The fact that this is a complement can be more clearly seen when the verb is in the passive. See sentence 19, in exercise following Sec. 364.
[Sidenote: _Complement of an intransitive verb_.]
An _intransitive verb_, especially the forms of _be_, _seem_, _appear_, _taste_, _feel_, _become_, etc., must often have a word to complete the meaning: as, for instance, "Brow and head were _round, and of massive weight_;" "The good man, he was now getting _old_, above sixty;" "Nothing could be _more copious_ than his talk;" "But in general he seemed _deficient in laughter_."
All these complete intransitive verbs. The following are examples of complements of transitive verbs: "Hope deferred maketh the heart _sick_;" "He was termed _Thomas_, or, more familiarly, _Thom of the Gills_;" "A plentiful fortune is reckoned _necessary_, in the popular judgment, to the completion of this man of the world."
345. The modifiers and independent elements will be discussed in detail in Secs. 351, 352, 355.
346. A phrase is a group of words, not containing a verb, but used as a single modifier.
As to _form_, phrases are of three kinds:--
(1) PREPOSITIONAL, introduced by a preposition: for example, "Such a convulsion is the struggle _of gradual suffocation_, as _in drowning_; and, _in the original Opium Confessions_, I mentioned a case _of that nature_."
(2) PARTICIPIAL, consisting of a participle and the words dependent on it. The following are examples: "Then _retreating into the warm house_, and _barring the door_, she sat down to undress the two youngest children."
(3) INFINITIVE, consisting of an infinitive and the words dependent upon it; as in the sentence, "She left her home forever in order _to present herself at the Dauphin's court_."
347. The subject of a simple sentence may be--
(1) _Noun_: "There seems to be no _interval_ between greatness and meanness." Also an expression used as a noun; as, "A cheery, '_Ay, ay, sir_!' rang out in response."
(2) _Pronoun_: "We are fortified by every heroic anecdote."
(3) _Infinitive phrase_: "_To enumerate and analyze these relations_ is to teach the science of method."
(4) _Gerund_: "There will be _sleeping_ enough in the grave;" "What signifies _wishing_ and _hoping_ for better things?"