# 6 Retained Complements
Retained complements are simply predicate nouns, predicate adjectives, or direct or indirect objects that appear after passive verbs, whether finite or verbals: Bill was given a dollar. Most textbooks limit this construction to retained objects and objective complements. But expanding the concept to include predicate nouns and predicate adjectives simplifies explanations: These two examples are identical except that the first ends with a retained predicate adjective, the second with a retained predicate noun. If we exclude the concept of retained predicate adjectives and nouns, then (a) requires the following explanation:a.) Murray was considered foolish. "Murray was considered foolish" is the passive form of the active: "Someone considered Murray foolish." "Murray" is the subject, and "foolish" is the predicate adjective of the ellipsed infinitive "to be," which functions as the direct object of "considered." In the passive version, the ellipsed infinitive is the retained object and "foolish" is a predicate adjective after it. Rather than force you to go through this cumbersome technical explanation, I simply accept "retained predicate adjective" or "retained predicate noun." |
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This border is a reproduction of Peter Paul RUBENS' Virgin and Child enthroned with saints c. 1627-8, Sketch for a large altar painting; Oil on wood Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin Adapted from: Mark Harden's WWW Artchive http://artchive.com/core.html |
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