The treatment of the objective complement may be introduced in a review
course, when the class is sufficiently mature. The following explanation
may aid some teachers:--
In "It made him _sad_," _made_ does not fully express the action performed
upon him--not "_made_ him," but "_made sad_ (saddened) him." _Sad_ helps
_made_ to express the action, and also denotes a quality which as the
result of the action belongs to the person represented by the object _him_.
Whatever completes the predicate and belongs to the object we call an
_Objective Complement_.
Nouns, infinitives, and participles may also be used in the same way; as,
"They made Victoria _queen_,"
"It made him _weep_;"
"It kept him _laughing_."
They | made / queen | Victoria
======|=========================
|
+Explanation+.--The line that separates _made_ from _queen_ slants toward
the object complement to show that _queen_ belongs to the object.
A noun or pronoun used as objective complement is in the objective case.
The teacher may here explain such constructions as, "I proved it to be
_him_," in which _it_ is object complement and _to be him_ is objective
complement.
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