This example came up in the context of a grammar course for
English majors.  My students (most of whom have little prior
experience with grammatical analysis) are struggling to understand
two interrelated matters, phrasal verbs, e.g.,
 
        We looked up the address
           ~~~~~~~~~
 
and adjectival subject complements, e.g.,
 
        You look pretty.
 
We are told that some of these complements can be prepositional
phrases:, e.g.:
 
        You look like hell.
 
But then we are presented with this example:
 
        Ryan looks like his older brother.
 
We are told to analyze this example, too, as
subject / verb / adjectival phrase.
 
It doesn't "feel" the same to my students nor, I must confess, to
me.  While "like hell" can be paraphrased as "awful," we cannot
think of a suitable paraphrase for "like his older brother."
 
*We* think "looks like" here is one of those phrasal verbs.
Certainly Ryan (NP1) and his older brother (NP2) are two different
people.  And you could say
 
        Ryan resembles his older brother.
             ~~~~~~~~~
Why isn't this a subject / verb / direct object pattern?
 
One cannot make "resemble" passive, to be sure:
 
        *His older brother is resembled by Ryan.
 
I do remember somewhere being told that "resemble" is
problematic -- but I don't remember the details.  We would appreciate
comments and and guidance to a fuller explanation of these matters.
Can you suggest any tests that would help us better understand the
example?
 
Thanks!
 
Carolyn Kirkpatrick
York College/CUNY