Patty,
Location is a very typical complement of the verb to be. "Albany is
across the river." "The lecture is after lunch." (In the second, the
location is in time.)
"In a bad mood" is, as has been nicely pointed out, metaphoric. It's
interesting that we conceive of it, at least syntactically, as if the
person were contained within the mood. The meaning seems more
descriptive, but the metaphor is spatial, so it seems half adverbial,
half adjectival. So many of our core metaphors come from our
sensory-motor experience of the world: "I place her above me. She was
beside herself with grief. That was out of this world."
In explaining it to students, my goal would be to revel in the
nuances of meaning and admire the creativity at the heart of language.
Craig
Patricia Lafayllve wrote:
> Sincere question, here:
>
> Would it be OK/accurate to say that, in the first sentence, "in a bad mood"
> is a prepositional phrase functioning adjectivally, where in the second
> sentence, "in her car" is more of an adverbial function?
>
> Tell the truth, I'm not sure how to classify "location" as a subject
> complement.
>
> My thinking is: how would I explain this to students, who might not have had
> the exposure to this grammar list?
>
> -patty
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Adams
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:56 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Prepositional Phrases as Subject Complements
>
> How would you categorize the prep phrase, "in a bad mood," in a
> sentence like the following?
>
> Cornelia was in a bad mood.
>
> How about the prep phrase "in her car" in the following sentence?
>
> Deb was in her car.
>
>
>
> Peter Adams
>
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