xcomp: open clausal complement
An open clausal complement (xcomp) of a verb or an adjective is a
predicative or clausal complement without its own subject. The
reference of the subject is necessarily determined by an argument
external to the xcomp (normally by the object of the next higher
clause, if there is one, or else by the subject of the next higher
clause). This is often referred to as obligatory control.
These clauses tend to be non-finite in many languages,
but they can be finite as well. The name xcomp is
borrowed from Lexical-Functional Grammar.
Dois árbitros resolveram contar todos os podres.
xcomp(resolveram, contar)
Os três continentes mais obstinados em cortar o reinado de Havelange.
xcomp(obstinados, cortar)
Volpi foi dos mais influentes pintores do país.
xcomp(foi, pintores)
Disse que não conseguia vislumbrar artifícios fraudulentos.
xcomp(conseguia, vislumbrar)
ccomp(Disse, conseguia)
Mas me considero um piloto rápido.
xcomp(considero, piloto)
Nós esperamos que eles mudem de idéia.
xcomp(esperamos, mudem)
Note that the above condition “without its own subject” does not mean
that a clause is an xcomp just because its subject is not overt.
The subject must be necessarily inherited from a fixed position in the
higher clause. That is, there should be no available interpretation
where the subject of the lower clause may be distinct from the
specified role of the upper clause. In cases where the missing subject
may or must be distinct from a fixed role in the higher clause,
ccomp should be used instead, as below. This includes cases of
arbitrary subjects and anaphoric control.
O chefe disse para começar a cavar.
ccomp(disse, começar)
Pro-drop languages, as Portuguese, have clauses where the subject is not present as a separate word, yet it is inherently present (and often deducible from the form of the verb) and it does not depend on arguments from a higher clause.
O tomate foi projetado para manter o sabor
advcl(projetado, manter)
Os empresários abriram mão de posições históricas , eventualmente visando sua proteção , para construir e defender idéias
nsubj(abriram, empresários)
advcl(abriram, visando)
advcl(abriram, construir)
conj(construir, defender)
Secondary Predicates
The xcomp relation is also used in constructions that are known as
secondary predicates or predicatives. Examples:
- Ela declarou o bolo lindo.
- Ela declarou o bolo um sucesso.
We could paraphrase the sentence using a subordinate clause: Ela
declarou que o bolo estava lindo. There are two predicates mixed in
one clause: 1. ela declarou algo, and 2. o bolo estava lindo (segundo
ela). The secondary predicate will be attached to the main predicate
as an xcomp:
Ela declarou o bolo lindo .
nsubj(declarou, Ela)
dobj(declarou, bolo)
xcomp(declarou, lindo)
nsubj(lindo, bolo)
In the enhanced representation, there is an additional subject link showing the secondary predication (bolo is the subject of lindo.
Remember that xcomp is used for core arguments of clausal predicates
so it will not be used for other instances of secondary predication.
For instance, in Ela entrou na sala triste we also have a double
predication (ela entrou na sala; ela estava triste). But triste is
not a core argument of entrar: leaving it out will neither affect
grammaticality nor significantly alter the meaning of the verb. On
the other hand, leaving out lindo in ela declarou o bolo lindo
will either render the sentence ungrammatical or lead to a different
interpretation of declarou.
The result is that in Ela entrou na sala triste, triste will
depend on Ela and the relation will be acl instead of xcomp.
Treebank Statistics (UD_Portuguese)
This relation is universal.
1839 nodes (1%) are attached to their parents as xcomp.
1815 instances of xcomp (99%) are left-to-right (parent precedes child).
Average distance between parent and child is 3.01794453507341.
The following 40 pairs of parts of speech are connected with xcomp: pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/VERB (1170; 64% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/NOUN (264; 14% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/ADJ (213; 12% instances), pt-pos/ADJ-pt-pos/VERB (40; 2% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/PRON (23; 1% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/PROPN (23; 1% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/NOUN (12; 1% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/VERB (12; 1% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/ADV (8; 0% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/ADJ (7; 0% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/NUM (7; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADV-pt-pos/NOUN (6; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADJ-pt-pos/NOUN (5; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADV-pt-pos/ADJ (4; 0% instances), pt-pos/PROPN-pt-pos/PROPN (4; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADJ-pt-pos/PROPN (3; 0% instances), pt-pos/DET-pt-pos/ADJ (3; 0% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/PRON (3; 0% instances), pt-pos/PRON-pt-pos/ADJ (3; 0% instances), pt-pos/PRON-pt-pos/NOUN (3; 0% instances), pt-pos/SCONJ-pt-pos/ADJ (3; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADV-pt-pos/VERB (2; 0% instances), pt-pos/DET-pt-pos/NOUN (2; 0% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/PROPN (2; 0% instances), pt-pos/PRON-pt-pos/PRON (2; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADJ-pt-pos/ADV (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADJ-pt-pos/NUM (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADV-pt-pos/PRON (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/AUX-pt-pos/NOUN (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/DET-pt-pos/PROPN (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/ADV (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/NUM (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/NUM-pt-pos/ADJ (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/NUM-pt-pos/NOUN (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/NUM-pt-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/PRON-pt-pos/ADV (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/PROPN-pt-pos/NOUN (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/SCONJ-pt-pos/ADV (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/SCONJ-pt-pos/PRON (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/SYM (1; 0% instances).
# visual-style 8 bgColor:blue
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# visual-style 7 8 xcomp color:blue
1 Apesar apesar ADV ADV|@ADVL> _ 7 advmod _ MWE=Apesar_de
2 de de ADP PRP|@A< _ 4 case _ _
3 as o DET <-sam>|<artd>|ART|F|P|@>N Definite=Def|Gender=Fem|Number=Plur|PronType=Art 4 det _ _
4 críticas crítica NOUN <np-def>|N|F|P|@P< Gender=Fem|Number=Plur 1 obl _ SpaceAfter=No
5 , , PUNCT PU|@PU _ 1 punct _ _
6 Vogts Vogts PROPN PROP|M|S|@SUBJ> Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 7 nsubj _ _
7 prefere preferir VERB <mv>|V|PR|3S|IND|@FS-STA Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _
8 manter manter VERB <mv>|V|INF|@ICL-<ACC VerbForm=Inf 7 xcomp _ _
9 a o DET <artd>|ART|F|S|@>N Definite=Def|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|PronType=Art 10 det _ _
10 discrição discrição NOUN <np-def>|N|F|S|@<ACC Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 8 obj _ SpaceAfter=No
11 : : PUNCT PU|@PU _ 7 punct _ _
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# visual-style 5 7 xcomp color:blue
1 Feminino feminino NOUN <np-idf>|N|M|S|@SUBJ> Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _
2 bate bater VERB <first-cjt>|<mv>|V|PR|3S|IND|@FS-STA Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _
3 Cuba Cuba PROPN PROP|F|S|@<ACC Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 2 obj _ _
4 e e CCONJ <co-sta>|KC|@CO _ 5 cc _ _
5 fica ficar VERB <cjt>|<mv>|V|PR|3S|IND|@FS-STA Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _
6 com com ADP PRP|@<SC _ 7 case _ _
7 título título NOUN <np-idf>|N|M|S|@P< Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 5 xcomp _ _
8 em em ADP PRP|@N< _ 9 case _ _
9 PE PE PROPN PROP|M|S|@P< Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 7 nmod _ _
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# visual-style 11 bgColor:blue
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# visual-style 11 8 xcomp color:blue
1 « « PUNCT PU|@PU _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No
2 Toda todo DET <quant>|DET|F|S|@>N Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|PronType=Tot 3 det _ _
3 platéia platéia NOUN <np-def>|N|F|S|@SUBJ> Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 11 nsubj _ _
4 de de ADP PRP|@N< _ 5 case _ _
5 música música NOUN <np-idf>|N|F|S|@P< Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 3 nmod _ _
6 erudita erudito ADJ ADJ|F|S|@N< Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 5 amod _ _
7 é ser VERB <mv>|V|PR|3S|IND|@FS-STA Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _
8 tradicionalista tradicionalista ADJ ADJ|F|S|@SC> Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 11 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No
9 » » PUNCT PU|@PU _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No
10 , , PUNCT PU|@PU _ 7 punct _ _
11 explica explicar VERB <mv>|V|PR|3S|IND|@FS-STA Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 7 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No
12 . . PUNCT PU|@PU _ 7 punct _ _
Treebank Statistics (UD_Portuguese-BR)
This relation is universal.
There are 1 language-specific subtypes of xcomp: xcomp:adj.
860 nodes (0%) are attached to their parents as xcomp.
856 instances of xcomp (100%) are left-to-right (parent precedes child).
Average distance between parent and child is 1.77790697674419.
The following 11 pairs of parts of speech are connected with xcomp: pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/VERB (683; 79% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/ADJ (131; 15% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/NOUN (33; 4% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/PROPN (4; 0% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/ADV (3; 0% instances), pt-pos/ADJ-pt-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/AUX-pt-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/NOUN-pt-pos/ADJ (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/PART-pt-pos/NOUN (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/PROPN-pt-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), pt-pos/VERB-pt-pos/PRON (1; 0% instances).
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1 Quero _ VERB VERB _ 10 ccomp _ _
2 dar _ VERB VERB _ 1 xcomp _ _
3 o _ DET DET _ 4 det _ _
4 máximo _ NOUN NOUN _ 2 obj _ _
5 e _ CCONJ CONJ _ 6 cc _ _
6 sair _ VERB VERB _ 2 conj _ _
7 satisfeito _ ADJ ADJ _ 6 xcomp:adj _ _
8 ' _ PUNCT . _ 1 punct _ SpaceAfter=No
9 , _ PUNCT . _ 10 punct _ _
10 afirmou _ VERB VERB _ 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No
11 . _ PUNCT . _ 10 punct _ _
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# visual-style 7 bgColor:blue
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# visual-style 7 8 xcomp color:blue
1 E _ CCONJ CONJ _ 4 cc _ _
2 era _ VERB VERB _ 4 cop _ _
3 uma _ DET DET _ 4 det _ _
4 coisa _ NOUN NOUN _ 0 root _ _
5 que _ PRON PRON _ 7 nsubj _ _
6 nos _ PRON PRON _ 8 nsubj _ _
7 deixava _ VERB VERB _ 4 acl:relcl _ _
8 confortáveis _ ADJ ADJ _ 7 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No
9 . _ PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _
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1 Por _ ADP ADP _ 2 case _ _
2 isso _ PRON PRON _ 7 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No
3 , _ PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _
4 administrar _ VERB VERB _ 7 csubj _ _
5 nem _ ADV ADV _ 7 advmod _ _
6 sempre _ ADV ADV _ 7 advmod _ _
7 significa _ VERB VERB _ 0 root _ _
8 ser _ VERB VERB _ 9 cop _ _
9 estadista _ NOUN NOUN _ 7 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No
10 . _ PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _
xcomp in other languages: [am] [ar] [bg] [bxr] [ca] [ckb] [cop] [cs] [cu] [da] [de] [el] [en] [es] [et] [eu] [fa] [fi] [fo] [fr] [ga] [gl] [got] [grc] [he] [hi] [hr] [hu] [id] [it] [ja] [kk] [kmr] [ko] [la] [lv] [mr] [nl] [no] [pl] [pt] [ro] [ru] [sa] [sk] [sla] [sl] [so] [sr] [sv] [swl] [ta] [tr] [u] [ug] [uk] [ur] [urj] [vi] [yue] [zh]