verbs with indirect objects.docx

7/29/2019 Verbs with Indirect Objects.docx

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Verbs with Indirect Objects

We gave George a puppy this year, and hecalled it Al

Normal transitive verbs followed by noun phrase direct objects

create relatively few problems. Some transitive verbs, however,

can take more than one noun phrase complement, creating some

possible confusion about which is the direct object. Some of the

time these verbs are innocent, normal transitives; when we catch

them in the act of taking more than one complement in apredicate, we can call them bigamous transitives. Grammarians,

however, insist on more specific and less memorable terms."

Ditransitive Verbs. The verb give is the most common example

of a relatively small set of transitive verbs which can take two

objects, two noun phrase complements. They can be called

ditransitive verbs. In sentence (1) below, it is just a normal

transitive verb, taking a direct object. Sentence (2) specifies whothe recipient or beneficiary of the gift is, putting it in a

prepositional phrase head by "to" or "for." In sentence (3),

however, the recipient is placed after the verb and in front of the

direct object. In such cases, the first NP (like "George" here) iscalled the indirect object:

(1) We gave a puppy.

(2) We gave a puppy to George.(3) We gave George a puppy.

Verbs of this sort are sometimes called dative verbs because

some languages have special dative case-endings to identify

recipient nouns instead of using a preposition as in sentence (2) or

word order as in sentence (3). Some other verbs which can be

ditransitive (or dative) are: buy, offer, sell. In the even-numbered

sentences below, these verbs are regular old transitive verbs; inthe odd-numbered sentences, they are ditransitive verbs, with the


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verb followed by an indirect object. The direct object of each

sentence is underlined so that you can see how it moves after theindirect object.

(4) We bought a ticket.(5) We bought our dog a ticket.

(6) George offered twenty bucks

(7) George offered Greta twenty bucks.

(8) Amber sold a horse.

(9) Amber sold my brother a horse.

Complex Transitive Verbs. Ditransitive verbs need to bedistinguished from another set of verbs which take twocomplements, the complex transitive verbs like consider:

(10) She considered George a friend.

In such cases, the first noun phrase is the direct object--that is,

George is the object of her consideration. The second noun

phrase, a friend, actually says something about George. We can

show this by inserting a "to be" in between the direct object andthe second noun phrase or by substituting an adjective for it:

(11) She considered George to be a friend.

(12) She considered George friendly.

In such structures, the second noun phrase or the adjective is

called an object complement orobject predicative.

Some other verbs which can be complex transitive are call, name,

think. In the sentences below, they are used first as regulartransitive or intransitive verbs and then as complex transitives:

(13)(a) George called Martha.

(b) George called Martha sexy.

(14)(a) Gwen named the puppy.

(B)Gwen named the puppy Misty.

(15)(a) Dagbert thought hard.

(b) Dagbert thought the test a hard


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one.

Which One is It?. Knowing that certain verbs are often

ditransitive or complex transitive can help one distinguish

between the two structures. Unfortunately, a verb like make canbe either. In sentence (16) below, it is ditransitive, but in sentence

(17), it is complex transitive. To make the difference clearer, thedirect objects are underlined.

(16) She made her grandmother a lampstand.

(17) She made her grandmother very happy.

In such cases, we can tell whether a sentence is ditransitive bywhether we can take the first of two NPs and put it into aprepositional phrase beginning with "to" or "for":

YES: (18)(a) She made a lampstand for her

grandmother.

NO:(b) *She made very happy for her

grandmother.

This last test and the "to be" test can also be useful in

distinguishing ditransitive and complex transitive sentences from

those cases in which a direct object is followed by a noun phrasewhich is actually serving as a time adverbial (like last week).

YES: (19)(a) We gave a dollar last week.

grandmother.

NO: (b) *We gave last week to a dollar.

NO:(c) *We gave a dollar to be last

week.

Exercise 1: Complex Transitive vs. Ditransitive

To test whether you have learned to distinguish these

structures, say whether the underlined portion of the

following sentences is (A) a direct object or (B) an object


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complement.

1.01 Fred considers the discussion

useless.

1.02 He gave me a hard time.1.03 Joe made his paper a model one.

1.04 They called me the hyacinth girl.

1.05 Tiger bought himself a new driver

at K-Mart.

1.06 Tiger will make his wife dinner.

The phrase structure of ditransitive and complex transitive verbs

can be identical, and we diagram them in the same way.

Just for the Record. Another difference between ditransitive and

complex transitive verbs is that both the direct object and indirect

object of ditransitive verbs can become the subjects of a passive

sentence, while only the direct object (and not the object

complement) of a complex transitive verb can do so. That has

been omitted in the discussion above because we have not yetdiscussed the passive itself.


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How Much of This Will be on the Test?The most important skill you need is the ability to identify the

basic sentence functions of subject, direct object, indirect

object, and object complement (orobject predicative). The lastof these is less important in itself than as a source of confusion in

identifying the others. The predicate types identified in this

section, ditransitive (or dative) and complex transitive are

terms not much used in school grammars, but they will appear on

the test.

verbs with indirect objects.docx

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