So-called Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language also builds sentences around a subject-object-verb construction. “Consistent word order appears early in a new sign language,” she says.

So with a verb like “make,” “watch” or “teach,” you can get a simple subject-plus-verb-plus-object sentence structure. Copular verbs express being, seeming or the senses.

But in grammar, it’s more specific. In the case of object complements, the word “complement” refers to something that completes the object, making the sentence a whole thought.

Our brain links incoming speech sounds to knowledge of grammar, which is abstract in nature. But how does the brain encode abstract sentence structure?

Karen Lahousse, Specificational Sentences and the Influence of Information Structure on (Anti-)Connectivity Effects, Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Mar., 2009), pp. 139-166 ...