Oblique Complement
The Oblique Complement Test for identifying oblique complements in English An oblique complement is a PP or an AdvP which behaves like a complement, i.e. it is semantically implied syntactically necessary cannot be used with a pro-VP form such as do so: John put a book on the shelf and Mary did so (*into the drawer), too. but: it does not fit the definition of any of the other grammatical functions. typical examples: a particular preposition is required by the verb: wait for, substitute with, rely on, talk to ... about ..., ... the verb requires a directional phrase, independent of how this is lexicalized: put s.th. [somewhere]obl.compl Categories and structural position Oblique complements are always PPs. It is a sister of V and NP and dominated by a VP. Example:
_S_
/ \
/ AuxP
/ / \
subj / VP
/ / / \
/ / / obl.comp
/ / / |
NP Aux V _PP__
/__\ | | /_____\
Pat will wait for Kim.