concept, as the expression of the relation of two concepts, and as the indication of the mutable ground of appearance, there is, perhaps, not one in which the conception of reference to an object or correlate is not the important one. In the same way, the conception of reference to an interpretant or third, is always prominent in the definitions of argument. ”

“ In the same manner, therefore, as a quality is an attribute grounded on the fact that a certain sensation or sensations are produced in us by the object, so an attribute grounded on some fact into which the object enters jointly with another object, is a relation between it and that other object. ”

“ The second distinction is into affirmative and negative, and is called the distinction of quality. An affirmative proposition is that whose predicate is a positive name, as man is a living creature. Negative, that whose predicate is a negative name, as man is not a stone. ”

“ It will simplify matters to bear in mind that the intension of a term is the same thing as its meaning. To take an example, the term 'man' applies to certain things, namely, all the members of the human race that have been, are, or ever will be: this is its quantity in extension. But the term 'man' has also a certain meaning, and implies certain attributes—rationality, animality, and a definite bodily shape: the sum of these attributes constitutes its quantity in intension. ”

“ And if we ask ourselves what is our standard of comparison, what is our test or measure, and why are we sure of our application of it in such cases, our only answer is that our standard of comparison is reality itself, actual being, perfection; that we rely implicitly on our intuition of such actual reality as manifested to us in varying grades or degrees within our experience ”

“ Every proposition is given empirically as a spoken or written sentence, a complex of physical signs, which is itself a fact in the real world: comparing a proposition with the state of affairs it expresses is, therefore, nothing but a comparison of two facts. ”

“ Now when we say 'John is a man' or 'This table is oblong,' the proposition is quite as universal, in the sense of the predicate applying to the whole of the subject, as when we say 'All men are mortal.' For since a singular term applies only to one thing, we cannot avoid using it in its whole extent, if we use it at all. ”

“ The conception of being arises upon the formation of a proposition. A proposition always has, besides a term to express the substance, another to express the quality of that substance; and the function of the conception of being is to unite the quality to the substance. Quality, therefore, in its very widest sense, is the first conception in order in passing from being to substance. ”

“ It remains to note that such phrases as 'Being and Nothing are the same,' or 'The unity of Being and Nothing'—like all other such unities, that of subject and object, and others—give rise to reasonable objection. ”

“ It has been indicated that a connotative term is one which possesses the double function of signifying a subject as well as an attribute. It may be observed here that an attribute of a notion is any mark, property or characteristic of that notion. Attribute, then, represents quality, relation or quantity. By a subject is meant anything which possesses attributes. Most subjects stand for objects and most attributes are qualities ”

“ Common sense, my son, must consider as absurd an assertion which is substantially nonsensical. Prove to me that three is not a compound, that it cannot be a compound and I will become a Christian at once. ”

“ We find the inner ground for this systematisation of judgments in the circumstance that when the Notion, which is the unity of Being and Essence in a comprehensive thought, unfolds, as it does in the judgment, it must reproduce these two stages in a transformation proper to the notion. ”

“ What is man? In how many different senses is good employed? A dialectic question is one to which the respondent makes sufficient reply by saying, Yes or No.391 You must ask in this form: Is the definition of man so and so? Is good enunciated in this or that different sense? To these questions the respondent may answer Yes or No. But if he persists in negative answers to your multiplied questions as to this or that sense of the term good, you may perhaps stand excused for asking him: “In how many different senses, then, do you yourself use the term good?”392 ”

“ But myself and judging are constituents shared by all my judgments; thus the distinctive constituents of the particular judgment in question are A and love and B. Coming now to what is meant by "understanding a proposition," I should say that there is another relation possible between me and A and love and B, which is called my supposing that A loves B. [3] When we can suppose that A loves B, we "understand the proposition" A loves B. Thus we often understand a proposition in cases where we have not enough knowledge to make a judgement. ”