Ascriptive use designates (i.e., "ascribes") a property to the referent.
Specifying use identifies the value of a variable. This is the same
distinction that is made with subject complements:

ascriptive:  Jonathan is [lazy]/[a slacker]
specifying: The superhero who saved the city was [Mr. Incredible].

Ascriptive uses can be either AdjP or indefinite NPs. If the complement
is an NP, it can sometimes be ambiguous between the two readings.

BTW, do appositive and complement really need to be mutually exclusive
terms? What's wrong with seeing a complement like 'Beloved' as an
appositive as well?

Karl

Karl Hagen
Department of English
Mount St. Mary's College

Johanna Rubba wrote:

> Karl,
>
> Could you define "ascriptive" for us?
>
> In response to Craig's comments, I think lumping these clausal
> complements in with appositives in general misses out on the
> importance of their complement function: The fact that they spell out
> something that is already strongly implied in the meaning of the head
> word. This makes them more like direct objects of verbs and NP objects
> of prepositions than like appositives, which are often (though not
> always, admittedly), not strongly implied by the meaning of the head,
> and are in fact intended to _add_ qualities that we wouldn't assume.
> For instance, that a person would be an outstanding young scholar is
> newsy info that is an important part of the discourse (clearly a
> discourse move intended to give that info about the person), but it is
> not implied in the meaning of "person" the way "suspicion" or "doubt"
> implies a proposition.
>
> I agree that there is a strong area of overlap, especially where
> restrictive appositives are concerned. Are they in fact appositives or
> complements? E.g., "Toni Morrison's novel 'Beloved' " -- is 'Beloved'
> a complement (a novel by nature has a title) or is it an appositive?

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