Clause Object

References

(Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/object_(grammar) Retrieved:2015-9-14.
- Traditional grammar defines the object in a sentence as the entity that is acted upon by the subject. ^[1] There is thus a primary distinction between subjects and objects that is understood in terms of the action expressed by the verb, e.g. Tom studies grammar - Tom is the subject and grammar is the object. Traditional theories of sentence structure divide the simple sentence into a subject and a predicate, ^[2] whereby the object is taken to be part of the predicate. ^[3] Many modern theories of grammar (e.g. dependency grammars), in contrast, take the object to be a verb argument like the subject, the difference between them being mainly just their prominence; the subject is ranked higher than the object and is thus more prominent. ^[4] The main verb in a clause determines whether and what objects are present. Transitive verbs require the presence of an object, whereas intransitive verbs block the appearance of an object. ^[5] The term complement overlaps in meaning with object: all objects are complements, but not vice versa. The objects that verbs do and do not take is explored in detail in valency theory.

↑ For descriptions of the traditional distinction between subject and object, see for instance Freeborn (1995:31) and Kesner Bland (1996:415).
↑ The division of the clause into a subject and a predicate is a view of sentence structure that is adopted by most grammars, e.g. Conner (1968:43), Freeborn (1995:121), and Biber et al. (1999:122).
↑ Concerning the fact that the object is part of the predicate, see for instance Biber et al. (1999:122).
↑ The insight that the arguments and adjuncts of verbs are ranked is expressed as the Accessibility Hierarchy. See Keenan and Comrie (1977).
↑ The distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs is acknowledged by most any grammar. See for instance the Collins Cobuild Grammar (1995:139ff.).