The dependency type xcomp is reserved for clausal complements which have an external subject, that is, whose subject is shared with the complemented verb (a phenomenon also known as subject control). Note that the subject of the complementing clause must be the subject of the complemented verb, not any other sentence element (in other cases the dependency type xcomp:ds should be used instead). These complements are always non-finite.
Many of the complements with an external subject resemble cases that are analyzed as main verbs with auxiliaries. Both auxiliaries and xcomp complements share their subject with another verb, but only a closed list of verbs are analyzed as auxiliaries (see aux). Note also that in auxiliary cases the second verb is the governor, whereas with xcomp the first verb becomes governor (unless the word order is inverse).
Secondary predicates
The xcomp relation is also used in constructions that are known as secondary predicates or predicatives, which are core arguments of the predicate. Most commonly these are adjetives, but also participial and nominal arguments are possible. For example in the sentence Hän teki siitä hyvin vaikeaa there are two mixed predicates: 1) hän teki jotain, and 2) se on vaikeaa. The secondary predication can be provided to any higher clause element.
Minulla oli mukavaa .
xcomp(oli, mukavaa)
nmod(oli, Minulla)
punct(oli, .)
Note: Adjectival complements correspond to acomp (adjectival complement) in
the original Stanford Dependencies and the Turku Dependency
Treebank.
Diffs
Secondary predication is not recognized in FinnTreeBank (FI_FTB).
Therefore xcomp is always a non-finite verb
(or a predicative of a non-finite copular clause) in FI_FTB.
As the examples above represent types of result and state clauses
(ISK § 891),
in FI_FTB they have been annotated using predicatives
(see chapter Copulas in Specific constructions).
Treebank Statistics (UD_Finnish)
This relation is universal.
There are 1 language-specific subtypes of xcomp: xcomp:ds.
2307 nodes (1%) are attached to their parents as xcomp.
2199 instances of xcomp (95%) are left-to-right (parent precedes child).
Average distance between parent and child is 1.60988296488947.
The following 9 pairs of parts of speech are connected with xcomp: VERB-VERB (1729; 75% instances), VERB-ADJ (396; 17% instances), VERB-NOUN (136; 6% instances), ADJ-VERB (19; 1% instances), NOUN-ADJ (8; 0% instances), NOUN-VERB (8; 0% instances), VERB-ADV (7; 0% instances), PRON-VERB (2; 0% instances), VERB-PRON (2; 0% instances).
# visual-style 4 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 4 fgColor:white
# visual-style 2 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 2 fgColor:white
# visual-style 2 4 xcomp color:blue
1 Lopulta lopulta ADV Adv _ 2 advmod _ _
2 saatiin saada VERB V Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _
3 halikuva hali#kuva NOUN N Case=Nom|Number=Sing 4 dobj _ _
4 otettua ottaa VERB V Case=Par|Degree=Pos|Number=Sing|PartForm=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 2 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No
5 . . PUNCT Punct _ 2 punct _ _
# visual-style 6 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 6 fgColor:white
# visual-style 4 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 4 fgColor:white
# visual-style 4 6 xcomp color:blue
1 Joten joten ADV Adv _ 4 advmod _ _
2 tämä tämä PRON Pron Case=Nom|Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 4 nsubj 6:nsubj:cop _
3 ei ei VERB V Negative=Neg|Number=Sing|Person=3|VerbForm=Fin|Voice=Act 4 neg _ _
4 tule tulla VERB V Connegative=Yes|Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _
5 olemaan olla VERB V Case=Ill|InfForm=3|Number=Sing|VerbForm=Inf|Voice=Act 6 cop _ _
6 kynnys kynnys NOUN N Case=Nom|Number=Sing 4 xcomp _ _
7 tiellä tie NOUN N Case=Ade|Number=Sing 6 nmod _ _
8 makkaranvalmistukseen makkara#valmistus NOUN N Case=Ill|Number=Sing 7 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No
9 . . PUNCT Punct _ 4 punct _ _
Treebank Statistics (UD_Finnish-FTB)
This relation is universal.
There are 1 language-specific subtypes of xcomp: xcomp:ds.
1268 nodes (1%) are attached to their parents as xcomp.
1253 instances of xcomp (99%) are left-to-right (parent precedes child).
Average distance between parent and child is 1.44085173501577.
The following 5 pairs of parts of speech are connected with xcomp: VERB-VERB (1241; 98% instances), VERB-ADJ (12; 1% instances), VERB-NOUN (12; 1% instances), PRON-VERB (2; 0% instances), VERB-PRON (1; 0% instances).