The complementive attributes a range of possible specifications or meanings to the subject (Ponelis 1979:218-227). Some of these meanings are restricted to particular syntactic realisations, but others allow different ways of expression in syntactic categories.

A description of the subject, typically encoded by an adjective phrase or a noun phrase, is one of the most typical meanings that a complementive encodes. These are illustrated in example (1a) and (1b). Noun phrases used descriptively as complementives are typically indefinite.

The complementive can relate to the subject as an identifier, rather than a descriptor, in which case the complementive is a definite noun phrase, as illustrated by example (2a), including a proper noun, as in (2b).

It is often possible to invert the subject and complementive without noticeable difference in meaning, and without loss of grammaticality, as shown by example (3a), but this is a marked option for descriptors and used only in emphatic ways, usually restricted to poetic language, as illustrated by (3b).

Some complementives, both adjectival and nominal, express measurements. These measurements can be spatial, temporal, or even cover the cost of something.

Locative meanings are conveyed by adverbials, either indicating a place or a direction, as illustrated by the examples in (5). In the case of direction, the postposition toe towards is often used to distinguish mere location from the intended goal of the movement, without using a dynamic verb to denote the actual movement.

Complementives can be used to express temporal meanings, mainly a point in time. Usually, a dummy subject dit is used, with the copular verb wees to be or word to become, as illustrated by the examples in (6).

Noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases and preposition phrases are all used as potential complementives, alongside complement clauses.

The noun phrase remains the most typical complementive in copular verb constructions, just like it is in other argument constructions for dynamic verbs. It can be used to convey a range of meanings: identifying (in which case it has to be definite) – example (2), descriptive (in which case it has to be indefinite) – example (1b), measure (where the head noun has to denote a unit of measurement or some generalised notion of measuring a quantity) – example (4a, 4c), and adverbial meanings place and time (where the noun has to indicate a place or delineate a point in time ) – example (6).

An adjective phrase is mainly used to describe a noun, as in example (1a) and (3b). Such use of the adjective is called a predicative adjective, and stands in contrast with an attributive adjective, that does not combine with a noun to form a clause, but rather serves as a premodifier within a noun phrase. The contrast is exemplified in (7).

The use of adverbials, either in the form of adverb phrases or preposition phrases, as illustrated by the examples in (5), has to be distinguished from the use of adverbials as optional adjuncts in clauses. The adverbials in (5) cannot be omitted, otherwise the sentences become ungrammatical. The distinction is illustrated by the pair of examples in (8), where the primed examples indicate the consequences of omitting the adverbial.