Enache Madalina Maria LMA anul II

Curs 3

The direct Object

Definition: is that secondary part of the sentence which indicates the person, the thing or the abstract
notion to whom/to which the action of a transitive verb is directly associated.
Represents the element which receives/suffer the production/result of an action.
It answer the questions Whom? (pe cine?) or What? (ce?).
E.g: I dont understand you.
I saw something.
Transitive verbs are those verbs that are used with a direct object (express or understood).
Intransitive verbs are those verbs that are not used with an object. They can form predicates by
themselves (which transitive cannot do).
Direct objects can be used only with transitive verbs.
Note:
Not all Rom transitive verbs are transitive in English too.
E.g: Ai ascultat cantecul Shakirei? (the verb ,,a asculta este tranzitiv si este urmat de direct
object=complement direct ,,cantecul )
Did you listen to Shakiras song? (the vb is not followed by a direct object).
The case of the verb to like which in Eng follow the pattern of the transistive verb
somebody likes something. In Rom is rendered by constructions with the Dative case.
E.g: They all liked her very much.
Tuturor le-a placut foarte mult de ea.
Transistive verbs with 2 direct objects :
There are a few verbs that can be followed by 2 DO.
The first designate a person and the second a thing.
to ask, to lead, to teach.
E.g: They asked him a question.
The teacher taught us the passive voice.
Passive construction with 2 DO have 2 passive transformations.
The most frequent: the DO that designates the person becomes the Sb of the passive
sentence.
The DO that designtes the thing is retained.
E.g: He was asked a question. (they asked him a question).
Less frequent: the DO that designates the thing becomes the Sb of the passive
sentence.
The DO that designates the person is retained.
E.g:A question was asked him by them. (they asked him a question).
There are a few cases when the transitive verbs can occur with nominal phrase complements.
He counts on the fact that these complements have the function of completing the meaning of
the intransitive verbs.
E.g: We cannot grammatically say: The lifeguard swam the tide.
But we can say: The lifeguard swam the entire length of the pool.
E.g: The children went home.
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
The underlined words cannot answer the DO question. They answer the questions that the
adverbials answer. They cannot function as DO.

Syntactic features of the DO

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

To function as a DO, a word phrase (or clause) must fulfill the following syntactic criteria:
To be placed immediately after the predicator
In a passive clause the DO should became the SB
After passivisation the meaning stays the same.
E.g: The police have identified the victim.
The victim has been identified by the police.
No prep phrase is possible for the DO
When a clause contains 2 objects:1 DO and 1 IO, the order is IO+DO.
E.g: Everybody sent her cards on her birthday.
her=IO
cards=DO

Obs: some sentences has no passive counterparts.

E.g: Mary hurt herself.>>Herself was hurt by Mary. (Wrong)
Father waved his hand.>>His hand was waved by father. (Wrong)
But herself and his hand are considered DO.

Semantic features of the DO

The DO has the following semantic roles:
1. Affected object: a participant (animate or inanimate) which doesnt cause the happening
denoted by the vb, but is directly involved in some other way.
E.g: Many MPs criticized the Prime Misnister.
2. Effected object: refers to something which exist only by the virtue of the activity indicated by
the verb.
E.g: Baird invented television.
3. Instrument object: express the object with which the action denoted by the vb is realized.
E.g: The thieves used an acetylene lamp to break open the safe.
4. Phenomenon object: express a phenomenon that results from the action performed by the
vb.
E.g: I felt a sudden pain in my arm.
5. Range object: repeats (partially or wholly) the meaning of the vb.
E.g: She dreamed a beautiful dream.

Formal markers of the Direct Object

There are a few indicators that are specific to the DO
1. The immediate position after the transitive vb
E.g: I enjoyed the party very much.
2. Its direct grammatical relationship with the transitive vb it determines.
3. Its direct relation with the accusative form of the personal pron (with the exception of it)
4. The special accusative form of the rel-inter pron who that is whom.
E.g: Whom are you going to call?
Ways of expressing the DO
The DO can be expressed by:
Noun (common or verbal, with or without an article) or by a proper name.
E.g: I dont see the joke.
Who knows Latin?
I love Thornfield.

Pron: I hope Vera has been amusing you.

The anticipatory pron it: You must find it flattering having so any fans.
Numeral: I offered him 4, but he only took 2.
A prepositional group: I would prefer before noon for a meeting.
Infinitive (or an infinitival phrase): I want to remain true to myself.
Gerund (or a gerundial phrase): I like riding a bicycle.
By the accusative with the infinitive: I want to make your flesh creep, replied the boy.
By the accusative with the Present Participle: I found him sleeping.
A whole subordinate clause: You know what a horse is.
A group of words: You wont be able to adopt the I-didnt-know-anything-about-it attitude.
Interjection: Yah!Spies!Tst!Yyaha!
Any part of speech: Say half-and-half.

Classification of Direct Object

2 types of classification:
1. Their semantic value
2. Their composition
1. Their semantic value: the DO can be:
a. Meaningful: have a full lexical value
E.g: Students play a vital role in the democratic youth movement.
b.

Meaningless: represent by the impersonal pron it

E.g: He had it in charge to bring about the office.
The pron it is also called introductory because anticipate the DO
Can be used after verbs like: to consider, to count, to find, to leave, to owe, to think.
There are 2 types of constructions in which it can be used:
With an IO: You owe it to yourself to make the best.
With a predicative adjunct expressed by a noun or an adj: I find it hard to put up
with her whims. (mofturi)
The values of the pron it:
o Anaphoric value: when it is used as a formal DO in idiomatic
constructions. It accompanying the following verbs: to carry it, to do it, to
catch it, to lord it, to foot it.
o In such constructions it has the same function as o in the Rom
expression: a o face de oaie, a o incasa.

c. Cognate: accompany the vb that are intransitives such as: to sleep, to dream, to live, to die, to
laugh, to cry, to dress, to fight.
Usually these vb do not take a DO after them.
They are also called cognate, because the nouns which express them are related semantically
and etymologically to the respective vb.
Cognate direct object differs from the common DO in the following aspects:
The vb whose meaning it completes is intransitive
The vb canot be accompanied by other noun with the syntactic function of DO.
E.g: the vb to laugh only by the noun laugh
Others noun and pron can be used only as prepositional objects.
The internal object plays the role of an adv modifier with intensifying value:
He then laughed his most horrible laugh.

2. In point of composition
DO can be classified into:
a. Simple objects: are expressed by a single word (that can be accompanied by determiners or
modified by an attribute or an attributive clause)
E.g: Campbell buried his face in his hands.
b. Coordinated objects: represented by 2 (or several) noun (or noun equivalents) in the accusative
case coordinated by conjunctions and which determine the same transitive verb.
E.g: She had an ample house and garden.
c. Compound objects: expressed by 2 coordinated words that refers to the same object, person or
abstract notion.
E.g: Give me the dictionary and guide.
d. Double objects: made up of 2 DO (person+object) both governed by the same transitive verb.
And answering 2 different questions: whom and what.
This types of object is used with verbs like: to answer, to take, to hear, to forgive.
E.g: Ask him to come in at once.
e. Complex objects: include 2 inseparable parts:
A simple DO linked with another part (which completes it and which is usually
represented by a non-fine form of the vb)
An adj, noun or adv.
E.g: Repeat it, word for word, because I should wish him to know what I said.

The structure of the Complex Objects

In all the cases in which the complex object occurs it is almost impossible to separate the simple DO
from its completion without altering the meaning of the sentence.
E.g: You want me to go back on what Ive sworn.
If we placed a full stop or a comma after me the meaning of the sentence would change totally.

The first element of the CO can be a reflexive pron having the function of DO with a
transitive vb.
E.g: He convinced himself to be calm-inexorably calm.

There are some cases when the DO is represented by a whole subordinate clause:
E.g: And when he came out, the extremity of the ship made what went on inside of her appears
of little moment.

Classification of the Complex Objects

1. CO with a predicative completion expressed by a non-finite vb:
Accc with an Inf (with or without to):
E.g: Would you wish the gentleman to be shown in Madam?
His aunt detected the act and let it go.
Acc with a Present participle: I cant stand a door banging.
Acc with a Past participle: I should but knock at the door to have it shut in my face.
Acc with a gerund: I hate him speaking to you like that.
Genitive with a gerund: The effect of that is to prevent our getting at them.
2. CO with a predicative expressed by:
Noun: We appointed him secretary.
Adj: He painted the door green.
Adv: I like it here.
The place of the DO in sentence
The DO follows the transitive vb it determines
E.g: Can I say anything for you?
But there are some situations when other parts of the sentence are present between the predicative
vb and its DO.
An IO: I am so damn absent-minded, I gave the driver my regular address just out of habit and
all.
An adv modifier: Thus saying, the old gentleman, in a good voice, commenced without more
ado a Christmas carol.
A prep object: The following conversation may serve to explain to our readers this apparently
unaccountable alteration of deportment on the part of Mr. Tracy Smith.