Subject complement vs. adverbial

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rebamaniac

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Hello!
I posted this in the "Ask a Teacher" section, but was advised to post it here too, as the specific analytic part of language belonged here, which I would've known had I only bothered to look around a bit further...

Anyways, here is my original post:

Hi!
In class today, we were given a sentence to analyze by means of the SPOCA. After pondering this for quite some time, I find myself unsure of what is actually a subject complement and what is an adverbial here. The sentence is as follows:

"This is a different book from the one you recommended in your paper"

My original idea was that <a different book from the one you recommended> is the subject complement and that <in your paper> is an optional adverbial, but after discussing this with a friend I find myself uncertain of where the subject complement ends and the adverbial begins. My friend expressed total certainty in his analysis of <a different book> as the subject complement, and <from the one you recommended> and <in your paper> as two individual optional adverbials. Can anyone tell me if we're both completely clueless, or if one of us is onto something?

Thanks so much in advance!

In addition, I expanded on my thoughts further:

So, according to your breakdown, the three last elements would all be individual, optional adverbials in a SPOCA analysis? My idea was that <from the one you recommended> is the postmodifier in the noun phrase that realizes the subject complement, which I believe to be <a different book from the one you recommended>. This postmodifier is in turn realized by the embedded prepositional phrase <from the one> and the embedded, finite, nominal zero relative clause <you recommended> ("that" having been ellipted).

I would appreciate it so much if anyone is able to help me with this!
 

Frank Antonson

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I do not know SPOCA, so I will not really try to speak to this.

Within the American system, often called Reed-Kellogg, the sentence is very easily analysed, but I am quite certain that your teacher would not be satisfied.
 

5jj

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Sorry, rebamaniac. Our members don't seem to be into SPOCA. I'll give your thread in the other forum a boost, to see if it attracts any attention.
 
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