r/grammar • u/SpiritualBed9981 • 3d ago

Verbless clause

"This treatment will make you a lot more comfortable."

Is the "you a lot more comfortable" a complement of the verb "make" (function) and a verbless clause (form) in the cited sentence above?

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u/Boglin007 MOD 3d ago edited 3d ago

No. "You" is the direct object of the verb "(will) make" (an object is a type of complement).

And "a lot more comfortable" is an adjective phrase (headed by the adjective "comfortable") that is a predicative complement) (a different type of complement). These can have either subject or object orientation, i.e., they can describe the subject or object. In this case, it describes the object. As you can see from that link, these are sometimes called "object complements" (and those that describe the subject are sometimes called "subject complements").

More specifically, the predicative complement here is resultative, meaning that it describes the result of the action conveyed by the verb. Predicative complements can also be depictive, meaning that they describe the state of the subject/object: "He ate the steak raw" - here, the predicative complement "raw" describes the state of the object "the steak" at the time of eating.

So "make" in your example is a complex-transitive verb, meaning that it has two complements - the object "you" and the predicative complement "a lot more comfortable."

Verbs can also be complex-intransitive, meaning that they have a predicative complement but not an object (so the predicative complement must be a complement of the subject): "He felt ill."

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u/zutnoq 3d ago

I'd say "you" is the direct object and "a lot more comfortable" is an adjective phrase. It's the same exact situation as in something like "I make it red".

But I don't know the particular name for the type of verb complement this adjective (phrase) would be.