Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
O BJECT
Recognize a direct object
when you see one.
A direct object will follow a transitive verb [a type of action
verb]. Direct objects can be nouns, pronouns,phrases,
or clauses. If you can identify the subject andverb in a
sentence, then finding the direct object—if one exists—is easy.
Just remember this simple formula:
S U B J E C T + V E R B + what? or who? = D I R E C T O B J E C T
I me
we us
you you
he, she, it him, her, it
they them
who whom
Bec ause J o had ski pped Mr. Dunc an's class five
times in a row, s he ducked out of si ght whenever
s he s potted him on campus .
She = subject; spotted = verb. She spotted who?Him =
direct object.
Printer Fabulous!
Typically (but not always), the subject of a clause performs an action, and the
direct object is acted upon by the subject: Jake [subject] baked [transitive
verb] a cake [direct object]. If a clause also contains an indirect object, the
indirect object usually appears between the verb and the direct
object: Jake [subject] baked[transitive verb] Kate [indirect object] a
cake [direct object].
When pronouns function as direct objects, they customarily take the form of
the objective case. The objective forms of English pronouns are me, us, you,
him, her, it, them, whom and whomever. (Note that you and it have the
same forms in the subjective case.)
"She closed the carton carefully. First she kissed her father, then she
kissed her mother. Then she opened the lid again, lifted the pig out,
and held itagainst her cheek."
(E.B. White, Charlotte's Web. Harper & Brothers, 1952)
"Momma opened boxes of crispy crackers . . .. I sliced onions, and
Bailey opened two or even three cans of sardines."
(Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House,
1969)
"But if thought corrupts language, language can also
corrupt thought."
(George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946)
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live."
(Joan Didion, The White Album. Simon & Schuster, 1979)
(7a) Dave really disliked that movie.(7b) That movie, Dave really
disliked.
These two sentences mean essentially the same, with only perhaps a
difference in emphasis. (7a) displays a more 'basic' order: the thing
that is disliked is in the 'normal' direct object position. By contrast,
in (7b), disliked is not followed by an object, as it should be, and that
movie is in a curious position before the subject. So, the proposal goes,
the grammar can capture the similarity between (7a) and (7b) by
saying that (7b) in fact is not generated by the formation rules. Rather,
it has an 'underlying form' that is more or less identical to (7a) and
that is generated by the formation rules. However, 'after' the formation
rules create the underlying form, a derivational rule moves that
movie to the front of the sentence to create the surface form."
(Ray Jackendoff, Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning,
Grammar, Evolution. Oxford University Press, 2002)