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Difficulty: Very hardNouns and Noun Phrases

Consider the sentence below:

'The university governing council declared the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor's ten-year strategic development plan a masterclass in sustainable administration during the press briefing.'

What is the exact syntactic function of the bolded noun phrase *'a masterclass in sustainable administration'* in this sentence?

  1. Object complementAnswer
  2. B
    Appositive noun phrase
  3. C
    Direct object
  4. D
    Subject complement

Answer

The bolded noun phrase functions as an object complement.
The phrase 'a masterclass in sustainable administration' functions as an object complement because it follows the direct object ('the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor's ten-year strategic development plan') and completes the predicate after the complex transitive verb 'declared'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the verb and its clause structure
The main verb is 'declared', which is a complex transitive verb requiring both a direct object and an object complement.
Complex transitive verbs (such as declare, consider, make, call) take a direct object followed by an element that describes or renames that object.
2
Identify the direct object of the verb
The noun phrase 'the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor's ten-year strategic development plan' receives the direct action of 'declared'.
This noun phrase is the entity being declared.
3
Analyze the role of the bolded noun phrase following the direct object
The noun phrase 'a masterclass in sustainable administration' completes the meaning of the direct object by expressing an essential property attributed to it.
A noun phrase that predicates a quality or identity of the direct object is an object complement.

Key Concept

Syntactic Functions of Noun Phrases: Object Complement
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Topics

Nouns and Noun Phrases

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