Sometime back, a Russia-based Forum member requested a tutorial of sorts on how the three kinds of grammatical objects work in English.
Ivan I. was sure that in a sentence like “She gave
me the
report,” the pronoun “me” is the indirect object while the noun “report” is the direct object. But then he wondered what kind of object “me” is in “She gave it to
me” and “She did it for
me.” He asked: “Can we call it a
prepositional object or, if that’s a wrong term, would it be better to say that ‘to me’ and ‘for me’ are just
prepositional phrases?”
I explained to him that to clearly understand how English grammatical objects work, it’s very important to define them first.
Here are the core points of my explanation:
Generally, an
object is a noun or pronoun that denotes the goal or result of the verb’s action. It’s of three kinds: direct object, indirect object, and object of the preposition.
A
direct object receives the verb’s action or shows the result of that action. In “The mechanic fixed the
car,” for example, the noun “car” is the direct object because it’s the entity acted upon by the verb “fixed.”
An
indirect object receives the direct object of the verb. It’s the secondary goal of the verb’s action—an intermediary or “pass-on” receiver. In “Alex gave
me a ride,” for example, “me” is an indirect object because it’s only a “pass-on” receiver of the direct object “ride.”
An
object of the preposition is a noun or pronoun introduced by a preposition to complete the meaning of a phrase that modifies a sentence. This modifying phrase is what’s known as a prepositional phrase, as in “The unsavory revelations against the politician placed his integrity under
a cloud of doubt.” Here, the noun phrase “a cloud of doubt” is the object of the preposition “under.”
IMAGE CREDIT: EDUCATION.YOURDICTIONARY.COMNow let’s figure out why Ivan found it tough to categorize the objects in these sentences: “She gave
it to
me.” “She did
it for
me.”
Their syntax looks pretty normal as it goes. The pronoun “it” as direct object comes right after the verb “gave” and “did,” respectively, while the pronoun “me” as indirect object appears at the tail end.
An unusual thing happens though when the direct object isn’t “it” but a noun like, say, “laptop” or “favor.” In the sentences “She gave me the
laptop” and “She did me a
favor,” for instance, “me” has moved from the tail end to a position right after the verb. This question then comes to mind: Did “me” change status from indirect object to direct object in the process?
Then something even more unusual happens when “laptop” and “favor” are reverted to the pronoun “it,” which was their original form. It yields these very awkward, bad-sounding, and fuzzy constructions: “She gave me
it.” “She did me
it.” Clearly, a sentence becomes dysfunctional when it lumps the verb with a direct object and indirect object that are both pronouns, for it seriously blurs the distinction between the direct object and indirect object.
How does English avoid such awful constructions?
It uses the expedient of positioning the direct object “it” right after the verb and moving the indirect object “me” to the tail end where it becomes
the object of the preposition or what Ivan calls a
prepositional object. The first sentence that baffled him thus becomes the clearer, better-sounding “She gave it
to me,” where “me” is now the object of the preposition “to”; the second sentence becomes “She did it
for me,” where “me” is now the object of the preposition “for.”
Keep in mind though that in both constructions, “me” remains the verb’s indirect object.
(Next:
The proper use of ‘can’ and ‘may’ marks one’s civility) January 31, 2019
This essay, 1,128th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the January 24, 2019 print edition of The Manila Times
, © 2019 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
