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Кобрина Н.А., Корнеева Е.А., Оссовская М.И., Гузеева К.А. Грамматика английского языка. Морфология. Синтаксис: Учеб. пособие для студентов пед. институтов и университетов по специальности № 2103 «Иностранные языки». – С.-Петербург: Союз, 1999. – 496 с.

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The object

§ 67. The object is a secondary part of the sentence referring to some part of the sentence and expressed by a verb, an adjective, a stative or, very seldom, an adverb completing, specifying, or restricting its meaning.

She has bought a car.

I'm glad to see you.

She was afraid of the dog.

He did it unexpectedly to himself.

Ways of expressing the object

§ 68. The object can be expressed by:

1. A noun in the common case or a nominal phrase, a substantivized adjective or participle.

I saw the boys two hours ago.

The nurses were clad in grey.

First of all she attended to the wounded.

Greedily he snatched the bread and butter from the plate.

2. A noun-pronoun. Personal pronouns are in the objective case, other pronouns are in the common case, or in the only form they have.

I don't know anybody here.

1 could not find my own car, but 1 saw hers round the corner.

He says he did not know that.

3. A numeral or a phrase with a numeral.

At last he found three of them high up in the hills.

4. A gerund or a gerundial phrase.

He insists on coming.

A man hates being run after.

5. An infinitive or an infinitive phrase.

She was glad to be walking with him.

Every day I had to learn how to spell pages of words.

6. Various predicative complexes.

She felt the child trembling all over.

I want it done at once.

Everything depends on your coming in time.

7. A clause (then called an object clause) which makes the whole sentence a complex one.

I don't know what it was.

He thought of what he was to say to all of them.

Thus from the point of view of their structure, objects may be simple, phrasal, complex or clausal¹.

Types of object

§ 69. From the point of view of their value and grammatical peculiarities, four types of objects can be distinguished in English:

the direct object, the indirect object, and the cognate object.

1. The direct object is a non-prepositional one that follows transitive verbs, adjectives, or statives and completes their meaning. Semantically it is usually a non-person which is affected by the action of the verb though it may also be a person or a situation. The situation is expressed by a verbal, a verbal phrase, a complex, or by a clause.

I wrote a poem.

You like arguing, don't you?

Who saw him leave?

I don't know what it all means.

She was ready to sing.

When the direct object is expressed by an infinitive (or an infinitive phrase or a clause) it may be preceded by the formal introductory object it (see § 78).

I find it exciting to watch tennis. He found it hard to believe the girl.

2. The indirect object also follows verbs, adjectives and statives. Unlike the direct object, however, it may be attached to intransitive verbs as well as to transitive ones. Besides, it may also be attached to adverbs, although this is very rare.

From the point of view of their semantics and certain grammatical! characteristics indirect objects fall into two types:

a) The indirect object of the first type is attached only to ditransitive verbs. It is expressed by a noun or pronoun which as a rule denotes (or, in the case of pronouns, points out) a person who is the addressee or recipient of the action of the verb. So it is convenient to call an object of this type the indirect recipient object. It is joined to the headword either without a preposition or by the preposition to (occasionally for). The indirect recipient object is generally used with transitive verbs.

He gave the kid two dollars.

She did not tell anything to anyone.

Will you bring a cup of coffee for me?

b) The indirect object of the second type is attached to verbs, adjectives, statives and sometimes adverbs. It is usually a noun (less often a pronoun) denoting an inanimate object, although it may be a gerund, a gerundial phrase or complex, an infinitive complex or a clause. It semantics varies, but it never denotes the addressee (recipient) of the action of the governing verb. So it may be called the indirect non-recipient object. The indirect non-recipient object can only be joined to its headword by means of a preposition.

One must always hope for the best.

She's not happy about her new friend.

The indirect non-recipient object is used mainly with intransitive verbs. It is usually the only object in a sentence, at least other objects a not obligatory.

3. The cognate object is a non-prepositional object which is attached to otherwise intransitive verbs and is always expressed by nouns derived from, or semantically related to, the root of the governing verb.

The child smiled the smile and laughed the laugh of contentment.

They struck him a heavy blow.

4. The retained object. This term is to be applied in case an active construction is transformed into a passive one and the indirect object of the active construction becomes the subject of the passive construction. The second object, the direct one, may be retained in the transformation, though the action of the predicate-verb is no more directed upon it. Therefore it is called a retained object.

T hey gave Mary the first prize >Mary was given the first prize

(direct object) (retained object)

Types of Objects