In traditional grammar books, nouns have been defined as describing people, places, things, and ideas. Noun phrases consist of a noun and any modifiers, complements, and determiners that provide more information about the noun. A pronoun is word that takes the place of a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns are a subcategory of nouns.
In grammar, a subject complement is a word, phrase, or clause that follows a copular, or linking, verb and describes the subject of a clause. A noun that performs the grammatical function of subject complement is also called a predicate nominative or predicate noun. Examples of nouns including pronouns and noun phrases as subject complements include the following:
- My favorite animals are dogs. (noun)
- The boys became teachers. (noun)
- This is she. (pronoun)
- Her favorite aunt is me. (pronoun)
- His desire to coach the Bears seemed a very loft goal. (noun phrase)
- That chocolate cake was the best thing I ever ate. (noun phrase)
Noun Phrase as Subject Complement
Pronoun as Subject Complement
References
Brinton, Laurel J. & Donna M. Brinton. 2010. The linguistic structure of Modern English, 2nd edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hopper, Paul J. 1999. A short course in grammar. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Huddleston, Rodney. 1984. Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.