In grammar, a subject complement is a phrase or clause that follows a linking verb (copula) and that complements (completes) the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. In the former case, a renaming noun phrase such as a noun or pronoun is called a predicate nominative. An adjective following the copula and describing the subject is called a predicate adjective. In either case the predicate complement in effect mirrors the subject.
Subject complements are used only with a class of verbs called linking verbs or copulative verbs, of which "to be" is the most common. Since copulas are stative verbs, subject complements are not affected by any action of the verb.
Here are some examples of sentences with subject complements:
Here "was" is a linking verb (an inflected form of "to be") that equates the predicate nominative phrase "a tranquil pool", with head noun "pool", to the subject "the lake" (with head noun "lake").
In this example "tranquil" is a predicate adjective linked through the verb "is" (another inflected form of "to be") to the subject "the lake".[1]
An example in which the subject complement is a dependent clause is:
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While no strong arguments other than widespread acceptance are made for the use of colloquial "it is me" ("it is him", "he is taller than him", etc) in written speech in Joseph Crayton's works, other grammarians, among whom were Baker (1770), Campbell (1776), and Lindley Murray (1795), give the reason why the first person pronoun must be "I" rather than "me": it is a nominative that is equivalent to the subject, and as such they prove that it must always be in the nominative (subjective) case. These three partisans of the nominative case, Baker, Campbell, and Murray, were the commentators whose preachments were accepted as gospel by the schoolmasters.[2]
Joseph Priestley justified the colloquial usage on the grounds of good writers using it often:
All our grammarians say, that the nominative cases pronouns ought to follow the verb substantive as well as precede it; yet any familiar forms of speech, and example of some of our best writers, would lead us to make a contrary rule; or, at least, would leave us at liberty to adopt which we liked best.[3]
It can be inferred that the colloquial preference for "it is me" could be receiving such widespread use due to rejecting the model of Latin, where the complement of the copula is in the nominative case.[4]
Fiction writers have occasionally pointed out the colloquialisms of their characters in an authorial comment. In "The Curse of the Golden Cross," for example, G. K. Chesterton writes, "'He may be me,' said Father Brown, with cheerful contempt for grammar." And in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis writes, "'Come out, Mrs. Beaver. Come out, Sons and Daughters of Adam. It's all right! It isn't Her!' This was bad grammar of course, but that is how beavers talk when they are excited."
Some languages do not use predicate adjectives with a linking verb; instead, adjectives can become stative verbs that replace the copula. For example, in Mandarin Chinese "It is red" is rendered as tā hóng, which translates literally as "It red". However, Mandarin retains the copula when it is followed by a predicate nominative.